Benedict House

Benedict House is an innovative program that provides emergency shelter and transitional housing with supportive services for single homeless men and homeless men with children. This unique program incorporates two elements of the continuum of care model emergency shelter and transitional housing. The underlying purpose is to help residents rebuild their lives and to move them towards permanent housing, the third element in the model. Residents may stay for a period of up to 90 days in emergency bed, up to 1 year in a transitional bed and up to 2 years in the family unit.

Residents began moving into Benedict House April 28, 2006. Benedict House is the only facility for homeless men and homeless men with children in Kitsap County.

The residence is named for St. Benedict Labre, patron saint of homeless persons.

They are carefully screened before they are accepted into this program. They have a national background check and recently released felons or men with a history of domestic violence or sexual abuse are not eligible to live at Benedict House. The house can hold 25 men and is almost always full. In order to give these men a “hand up” we at First Lutheran are part of a ministry that commits to buying and serving dinner at Benedict House for one week a year. We usually have one week in June.  We have formed teams of three for each night of one week in June. We buy the food and cook it in their kitchen, serve it , pray with them before the meal and sit and enjoy a meal with them. This is one of the most fulfilling ministries to be a part of as the residents are so grateful for a home cooked meal and a couple hours friendship. Please consider being part of this great effort. If you cannot see yourself helping out by cooking, we can always use donations towards the purchase of food. Each team is responsible for buying the food as well as cooking and serving so any help is nice. Please contact Cindy Peterson at 360 874-2151 if you would like to help out.