Highlights
- St. Vincent de Paul's downtown Phoenix shelter is short 25 volunteers as summer heat pushes demand higher.
- Of 30 breakfast volunteer slots, only five were filled on a recent morning, forcing staff and unhoused residents to cover the gap.
- The facility operates around the clock as a climate-controlled emergency shelter, serving meals daily and overnight beds five nights a week.
- People can sign up to volunteer, donate, or host a drive at stvincentdepaul.net.
St. Vincent de Paul's main campus in downtown Phoenix, near 7th Avenue and Watkins Street, is running short 25 volunteers as summer heat drives a surge in shelter demand, program manager Jennifer Morgan told Arizona's Family on Wednesday. The shortfall is hitting hardest at breakfast: of 30 volunteer sign-up slots, only five were filled on a recent morning, leaving staff and unhoused community members to set up the dining room themselves.
The dining room doubles as sleeping space for roughly 170 people five nights a week. After overnight emergency shelter beds are cleared, staff turns the room over to breakfast service, then lunch, then afternoon heat relief, before the cycle repeats. The facility runs climate-controlled 24 hours a day. On Fridays it adds a dinner service.
Morgan said the volunteer gap is a seasonal pattern that runs counter to public perception. "You know, the holiday season is usually the season for giving, and that's when people think about it," she said. "But in Arizona, our heat season, our hot seasons, our summer is when we have a huge need for people to get involved."
The shelter accepts donations of clothing and heat-relief supplies and needs volunteers for specific roles across multiple locations. "We really need permanent shelter beds, but we do what we can with what we have," Morgan said.
The story was also reported by 13ABC. Volunteer sign-ups are available at stvincentdepaul.net.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- AZ Family (3TV/CBS5) retrieved 19/08/2026 17:25
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 19/08/2026 17:25. Every claim traces to a source.
