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House of Refuge, House

Founded by a charismatic priest, , a group home for homeless youth, stood as a bulwark against New York’s worst urban nightmares––until it all fell apart. Yet its careful, fifteen-year reconstruction has

COVENANT HOUSE ARCHIVES proven its enduring worth.

Father Bruce Ritter spent considerable time learning the intricacies of a neighborhood, connecting with its people, and involving himself in all of their problems: poverty, violence, drugs, unemployment, and police corruption.

NEW YORK archives • WINTER 2006 9

of Cards

BY AMY M. SURAK AND PETER J. WOSH

ovenant House, a Catholic- Riverdale section of . oriented charity that provides The Reverend Bruce Ritter, a shelter and social services for Franciscan priest who taught homeless youths, has been an theology and administered important and occasionally the Christian Life Council at controversial part of New York the college, inaugurated the City’s philanthropic infrastruc- ministry as an outgrowth of ture since the late 1960s. his social commitments. Father Supporters have viewed it as Bruce had been a popular COVENANT HOUSE ARCHIVES Ca model organization that figure on campus since his on East Seventh Street near The idea for Covenant House effectively reaches a tough and arrival in 1963. He encouraged Avenue D in one of Manhattan’s originated at Manhattan College, troubled group of street children students to work in Catholic worst slum districts. Thus began where Ritter taught theology and have praised its pragmatic anti-poverty programs, fostered an idealistic crusade with the and administered the Christian approach, entrepreneurial lively debates about the simple goal of serving the poor. Life Council. edge, reliance on private-sector Vietnam War, and enthusiasti- funding, and spirit of volun- cally introduced the liturgical Desperate Circumstances teerism. Critics have claimed reforms associated with In the late 1960s, the East that it rose from very humble the Second Vatican Council Village was crime-infested, beginnings to its current status into his ministry. drug-ridden, and in deep as a $120 million-per-year By 1968, however, Ritter decline. The Village Voice charity by making, in the words had grown tired of campus observed that the neighbor- of one former New York Post life. He decided to resign his hood had “the bleak air of reporter, “Faustian bargains tenured professorship and postwar Europe or industrial with corporate benefactors,” begin what he characterized Manchester… .” Rather than relying on semi-erotic fund- as a “ministry of availability” hosting a thriving hippie raising letters and engaging in ’s East counterculture, the East Village in managerial practices that Village. He convinced several appeared to be attracting ultimately produced sexual devoted former students from children who were running and financial scandal. History, Manhattan College, a few away from desperate circum- however, reveals a more and members of stances like broken homes and complex reality. other religious communities, abusive domestic situations. Covenant House traces its an assortment of friends and Ritter and his loyal cadre of origins to the mid-1960s and relatives, some aspiring social volunteers sought to protect Manhattan College, then an workers, and a number of these youths from the all-male and traditional Catholic casual acquaintances to move dangerous aspects of East liberal arts institution in the with him into a tenement Village street life by providing

www.nysarchives.org 10 In the late 1970s, Covenant House began operations in , an area dominated by massage parlors, peep shows, adult book emporiums, pornographic movie theaters, topless bars, liquor stores, pinball arcades, fleabag hotels, and cheap boardinghouses.

