Saint Patrick Center

About Saint Patrick Center

Saint Patrick Center is a ministry of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis that has served people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in St. Louis, Missouri, since 1983. Their work centers on housing, employment, and healthcare, including mental health and substance use support for people whose addiction is tangled up with housing instability. They follow a housing-without-preconditions model, built on the belief that healing follows housing, and they use trauma-informed care and harm reduction. Substance use services are offered through outpatient behavioral health care, a small integrated treatment program for adults with mental health and co-occurring diagnoses, and emergency shelter for women facing homelessness, mental illness, and co-occurring substance use disorders.

The Shamrock Club, one of the earliest day treatment programs of its kind in the country, pairs intensive case management and outpatient behavioral health and substance use care with daily meals, laundry, and a safe place to rest. Project Protect is designed for families who have lost custody of their children, or are at risk of losing it, because of a parent’s substance use, and it combines rental assistance with parenting skills, treatment referrals, crisis intervention, and budgeting help. For people with serious mental illness, two Assertive Community Treatment teams provide around-the-clock, community-based psychiatry, health, and housing support. Most people begin through the walk-in Welcome Center, where intake specialists assess needs and connect them to the right program.