Agencies, religious combine efforts to serve poor in New Orleans

Published: 2006-08-18

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Although damage from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina shut down the Harry Tompson Center, a multiservice center for the homeless run by the Jesuits' Immaculate Conception Church in New Orleans, the center is about to begin anew in another location that will provide even more services to the city's changing population. If city officials give final approval to the plans, the center -- with the new name of Harry Tompson Center at St. Joseph Refuge -- will be relocated a few blocks away to the parking lot of St. Joseph Church in mid-January. The center will have as its partners the Vincentian Fathers, who staff St. Joseph and run the Feed Jesus program; the Presentation Sisters, who have been doing outreach to the homeless through the Lantern Light Program; and the Daughters of Charity, who will provide mobile medical services. Other agencies will also be invited to provide services. Don Thompson, the center's director, described the joint effort as "a very good marriage."

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