African American and public relations bonanza for Spanish-speaking, and more Ritter. Newspapers and televi- than a few suffered from sion networks featured highly serious addictions. No existing complimentary stories about public or private agencies the remarkably energetic appeared to address their who seemed to be single- specific problems. handedly confronting porn In 1972, Ritter received a peddlers and corrupt politicians small municipal grant and and who had personally formally incorporated his taken on the task of rescuing ministry as Covenant House. New York’s homeless and Its programs expanded as hopeless teenagers. Youthful Ritter acquired property and volunteers flocked to the opened additional homes ministry by the hundreds, throughout inspired by Ritter’s sermons, COVENANT HOUSE ARCHIVES and on Staten Island. The lectures, and somewhat them with basic food and fledgling organization began salacious monthly newsletters. shelter at night in a safe and to operate what Ritter called He spoke with moral clarity, supervised environment. “a small but classy group certitude, and passion about Homeless youths became home operation,” based on the problems of homeless the nearly exclusive focus the principal of open intake. children, attracting unprece- of Ritter’s efforts in the early dented support and more 1970s, and dominated the An Urban Gomorrah influential audiences. work thereafter. White By the late 1970s, however, Yet the organization’s runaways from the suburbs Ritter had shifted his focus rhetoric shifted in important initially composed a significant yet again and set his sights on ways. Ritter closely tied percentage of this group, but opening a much larger shelter Covenant House to anti- East Seventh Street volunteers for homeless youths in an even pornography campaigns, and soon noticed another growing more notorious New York City began associating the problems population of street children, neighborhood. Times Square of youth homelessness almost whom they characterized as had long enjoyed a reputation exclusively with prostitution, as an urban Gomorrah, a sexual sexual exploitation, and circus overrun by hookers, deviance, while the broader By the end of the decade, Covenant House’s pimps, and junkies and social concerns that initially dominated by disreputable informed the East Village annual budget was nearly $90 million. entertainment, commercialized ministry receded. Its expenditures exceeded federal sex, and sleazy underground Growth occurred at a pleasures. A stretch of nearby dizzying pace during the 1980s. appropriations for runaway children. Eighth Avenue even became By the end of the decade, known as the “Minnesota Covenant House’s annual Strip,” owing to the supposed budget was nearly $90 million. “urban nomads.” These older national pipeline established Its expenditures exceeded teenagers usually had been by pimps to recruit thousands federal appropriations for shuffled through New York’s of young blonde, blue-eyed, runaway children, with over foster care system and Midwestern prostitutes to ninety percent of its contribu- frequently ended up in the New York City. tions emanating from private East Village without skills or Covenant House began sources such as wealthy education. Some came from operations there in 1977, Catholic philanthropists and abusive homes, many were and the move proved to be a major corporations. Its direct

NEW YORK archives • WINTER 2006 11

mail program became a model for non-profits everywhere. It opened twelve more programs for homeless youths through- out Canada, the United States, and Latin America. A professional staff coalesced, more sophisticated programs COVENANT HOUSE ARCHIVES expanded the offerings beyond Investigative reporters began by a respected and indepen- Homeless adolescents found a place mere crisis care, and the to unearth other allegations dent investigative firm, Kroll to sleep in this Covenant House ministry appeared to be an that ranged from sexual abuse Associates––but the final report shelter in Toronto. In the 1980s, the unqualified success story. to financial improprieties to criticized the board for failing charity opened twelve programs Throughout, Father Bruce identity theft to official to monitor institutional affairs, throughout Canada, the United Ritter served as the organiza- misconduct to administrative documented questionable States, and Latin America. tion’s charismatic leader, incompetence. Both the financial dealings by some attracting universal praise and Manhattan district attorney directors and corporate officers, personifying Covenant House and the New York State and concluded that “the for its supporters and advo- attorney general launched cumulative evidence that Father cates. Even probes into the charity, and Ritter engaged in sexual praised him as one of America’s throughout the year sensa- “unsung heroes” in the 1984 tional revelations dominated State of the Union address. New York City tabloids and A young male prostitute who resided at Ritter appeared to be carrying news broadcasts. Within a his religious commitment few months, Ritter was forced Covenant House charged that Ritter had out of the pulpit and onto to resign under pressure provided him with money, an apartment the streets in the best tradition from his Franciscan superiors, of Catholic social reformers. the Covenant House board of on Eighth Avenue, and a no-show job in But matters soon took a directors, donors, and civil surprising turn. authorities. Yet he continued exchange for sexual favors. to deny the allegations against From Success him, refused to enter a to Stunning Fall counseling program prescribed activities with certain residents In 1990, Ritter’s image and by the Franciscans, and spent and made sexual advances philosophy were compromised the remainder of his life in toward [volunteers] is exten- when a series of sexual and seclusion at a farmhouse near sive.” Though no individual financial allegations surfaced, Cooperstown until his death allegation could be proved and his entire ministry suddenly in 1999. without question, the Kroll seemed ready to collapse. Meanwhile, Covenant report asserted that “if Father A young male prostitute who House struggled to survive. Ritter had not resigned… resided at Covenant House Contributions declined by termination of the relationship charged that Ritter had $22 million in one year, its between him and Covenant provided him with money, an debt skyrocketed, and public House would have been apartment on Eighth Avenue, confidence dissipated. Neutral required. [He] exercised and a no-show job in exchange observers questioned whether unacceptably poor judgment for sexual favors. Shortly the organization had lost its in his relations with certain thereafter, two more former moral compass. The board residents.” shelter residents alleged that of directors had responded The report actually consti- they had also engaged in initially by commissioning a tuted the first step toward sexual relations with Ritter. full-scale review of operations institutional recovery. City and

