More Than Shelter: Caritas House Will Offer Hope for Neighbors in Need
Father Michael Lydon says the planned Festus transitional housing project is designed to restore dignity, build stability, and give residents a chance to move from crisis into community.
For years, Jefferson County has had people willing to help the unhoused.
Churches have served meals. Nonprofits have offered assistance. Volunteers have given rides, gift cards, food, clothing and prayers. But for many residents who are experiencing housing insecurity or trying to escape the cycle of instability, Jefferson County has lacked one of the most basic tools needed to help them move forward.
A place to go.
That is the gap Father Michael Lydon hopes Caritas House – Festus can begin to fill.
The planned transitional housing facility, which would be built on the Sacred Heart Parish campus in Festus, is not intended to be a temporary shelter or a short-term emergency stop. It is designed to be a longer-term program for people who are currently unhoused and want to change the direction of their lives.
The goal is not simply to put a roof over someone’s head for a night. The goal is to help people stabilize, rebuild, and re-enter the wider life of the community.
Father Lydon, Episcopal Vicar for the Southern Vicariate of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, said the need became clear to him shortly after arriving in Jefferson County.
During his first week in July 2023, he came to celebrate Mass one morning at Sacred Heart Church in Crystal City and saw a man sleeping on the concrete sidewalk near the entrance. Lydon had recently come from Lincoln County, where he helped establish Bridge of Hope Lincoln County, a transitional housing center that has now been operating successfully for about two years.
After seeing the effects of being unhoused firsthand in Jefferson County, and having already helped launch a successful transitional housing effort in Lincoln County, Father Lydon believed Jefferson County needed a more permanent option of its own.
“One gaping wound, one gaping hole in the care for folks who are homeless who want to get out of it, that’s the key distinction, is we have no place to put them,” Father Lydon said.
Caritas House is planned as a 5,000-square-foot, single-story building that could house approximately 12 to 17 residents. The preliminary design includes a communal kitchen, laundry facilities, a living room and space for single men, single women and families. The facility would be located where the former Sacred Heart School building now stands. That building is no longer used as a Catholic grade school and is expected to be razed in 2026 to make way for the new facility.
The project summary states that Festus City Council approved the facility’s location in a unanimous 7-0 vote, and both the Planning and Zoning Council and City Council approved the plan and site unanimously. The project has also received support from several churches, charitable organizations and service providers.
More than Construction.
Father Lydon is clear the project is not just about construction.
It is about creating a place where people can receive support, structure, and accountability.
Residents would be vetted for suitability by professional staff. They would need to express a desire to stabilize their living situation, seek employment when able, address the underlying causes that contributed to their circumstances, follow facility rules, and pay rent of up to 30 percent of their income.
Father Lydon said the idea is to help people build the life skills and stability that many others take for granted.
That includes securing documents, helping children get into school, addressing mental health needs, maintaining sobriety when addiction is part of the story, participating in recovery work, learning financial literacy, and moving toward employment.
“All those skills that we take for granted..” Father Lydon said. “We want to assist and educate them and build them up to be able to be launched from there.”
The project is being developed in partnership with Catholic Charities, and the facility will be owned by Catholic Charities Housing. Catholic Charities will also play a role in management and staffing. The broader support team includes organizations such as Compass Health, Chestnut Health, Mercy Hospital-Jefferson County and Jefferson College, which may be able to connect social work students with clinical hours through the effort.
Churches that have pledged support include First Baptist Church Festus, Selma American Baptist Church, Salvation Army in Arnold, Immanuel Lutheran, First United Methodist Church Festus, and the Twin City Area Ministerial Alliance.
For Father Lydon, that broad coalition is essential.
He said Jefferson County is filled with people and institutions that care about the unhoused, addiction, mental health, and poverty, but many do not know what to do when the need appears in front of them. Caritas House is meant to offer one practical option.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” Father Lydon said. “But it takes a village, I think, to care for those who are in need too.”
That need is not simple.
Father Lydon said housing insecurity is often connected to mental illness, addiction, poverty and trauma. But he also warned against treating every unhoused person as if the same story or solution applies.
“When you’ve seen one homeless person, you’ve seen one homeless person,” he said.
That is part of why Caritas House is being designed for more than one type of resident. Some may be single men. Some may be single women. Some may be families with children. Each brings different needs, safety considerations, and support requirements.
