Bethesda Project[1] is a nonprofit organization that provides shelter, housing, and programs reaching out to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
From humble beginnings as a small group of volunteers, Bethesda Project has grown to provide care that encompasses emergency shelter, housing, and supportive services at 15 locations in and around Center City Philadelphia.
[2] Bethesda Project now serves over 1,400 individuals experiencing homelessness each year without regard to their race, age, religion, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.
Bethesda Project was founded in 1979 by Father Domenic Rossi, a Catholic priest of the Norbertine Order at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA.
Rossi and members of his prayer group had been seeking to discern how to answer God’s call “to care for the abandoned poor” and Bethesda Project was born.
Bethesda Spruce provides permanent single-room occupancy housing with supportive services[5] for 16 men and women who cope with chronic mental illness.
The LEED-certified building on 13th Street just south of Market houses Bethesda Project’s program for 24 men in recovery from addiction and opened its doors in 2010.