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Covenant House

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Covenant House

Covenant House is a large, 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization in the Americas, whose goal is to provide safe housing and holistic care to youth ages 16–21 experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. Covenant House was officially incorporated in 1972, and offers services including healthcare, educational support/GED preparation/college scholarships, job readiness and workforce development programs, substance use treatment and prevention programs, legal services, mental health services, services for young families, and transitional living programs.

Covenant House aids young people facing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking with a number of data-supported programs. Their doors are open 24/7 in 34 cities across six countries, and its programs are designed to empower young people to overcome adversity, and achieve independence. In 2022, Covenant House provided housing for, on average, 2,000 youth each night. Covenant House residential programs cared for 7,700 young people in FY22.

In addition to food, shelter, and clothing, Covenant House offers outreach, medical and mental health care, education and job readiness programs, workforce development and job placement, substance use treatment and prevention, civil legal aid services, young family programs, transitional and supportive apartment-living programs, and life-skills training.

Covenant House's doors are always open to all young people who need housing and help, regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. To achieve this, Covenant House's programs are informed by the True Colors Inclusion Assessment and certified by Praesidium.

In the late 1960s, the Reverend Bruce Ritter, a Franciscan priest, retired from his job as a professor at Manhattan College to begin a new ministry serving the city's poor. Joined by colleague Father James Fitzgibbon, he moved into a dilapidated tenement building in New York City's East Village. With volunteers, including friends, former students, and neighbors, he began an effort to help homeless and runaway young people. By 1970, Father Fitzgibbon had moved on to other ministries, but Father Ritter remained. Adrian Gately, Patricia Kennedy, and Paul Frazier joined him to create the Covenant Community. In 1972, Covenant House was officially incorporated with its first intake center established at 504 LaGuardia Place.

Now, as an established nonprofit organization, Covenant House began to fundraise to shelter youth facing homelessness in Lower Manhattan and on Staten Island. In 1976, Father Ritter announced plans to create a multi-service center near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Covenant House then acquired a group of buildings on West 44th Street and moved its administrative offices to the new location, which moved into a retrofitted cluster of buildings on West 41st Street in 1979.

Throughout the late 1970s, Covenant House expanded its social service programs in New York City and began to branch out to other cities in 1980. In a widely publicized case, Ritter was forced to retire from Covenant House in 1990 after extensive allegations of sexual misconduct and minor financial irregularities. Following his departure, Covenant House grew, led by Sister Mary Rose McGeady (1990–2003), Sister Tricia Cruise (2003–2008), Kevin Ryan (2009–2023), and Bill Bedrossian (2023-Present), opening centers in 34 cities in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

As of January 2023, Covenant House operates shelters in the United States in:

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