House of Refuge, House of Cards

8 House of Refuge, House Founded by a charismatic priest, Covenant House, 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 The Bronx. 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 New York City’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 Franciscans 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 Times Square, 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 friar 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 Greenwich Village 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 throughout 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 Ronald Reagan 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

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