The larger goal is not only to provide housing, but to surround residents with the kind of services that help them become stable enough to move into a healthier future. That includes helping residents secure up-to-date identification, insurance information, financial aid records, health records, and other essential documents needed for everyday life.
That is also why Lydon believes Jefferson County must think beyond emergency responses.
Gift cards, temporary hotel stays, and one-time assistance may help in a moment of crisis, but they often do not change the long-term situation for someone who wants to find permanent housing.
A Starting Point, Not the Finish Line.
The project also raises another issue Jefferson County will have to face: affordable housing. Lydon noted that even if residents gain stability, skills and employment, the county still has a serious shortage of affordable places for them to live.
That concern is part of the larger picture. Caritas House may be one step, but it is not the entire solution.
Still, Lydon believes it can be a beginning.
The project cost is expected to be at least $1.5 million. According to the project summary, just over $1.3 million has already been raised or pledged. That includes $817,367 committed by the Archdiocese of St. Louis, $150,000 from two Jefferson Foundation grants, $100,000 from a private family donation, $70,000 from three individuals, a $50,000 pledge from the Incarnate Word Foundation, $25,000 from FADICA, $10,000 from Enterprise Bank and other individual donations.
The project is still seeking additional support. Lydon said private donations in the range of $2,000 to $10,000 would be especially helpful, though smaller donations are also welcome.
And construction is only part of the need.
Once open, Lydon said Caritas House could require roughly $300,000 to $350,000 per year to operate, including staffing and support services. Rent paid by residents would provide one revenue stream, but ongoing community support will still be necessary.
The project timeline calls for funding to be committed by June 2026, demolition, including necessary environmental mitigation, completed by September 2026 and construction beginning in the fall of 2026, with completion hoped for by late summer 2027. In the interview, Lydon said opening by the end of 2027 would be an optimistic target, with 2028 possibly more realistic depending on construction.
A Countywide Model for Hope.
Lydon said Arnold, De Soto, and the House Springs-High Ridge area are all places where similar efforts should eventually be considered. He specifically noted that Arnold is a population and economic center of Jefferson County, and said the long-term hope is that a successful model in Festus could help open the door for similar efforts in other parts of the county.
The goal is not to solve every part of the crisis in one move. The hope is to show that Jefferson County can come together around a serious, practical, and compassionate response.
For Father Lydon, that response is rooted in the heart of faith.
This belief is at the center of the project.
Caritas House is not only about beds, walls and services. It is about whether Jefferson County residents are willing to see the unhoused as neighbors with dignity, potential, and responsibility.
It is about whether the community is willing to invest in people who want to move from crisis into stability.
For Lydon, the work is tied to what he described as “the loop of grace,” a call to love one another and care for those most in need.
He said that mission also reflects the work of Catholic Charities, which he described as bringing “help, hope, and healing to a broken society.”
Together, those ideas form the heart of Caritas House: helping people move from crisis toward stability while reminding the wider community that those in need are still neighbors deserving of dignity, care, and a path forward.
“God created us for freedom, but freedom, not just to make a choice or any choice, freedom to do the good, the beautiful, the true; that's deep in us. And this is a way that we can enact some of the beauty and goodness of God.”
Years from now, Lydon hopes Jefferson County will look back on Caritas House not as a controversial project, but as a moment when the community chose to act.
His hope is simple.
“So, I think that people would look back and say, "I am glad we did that." Let's do some more of it. Let's think about other ways that we can help people who are broken by life. "
For residents, churches, businesses and local leaders who have wondered what can be done about challenges facing the unhoused in Jefferson County, Caritas House offers one answer.
Not a cure-all.
Not an overnight fix.
But a serious step toward giving people who want a different life the stability, support, and dignity to begin again.
Want to Help Caritas House – Festus?
Caritas House – Festus is seeking community support as the project moves forward, including residents, churches, businesses, and local organizations willing to learn more, offer support, or help financially.
To learn more about the project or ask how you can help, contact Father Michael Lydon directly.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 314-630-0885
Stay Connected to the Stories Shaping Jefferson County
The Jefferson Review covers the local people, projects, meetings, and community efforts that matter close to home.
Subscribe today to receive local news, community features, government updates, and stories of hope from across Jefferson County.