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Her long experience in social THE ARCHIVES service administration with CONNECTION the Daughters of Charity and the Diocese of Brooklyn ovenant House proved critical in transforming commissioned a Covenant House. She devoted C comprehensive archives more attention to early inter- and history project in the

COVENANT HOUSE ARCHIVES vention, vocational training, late 1990s as one way of and aftercare programs, coming to grips with its Sister Mary Rose McGready, D.C., state authorities elected to drop downplayed the sensational controversial past. Peter J. and former New York Governor their investigations of Ritter emphasis on prostitution and Wosh wrote the organiza- Mario Cuomo, shortly after the and Covenant House without sexuality, rebuilt the donor tion’s history in Covenant sixty-two-year-old nun became pursuing any indictments. The base by personal appeals and House: Journey of a Faith- president of Covenant House. Child Welfare Board indepen- appearances, and sought to Based Charity (University of dently reviewed the charity’s diversify the charity’s revenue Pennsylvania Press, 2005). programs, characterizing its stream. Sister Mary Rose also Amy M. Surak created the operations as a “generally intentionally cultivated her Covenant House Archives well-conceived and appropri- image as a “no-nonsense nun” and also served as a principal ately structured response to the and crafted a public persona researcher throughout the needs of homeless youth.” that contrasted dramatically undertaking. The Council of Better Business with that of Bruce Ritter: “I am Research for the very aware that I am a symbol. project relied heavily on And I use that as much as I repositories in New York can…I also think that the fact State, especially Manhattan “I am very aware that I am a symbol. And I use that I was a woman and a nun College Archives in The in a habit helped to restore the that as much as I can…I also think that the Bronx; Daughters of image of Covenant House.” Charity Archives in Albany; fact that I was a woman and a nun in a habit By the late 1990s, the Conventual Franciscan charity had recovered from Archives in Rensselaer; helped to restore the image of Covenant House.” its crisis, though the scars Archives of the Diocese of remained visible. The debt Brooklyn; Archives of the disappeared, fundraising Franciscan Sisters of Bureaus and the National stabilized, and new programs Syracuse; the New York Charities Information Bureau opened in venues ranging Municipal Archives; the restored Covenant House to from Washington, D.C. to Rockefeller Archives Center their approved lists in early Oakland, California. Revitalized in Tarrytown; and the New 1992. The board of directors and healthy, Covenant House York State Archives. The thoroughly reformed its operates today nationally authors also conducted operations during the 1990s, and internationally, with numerous oral history reaching out to social work programs in twenty-one interviews. The Covenant professionals and adopting cities. It continues to make a House Archives in New administrative practices more difference in the lives of many York City now maintains in conformity with accepted desperate teenagers. But it has all official documentation non-profit standards. dramatically shifted its rhetoric relating to the charity. and altered its philosophy from Recovery Progresses the days when Father Bruce The board also selected Sister Ritter railed against pimps and Mary Rose McGready, D.C. as peep shows in Times Square.  the charity’s new president.

NEW YORK archives • WINTER 2006