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Someone just gave me a bumper sticker that reads “Stop the War on the Poor”. For me this means, although I have been ‘suspended’ from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, to keep speaking and acting out for people in need in Milwaukee. Here is Part 1 of Series about how to “Stop the War on the Poor.”

Milwaukee Society of St. Vincent de Paul Past and Present

We believe that the Milwaukee Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) has lost its way over the last 25 years and no longer is faithful to the mission of the Society, or in conformity with Rule of the Society and Manuel for the Society in the USA. In order to correct this:

We demand the Milwaukee SVDP focus on the main mission of the Society: “offering person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering”.

We demand that the Milwaukee Society accept the fact that all the money of the Society ‘belongs to the poor” and be in accordance with Manuel of St. Vincent de Paul Society of USA in seeking funds. “Councils may receive funding requests from charitable organizations outside the Society. Funds donated to the Society, however, must be used only for works that involve the personal service of Society members. (p. 37) The Greenfield Thrift store serving the suburbs, if not profitable right now, should at least be self-sufficient and not take any more donated funds meant for the poor.

We demand a full and independent audit, as required by Rules of Society, that it be done for the last three years and the results of this audit be made public.

We demand that the council of St. Vincent de Paul be restored to its original purpose “to bind conferences together, to support conferences in need and do special works of the Milwaukee Society. All elections for conferences, council or other offices are done with complete transiency and according to bylaws and rules. Central staff should be accountable to the Milwaukee Council.
The essay below will focus on three major areas: Mission of the Society and home visits; financing and donations; and role of central office and council. We will use documents provided by Central Office in Milwaukee, Rules and Manuel of SVDP and the book “Humble Harvest, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Milwaukee Archdiocese from 1849–1949.” You can read for yourself how far off track the Milwaukee Society has fallen.

Brief History of the first 100 years of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Milwaukee.

“You cannot know where you are going until you know where you have been.”
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was formed in Paris in 1833 by a group of young university students led by Frédéric Ozanam. The purpose of the Society was to travel to homes of the poor during this time, prior to the French Revolution, providing them with needed aid and assistance. Conferences of SVDP, making home visits to the poor, spread like wild fire through Europe and the world. The first conference in the USA was in St. Louis in 1845 and the first one in Milwaukee at St. Peter’s Cathedral in 1849. After the first two conferences ceased in 1874, it was in 1908 at St. Francis, a Capuchin parish that the second spring of Vincentian conferences began. By 1914 there were twenty conferences in Milwaukee. The tenth anniversary report, 1918, showed receipts of $14, 870.55 for the decade and expenditures of $14, 398. 35. (97 %). By 1939 there were 95 conferences in Milwaukee’s archdiocese. There was German speaking, Polish speaking, English speaking conferences in mostly ethnic neighbors where an assortment of persons, rich, middle class and poor lived. In 1940 a SVDP conference was established at Marquette University and in 1941 a conference was organized at St. Benedict the Moore to serve the growing African-American community. Members of several conferences made home visits with St. Benedict and the council paid most of expenses. Special need was also given to the growing Mexican parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a conference was established there in 1948.

The Milwaukee Council was formed in 1914 “to bind our new conferences together and to undertake special works.” The first special work of the Council was visiting and helping the men at the country house of correction. The second act was for special works at the County institutions. The third special work of the Council was to open a central office and clothing depot (not a thrift store). There were other major spiritual and corporal works of mercy performed by Council over the first 100 years, like visiting prisoners, working with juvenile courts and catechesis.

The Central office and clothing depot collected “old clothing, furniture, rags, paper of all kinds, magazines, iron, brass copper, zinc bottles etc.” “The waste was sold to defray the expenses of the office and the collection of articles.” In the first year the depot gave out 6, 564 articles without cost to any of the conferences. The Central Office status was that of a “great clearing house for the conferences, especially in such instances where the case-work was proving too complex or too specialized for the facilities and times of individual conferences.” By 1949 the central office staff included an Executive Secretary, staff consultation and senior social worker and seven family visitors whose job was to assist parish conferences in making home visits. There were other members of central office like receptionist, janitor and bookkeeper. There were no Thrift stores and meal programs for the first 100 years. The mission of the Society in Milwaukee was for “women and men to join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering…”

Present Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Milwaukee is no longer a thriving industrial city with strong ethnic neighborhoods. Milwaukee is now the most racially segregated city in the USA and the second poorest city. The concentration of poor and segregated is in North Central Milwaukee, over 85% African American and South Central Milwaukee, 85% Hispanic. (See M.A.P.S.)

