Providence House

Providence House opened its first shelter in 1979, and since then has grown to a total of ten residences caring for more than 160 homeless and formerly incarcerated women and their children daily. Beginning this year, the agency is also opening two new Brooklyn facilities providing 68 units of permanent housing and support services for the City’s homeless families.

A woman-focused agency headquartered in the Bedford Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn, Providence House is built around the use of a unique mentoring model at smaller, congregate transitional housing facilities scattered throughout New York City. That model has been fashioned upon the religious Sisters who founded and still perform many of the essential duties running the agency. The Sisters live in the same housing with clients, sharing dinners most weeknights, as well as weekends together. Because of this participation by the Sisters in communal life with residents, they are able to regularly provide counsel and act as informal mentors, creating a much more intimate experience than is typical with larger and more institutional rehabilitation efforts.

Providence House focuses its programs and services on two at-risk and underserved populations: women and children who are homeless and women recently paroled from prison. Providence House provides women and children in crisis with shelter, food and security as well as support services to help them transition to independence including: enrolling in education or job training programs, searching for employment, obtaining medical services and finding  a permanent place to live.