About Us

Pope Francis Center (PFC) provides holistic, transformational solutions to people experiencing homelessness. We envision a Detroit without homelessness, where every person has the resources for sustained stability.

To that end, we operate a drop-in Day Center to meet basic needs for anyone seeking support and the Bridge Housing Campus, a residential transitional housing facility.

Pope Francis Center maintains a zero-bar entry policy, meaning we serve anyone who seeks our support. We do not require identification, paperwork, or screening for drugs or alcohol. Within both our locations, however, violence and drug use are strictly prohibited.

For many people living on the streets of Detroit, Pope Francis Center is a beacon of help and hope. We see the humanity and goodness in everyone who comes through our doors and treat our guests with the dignity and respect deserved by all.

We offer all our guests a safe place to take respite from life on the streets. We are dedicated to helping our guests unlock their potential so they can realize a brighter future.

We envision a Detroit without homelessness, where every person has the resources for sustained stability.

• Respect
• Compassion
• Transformation
• Trust
• Community

It’s been 35 years since the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church opened the church’s downtown Detroit doors to those seeking refuge from a brutal winter storm.

He put on a pot of coffee, set out some folding chairs and offered people a place to get warm. This single act of kindness in 1990 blossomed into our Day Center where we provide nutritious meals, hot showers, laundry facilities, housing assistance, and free medical and dental clinics to those in need.

Our program expanded tremendously in 2013 through an $800,000 donation from UAW-Ford, funding the creation of state-of-the-art kitchen and laundry facilities, as well as updated showers, restrooms, and shaving stations.

In 2014, a $50,000 gift from the Bartush Family Foundation established a clinic space for medical, dental and legal professionals to continuously provide free support to our guests.

We spun off as an independent nonprofit in 2016, renamed the Pope Francis Center (PFC) in honor of Pope Francis’ deep commitment to the poor. The following year, we introduced nutritional standards into meal prep, thanks to a second generous UAW-Ford grant. This focus on nutritious foods continues to this day.

Over time, PFC president and CEO Fr. Tim McCabe, SJ, saw that while PFC was helping our guests survive on the streets, we weren’t addressing the reasons they got there in the first place. He had a vision for services that went beyond being transactional to transformational. After visiting 16 social service organizations around the U.S. and conducting other research, he developed the Bridge Housing Campus concept.

The idea was to build a holistic facility where residents could stay for approximately 90-120 days. While living in studio apartments, they would have access to trauma-informed intensive medical, respite, psychological, addiction, social, and job-readiness services, as well as housing advocacy and support — all in one location.

Eight years and $40 million dollars later, that dream is now a reality. We opened the Bridge Housing Campus in June of 2024 – a first-of-its kind facility for Detroit and Michigan.

PFC’s vision remains a simple one: end chronic homelessness in Detroit. Through the outreach at our original Day Center in Detroit and the transformational Bridge Housing Campus, we are poised to do just that.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pope Francis became the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit to lead the Roman Catholic Church. His Jesuit identity holds special meaning for Pope Francis Center, which began as an outreach ministry of Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church in downtown Detroit.

When he was elected pope in 2013, his friend Cardinal Claudio Hummes embraced him and said, “Don’t forget the poor.” Those words inspired him to choose the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, who was known for his devotion to people living in poverty, his pursuit of peace, and his care for creation.

Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis called the Church and the world to draw near to people pushed to the margins, uphold the dignity of every person, and care for our common home. Pope Francis Center bears his name because his witness reflects the heart of our mission: to meet people with compassion, honor their dignity, and walk alongside them toward healing, stability, and hope.