For women clinging to hope, Catholic Charities offers a refuge where they can ‘lift each other up’ | Philly Gives
The nonprofit runs Mercy Hospice, which houses 31 women grappling with substance use, homelessness, and a host of other challenges. “It’s showing us how to be a friend,” one resident said.
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Thirteen months ago, Teresa Bowers was battling drug addiction, homeless, hopeless, and reconciled to her own death on the streets of Philadelphia.
“I had come to terms that I was going to die an addict,” Bowers said in a recent interview. “That nobody cared about me, that nobody loved me.”
But there is Mercy in this world, and because of it, Bowers is no longer trapped in what she described as a degrading cycle of humiliation and shame. Bowers recently celebrated her 34th birthday at Mercy Hospice, a recovery home operated by Catholic Charities of Philadelphia.
It was her first sober birthday since she turned 13.
After detox, with the necessary medical supervision required as drugs leave the body, most people recovering from substance use begin their journey in an intense 30-day inpatient or outpatient treatment program.
But 30 days plus detox is usually not enough.
What’s needed next is a longer stay — maybe months, maybe years — in what is known as recovery housing, where therapy, workshops, and skill-building combine in a drug-free, supervised place. Mostly, those places aren’t set up for children, but Mercy Hospice, in Center City, houses 31 women, including rooms for seven mothers and their children, plus a toy-stocked playroom and a little playground out back.
It made all the difference for one of Bowers’ former Mercy Hospice housemates, Erica Reason, who was able to live there with her son, now 5, for two years during her struggle to stay clean after on-and-off drug use since she was a teenager.
“People need long-term treatment programs. If I become rich, I’m going to open a `Mommy and Me’ program” like Mercy Hospice’s, Reason said. She just moved into her own apartment (where her 5-year-old son gets his own bedroom!) — new housing arranged by her social worker at Mercy Hospice.
Mercy Hospice receives government grants to pay services to the women it houses, but relies on donations to underwrite the $500,000 it costs annually to house and care for their children.
“While there is no reimbursement for these costs, it is paramount to the mission of Catholic Charities of Philadelphia to make efforts to keep families together,” said James Kerrigan, Catholic Charities’ director of homeless services.
In addition to Mercy Hospice, Catholic Charities provides transitional and emergency housing for nearly 500 people. On any given day, 350 people without homes eat meals, take showers, do laundry, and receive mail through other Catholic Charities programs.
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But the Philadelphia nonprofit’s services reach beyond the homeless and food insecure with programs for families — assisting them with everything from housing to diapers — young people in the juvenile justice system, immigrants who need legal help, seniors, and people with intellectual and physical disabilities.
For Reason and Bowers, help came in the form of a safe place to recover from a lifetime of trauma.
On Nov. 2, 2025, Bowers wound up in Temple University’s emergency room with a blood clot in her arm. Doctors also saved her leg, which had been ravaged by wounds from Tranq, the street name for xylazine, a large-animal sedative that is often mixed into fentanyl.
“I woke up, and I asked for help,” she said. She wanted to be clean — not for her mother, not for her friends, not even for her son, who is living with her mother. It was her decision.
In between, though, it was rough.
To sleep, she searched for abandos (abandoned buildings) near Kensington and Allegheny Avenues. “I would pray that I didn’t get robbed,” she said. She remembered a time when, as a prostitute, she jumped into someone’s car. The man put a gun to her head and demanded a sexual service.
“It’s so degrading that you use more and more to not have to think about it,” she said.
When she does think about it, she can easily be overwhelmed with guilt and shame — and overcoming that has been as big a battle as fighting substance use itself. When she was pregnant at age 17 with her son, she kept using. “I couldn’t stop.”
When she got pregnant again, she rejoiced to have a second chance to be a good mother. “But I just chose drugs again,” she said. Bowers gave birth to her daughter, but the baby didn’t survive her own withdrawal.
“The guy I was dating, he’d say, ‘You killed your baby. You’re a horrible person.’”
Through counseling at Mercy, and help and advice from her family, she has learned to look beyond the tragedy.
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The community also lifts her. “We are women. There are 30 of us, and there are some bad days,” Bowers said. “But at the end of the day, we have each other’s backs. It’s showing us how to be a friend. We lift each other up, and we pull each other up.”
One thing that helps is Mercy’s stable routine — wake up at 4 a.m. for medicine, breakfast at 5 a.m., a visit to a methadone clinic at 6 a.m., followed by a morning meditation when Bowers adds to her gratitude list.
At 8:30 a.m., there’s a daily check-in. The rule is that each person must describe their mood in one word, and it can’t be fine, OK, or good. A few weeks ago, Bowers’ morning word was motivated.
Which brings her to a discussion of why people should be motivated to help Catholic Charities in general, and Mercy Hospice in particular.
“I’m sure [everyone’s] highly aware of addiction,” she said. “We all know the facts. You see the world. It would just be saving a lot of women’s lives. All that’s coming to mind is saving lives, and that’s it, point blank, period.”
These days, Bowers is beginning classes to gain her high school diploma so she can study business in college and learn how to buy houses and turn them into recovery homes. Like Reason, she wants to give back.
“I want to help little girls the most,” Bowers said. “I wish someone had done that for me.
“Now I’m a young woman who is excited about life and has accepted that there’s a better way. I didn’t have to die an addict.”
This article is part of a series about Philly Gives — a community fund to support nonprofits through end-of-year giving. To learn more about Philly Gives, including how to donate, visit phillygives.org.
About Catholic Charities of Philadelphia
People served: 200,000 annually (FY ’24-’25)
Annual spending: $168.8 million across four pillars of mercy and charity
Point of pride: Catholic Charities of Philadelphia is the heart of the church’s mission in action, serving all people regardless of background. With decades of experience, nearly 40 comprehensive programs, and deep community partnerships, we turn compassion into action, and action into lasting and impactful change.
You can help: By serving meals, volunteering at a food pantry or shelter, hosting a food or clothing drive, and sharing your gifts and passions with seniors.
What your Catholic Charities donation can do:
$25 provides five nutritious lunches for children through our School Lunch Program.
$50 provides three hot lunches at St. John’s Hospice for individuals experiencing food insecurity.
$100 provides an instructor and supplies for an art or recreation class for 50-100 seniors at a senior community center.
$275 provides one week of groceries for a family of four.
$325 provides a mother with formula, diapers, and wipes for a month.
$550 provides emergency shelter and meals for a week for someone experiencing homelessness.
Now entering its third consecutive year, Philly Gives is a campaign to raise money for 10 nonprofit organizations serving those in need throughout our region.
The Philadelphia Inquirer will feature a series of articles about the organizations, which were selected by the William Penn Foundation, the sponsor of Philly Gives. The nonprofit groups were vetted by the Philadelphia Foundation. The Inquirer is owned by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism LLC, which is part of the Philadelphia Foundation.
The Inquirer maintains editorial control of the articles in the series, which are assigned and edited by Opinion editors. Because there are no administrative fees associated with Philly Gives, 100% of the donations are distributed to the nonprofits.
Philly Gives is the brainchild of Janet Haas, who drew inspiration for the campaign from the New York Times Communities Fund, a philanthropic effort once known as the Neediest Cases Fund that was started by that news organization in 1911.
Haas, a philanthropist and member of the board of the William Penn Foundation, collaborated with Elizabeth H. Hughes, The Inquirer’s publisher and chief executive officer, to produce Philly Gives.
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