Emmaus House

Today's Times Union has a nice story about our friends at Emmaus House:

Like many families, Fred Boehrer and Diana Conroy live below the poverty level and are struggling to raise three children. But what sets them apart is that they're poor by choice.

They run Emmaus House of Hospitality at 45 Trinity Place. They're still unpacking at the long-vacant 19th-century home in the Albany's South End, where they just moved after 10 years on North Main Avenue.

"By choosing to live a simple lifestyle below the poverty line, there's a sense of solidarity with the families we are helping," said Boehrer, who works part time as a teacher. "Living together with women and children who are temporarily homeless and need a place to stay helps not only them, but strengthens our faith in God and family as well."

Boehrer and Conroy are members of the Catholic Worker Movement, which was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933 during the Depression. Day and Maurin tried "to become better, not better off." They opened houses of hospitality to welcome people who were homeless. Their farming communes became places of respite for city dwellers who were poor.

You can read the rest of the story here.