The recent Milwaukee St. Vincent de Paul Society plan being used for fundraising asks for donations of $500, 000 for the “cornerstone of our goal of sustaining the work of St. Vincent de Paul for many generations’’, the “development of our new store located at 4476 S. 108th Street.” The Milwaukee Society has already borrowed 3.2 million dollars from the bank and the St. Vincent de Paul Trust Fund for this suburban thrift store serving a neighborhood that is 85% white and with household income twice that of homes in North Central Milwaukee. The new store is projected to provide funds for the Society and work of the poor sometime in the future (trickle-down economics). However, due to tremendous operating and compensation costs of the store (40 employees) the 2014–2015 central office budgets have a projected deficit of $ $297, 129. Because of its location in the suburbs the new thrift store is not able to fulfill the “primary goal of all St. Vincent De Paul Stores” …”Serving Christ’s needy”. There is no thrift store in North Central Milwaukee, the area of greatest need. SVDP Thrift stores in Milwaukee charge conferences 100% of retail cost of beds, clothing and household items.
Home visits by conferences are now called “Neighbors helping Neighbors.” In the present budget only 4.5% of $3,417,518 is allocated to direct service to people in need and only $100,000 to six of the most needy conferences in North Central Milwaukee and South Central Milwaukee. For the first 100 years of Milwaukee Society the city was a thriving industrial city. The poor were spread throughout the city, in Irish, Italian, German, Polish neighbors. Now Milwaukee is the second poorest city in the USA and the most racially segregated city in the United States. The poor are concentrated in North Central Milwaukee, 85% African American and South Central Milwaukee, 85% plus Hispanic. There are only three parish conferences left in North Central Milwaukee and none in South Central Milwaukee. Since calls to central office for help are primarily allocated to conferences in specific “neighborhoods” they are often met with “we do not serve your area” or “the conference in your area is not accepting new home visits at this time”. From the last figures available, around 5000 – 6000 calls for aide made to central office for help do not receive home visits. These conferences in the poorest areas are strapped for money and volunteers while the majority of conferences have money and plenty of volunteers but with few home visits. For example the conference around the new store in Greenfield makes 8–10 home visits a year while one of the conferences in North Central Milwaukee, at last count, made around 600–800 home visits.

The Milwaukee St. Vincent de Paul Council is now basically a powerless organization and meets only a few times a year to approve decisions made by Central Office Staff and SVDP Board of Directors headed by the President. The President appoints the Board, except for four representatives of the four areas of the city. The Council has no special works, like visiting those in prison. The Central Office, with consent of SVDP, controls all special programs and finances, like the two meal sites and the two thrift stores The Central office spends 94.5 % of the $3,417,518 on compensation, $2, 068,364, new merchandise, $182,600, operating expenses, 1,309,580 (Non-relief), and $154, 200 for direct services (relief) and is projected to have a deficit of $297, 129. There are around 10 employees at the Central office, around 40 at the new suburban store, 15–20 at the other location and 6–8 at the two meal sites.

There are no employees that make home visits with conferences or provide advice for conferences in difficult cases. Conferences serving the poor have a difficult time serving people in need with just the basics: used refrigerators and stoves (purchased from private vendors) and beds, clothing, household items purchased at 100% of retail vale from the central office run stores.

The theme of the new $950,000 Fundraising campaign is “Basic needs with Compassionate Care”, yet only a small portion of that money will serve people in need, where all donated funds are to go: “Councils may receive funding requests from charitable organizations outside the Society. Funds donated to the Society, however, must be used only for works that involve the personal service of Society members.” (Manuel of St. Vincent de Paul Society of USA p. 37)

Audits, budgets, even the mission of Society and Thrift stores are kept secret and control of the Milwaukee SVDP is in a very small group of Staff and Vincentians. Younger persons are not attracted by conferences that do not directly serve the needs of poor. Conferences become older, more suburban and less of the person to person home visits that is the trademark of the Society. The new suburban thrift store, the putative cornerstone of Milwaukee’s St. Vincent de Paul plan, is draining resources, money and people away from the poor. The small group in control promises the new store will produce money for the poor but it cannot even be self-sustaining for the present. Raising money for the poor is not the mission of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Person to person serving of the needy is.

There is much more we can say about how Milwaukee St. Vincent de Paul has lost its way but now is the time for action. Please join us. Contract

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