Thirty years ago Geoff Curtiss was a young, recently ordained Episcopal reverend and eager to minister to an urban congregation. He found one in Hoboken.
Soon after, he also found himself in a fight raging along several battle lines—about politics, poverty, development, progress, gentrification, class warfare and the role of religion in the community—which resulted in the founding of the Hoboken Homeless Shelter, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary on Thursday.
Curtiss, still in Hoboken as the reverend of All Saints Episcopal Church today, spoke about the shelter's history in a recent interview with Patch. As he tells it, the story starts in the late 1970s, when Hoboken was beginning to scrape away the dirt and grit of its On the Waterfront days and evolve into an attractive bedroom borough.
Editor's note: the Hoboken Shelter has been supported by Alleluia Fund grants, and was the subject of a recent Alleluia Story video.
