In the early 1980s Tom O’Leary became homeless after he and his wife lost their jobs. Living in their pickup truck with their three children, two cats and three dogs, he sought service after service to help him, but none provided assistance. At one place, the director even told him, “I guess you think you can run things better.”
“I didn’t get mad,” O’Leary says. “I just thought, ‘Yes, I can.’” O’Leary, who now has close to 50 years of sobriety, went on to help thousands of other people who due to life circumstances, substance use disorders or mental health conditions were in need of the basics of survival.
O’Leary founded a center for women in Paterson before starting the Samaritan Homeless Interim Program (SHIP) in 1984 to help men, women and children in need of food, clothing, emergency housing and associated services in Somerset County and the region.
Since then, SHIP has served over three million meals with the help of volunteers and donated food. Their goal: to take the sting of poverty out of people’s lives. “There is no food budget; everything is donated,” says O’Leary, who serves as CEO and executive director of SHIP, which is based in Somerville. “Without the community and individuals we would not be able to serve this population as we do.”
The people SHIP serves are homeless or near-homeless, “working poor” individuals and families who are underemployed or in substandard housing, and people challenged with substance use disorder, mental health issues or HIV/AIDS. SHIP assists this population by providing critically needed food and clothing, emergency housing, counseling referrals and support services with the goal of helping them achieve self-sufficiency.
From Monday to Friday, volunteers at SHIP’s Safe Harbor & Port of Refuge in Somerville serve lunch at noon; in the summer, weather-permitting, they provide a picnic behind the building in Tic-Tock’s Grove, a shaded lawn space named after a beloved former client. They operate a mobile soup kitchen that offers hot meals from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. weekdays at Sacred Heart Church in Manville. They also run an emergency food pantry (Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and package food and hygiene to-go bags. On Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas volunteers provide a hot holiday meal for hundreds of people at Immaculata High School. “We always have more than enough volunteers,” O’Leary says. “It’s amazing that we have this group of volunteers who selflessly give up part of their holiday to help.”
SHIP’s success is due to the hundreds of volunteers and monetary donations that help with administrative costs and purchase food and supplies. For example, donations, which are tax-deductible, have allowed SHIP to provide over 165,000 nights of shelter to those in need of emergency housing and pay for over 15,500 emergency housing placements.
In addition to monetary donations, SHIP accepts new clothing as well as gently used, laundered winter coats and jeans, and lightly worn shoes for its emergency clothes closet.
In partnership with health care providers such as Zufall Health, Somerset County Department of Health and St. Peter’s University Hospital Community Health Services SHIP provides wellness checks. It also works with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind & Visually Impaired to host an eye clinic and provides a voucher for a free pair of prescription eyeglasses at LensCrafters.
“We serve those who are shunned by others,” O’Leary says. “We do not refuse anyone. We don’t ask questions. If you come to our door, we feed you.”
Learn how you can help SHIP provide services at ship908.com.