Homeless advocates unveil plans for Tucson care center

Community leaders, including Catholic Community
Services Executive Director Peg Harmon,
Congregation Or Chadash Rabbi Thomas
A. Louchheim and Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger,
opened a public fund-raising phase for a
proposed Medical Respite Center for Homeless
Men and Women.
At an Oct. 30 evening reception for supporters
of the program, Rabbi Louchheim told a story
about a group of villagers who provided food to
Mexican migrants traveling north by train.
“In the Jewish tradition, we are taught that
human life has infinite value,” said Rabbi Louchheim.
“Do you think we could be as compassionate
as they were?”
More than 140 community leaders gathered at
the Jewish Community Center for the event. One
who missed the event was St. Joseph of Carondelet
Sister Adele O’Sullivan, who spearheaded
a similar program in Phoenix in 2008. She was
at her religious community’s motherhouse in
California, sheltering in place because of a threat
from local wildfires.
Instead, St. Joseph Sister Irma Odabashian
talked about Sister Adele’s decade-long effort to
open the Circle the City center, including “putting
money away in a shoebox.”
She relayed some of Sister Adele’s lessons,
including that “med management is near impossible”
for the homeless, who might suffer from
other maladies not related to surgery.
Harmon noted that the center was the product
of three years of study, including visiting similar
facilities in other states and building a coalition of
partners in Southern Arizona.
A partner set to play a significant role is the
El Rio Cherrybell Health Center, located on the
same property as the proposed site near East
22nd Street and South Kino Parkway. Doctors
and other medical professionals will be providing
medical services and other follow-up care to the
patients at the respite center.
Nancy Johnson, chief executive officer of El
Rio Health, applauded the integration of services,
along with other community partners that will assist
patients in finding a stable place to live once
they are discharged. “The synergy of that model
is just phenomenal.”
Bishop emeritus Gerald F. Kicanas, one of the
original forces behind the project, praised all the
community leaders who worked together to bring
the center to this point.
“Tucson is a community that cares,” Bishop
Kicanas said. “When you come together, you
make the impossible, possible.”
The center is expected to cost $5.2 million to
build, of which $2.4 million had already been
raised through private donations. Organizers are
hoping to raise the rest quickly and break ground
next spring, with the facility opening in February
of 2021.
Supporters can donate through healingtucsonhomeless.
org or by calling (520) 670-0816.