New day center aims to help ‘the least among us,’ Biloxi bishop says. City supports effort

He was accustomed to finding shelter for homeless people in Corpus Christi, but after Louis F. Kihneman III was installed as the bishop of Biloxi in 2017, he was dismayed to learn few if any beds existed on the Mississippi Coast, including for a woman and baby in desperate need of housing.

The Sun Herald talked recently to Kihneman at the old Mercy Cross High School property that sits beside Interstate-110 and is mostly surrounded by woods. marsh, a bayou and a wastewater treatment plant.

Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged Mercy Cross in 2005 and the school relocated to higher ground. Since then, homeless people have been living in tents along the property’s wooded northern boundary. The tents have more recently been moved onto ball fields and other open areas while the property is cleaned up.

Bishop Kihneman is watching as Catholic Charities of South Mississippi, supported by volunteers, transforms the property into a place where homeless people can find services from a variety of agencies that have signed on to work with what will be called the Mercy Cross Center. The facility will be blessed and officially open at 10 a.m. May 28.

The old Mercy Cross gymnasium is being transformed into a day center that will operate Monday through Friday. Services will be designed to help those in need find stability and, ultimately, permanent housing.

“Since I got here, the need for us to minister to the least among us, our homeless, has been very present to me,” Bishop Kihneman said in an interview with the Sun Herald. “This is an opportunity to minister to the homeless and enable them to transition into society again and into housing.”

Catholic nonprofit partnering on homeless services

Volunteers for Loaves and Fishes served a cafeteria-style lunch at the front of the gym as the bishop sat nearby, visiting with homeless people, volunteers and the diocesan director of Catholic Charities of South Mississippi, Jennifer Williams.

“So many people want to have the homeless be unseen by hiding them somewhere else,” Williams said. “Our goal is to move them back into the community with housing so we don’t have to hide them.”

The hope is that services on the Mercy Cross property can be expanded. In addition to the gym, two other buildings sit on the land. Back Bay Mission has long provided homeless services in the neighborhood and will be one of Mercy Cross Center’s many partners. Back Bay Mission is working on innovative solutions for temporary and permanent housing, Williams said.

At Mercy Cross Center, guests will find meals, laundry, showers, a place to receive mail, job search assistance and workforce programs, mental health services and other assistance.

The temporary homeless population on the property fluctuates, Williams said, from around 80 to 130. Guests know their stays are temporary. Catholic Charities will keep tabs on guests without being invasive to ensure that they are working to improve their living situations. One couple told the Sun Herald that they have a HUD voucher for housing but just need to find a house.

Rents have increased at a pace that is unaffordable for many in low-wage jobs, Williams said. But people find themselves in all sorts of predicaments that lead to homelessness, Kihneman said. He sees the problem throughout the Biloxi Diocese, which stretches across the Mississippi Coast and north past Hattiesburg.

“It’s one of the things the Lord Jesus asked us to do is to take care of those in need around us,” he said.

City of Biloxi supports effort

Kihneman is not worried about the property being overrun with homeless people. He says the agencies signing on for the day center will be able to help move people into housing. He expects some people will complain about the Mercy Cross Center and any expansion plans, but the property is relatively isolated.

Past efforts to provide homeless services, even meals, have met with community resistance. But the bishop doesn’t intend to give up.

He has the city of Biloxi behind him. “We’re going to assist them everywhere we can,” Mayor Andrew “Fofo” Gilich told the Sun Herald. “It’s only gotten worse everywhere in the country. We’ve just got to face it with small steps or any way we can.

“ . . . We don’t have an option of not doing anything.”

Kihneman doesn’t mind putting it another way.

“To be blunt,” he said, “if we don’t do this as a city, if we don’t do this as a society, what are we going to do?”

How you can help

Mercy Cross Center is looking for volunteers and accepting donations such as personal hygiene and laundry supplies, tents, backpacks, sleeping bags and clothing in good condition. To volunteer or donate items, email Pam Leach at pleach@biloxidiocese.org.

Monetary donations for the center also are welcomed. You can donate here, or mail a check with Mercy Cross Center on the memo line to Catholic Charities of South MS, 1450 North St., Gulfport, MS, 39507.