By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
Young members of Loving Soles meet some of the clients at the Camillus House shelter who received their donated suits Aug. 8, 2024. Standing from left are clients, Mario Urcuyo, Angela Chille, Alfred Turner, Ricardo Beltain and Felix Molina. Kneeling are Loving Soles members Christopher Inguanzo, Jaylene Guerra, Sophia Inguanzo and Susanna Inguanzo.
MIAMI | Asked how she liked her new light-green business suit, Angela Chille gave a one-word reply: “Bastante (quite a lot).”
For Felix Mijares, sporting his blue suit and pink shirt, the reaction was “Excelente.”
And for Yocely Fuentes, her blue blazer brought a simple “Me gusta (I like it).”
Suits may seem a small detail for some, but they clothed hopes and optimism for a half-dozen people Aug. 8, 2024. That’s when they were given the garb at Camillus House, a shelter for the homeless – for some of them, their first suits in years.
The garments were the latest phase in a series of drives for clients at Camillus House, a shelter for the homeless run by the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God.
For more than a decade, the Catholic teenage charity Loving Soles has been donating shoes to the homeless – 12,000 pairs just this year. Now they’ve graduated to suiting up the whole person.
“It feels good to see people use the shoes and clothes we donated,” said Susanna Inguanzo, 19, one of five leaders of the group who visited Camillus House on Aug. 8.
Her brother, Christopher, 17, agreed. “When you do good, the world gives back to you. I get happiness.”
The Inguanzos brought 100 suits to Camillus. The new campaign, dubbed Suits for Success, has totaled 200 suits thus far.
The garments may not always be worn on the job, but they instill poise and confidence, said Brother Sean McIsaac, a member of the Hospitaller Order.
“It gives them a sense of dignity and self-worth,” Brother Sean said. “They're like a whole different person. They smile and have a different walk and a different talk. They feel part of the workforce and the community.”
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
Clients at the Camillus House shelter show off the donated suits they received Aug. 8, 2024. Standing in the back, from left, are Felix Molina and Ricardo Beltain. Standing in front, are Alfred Turner, Mario Urcuyo, Angela Chille and Felix Mijares.
It’s already begun to work for native Miamian Alfred Turner.
“I feel like I'm a part of something,” Turner said, sitting tall in his navy blue suit despite the car crash that put him in a wheelchair.
Two back surgeries left Turner jobless and homeless until he learned about Camillus House. He's now looking for a job in sales or desk work.
“Things are looking up good,” he said. “I just want to be active, do something with myself.”
The clothing drive was the second time Loving Soles have branched out from footwear. In summer 2022, a dozen members collected several hundred books for Camillus’ library.
The shelter's workers took down the old shelves, and the young volunteers organized them by topic and reshelved them. The project took several weeks.
Of the clients who received suits, most were immigrants fleeing troubled lands – places like Cuba, Nicaragua, and especially Venezuela, where autocratic regimes have done massive damage to their countries’ economies.
“Muy Malo (very bad),” Gilberto Garcia, 59, described life in Cuba. “No food, no work, nothing looking up.”
Some had good jobs once. Felix Mijares worked in security for the Venezuelan government. Angela Chille was a microbiology lab analyst, and Yocely Fuentes was an office administrator in the South American country.
They came to the United States but ended up sleeping in churches, on friends’ couches, in their cars, or on the streets. They found Camillus House through friends – and occasionally, Camillus’ outreach workers found them.
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
A Camillus House staff member tends to donated women's clothing at the shelter.
“I was ironing the pavement with my butt,” Mario Urcuyo joked. He can laugh about it now that he has a bed at the shelter.
He's seeking anything from gardening to accounting to property management. Others look forward to jobs as humble as garbage collectors or hotel maid – as stepping stones.
They're also building plans to move up. Mijares wants to study construction at Florida International University. Chille wants to study medicine. Garcia aims to earn enough to pay for a license to drive delivery trucks.
“Even though I'm older, I still have energy,” said Garcia, 59. “I'm animated to continue moving forward.”
They realize it won't be easy to rebuild their lives. Yocely Fuentes came to Miami for work in 2023, but cleaning houses and caring for children didn’t pay enough. She had to send her own two children back to her native Venezuela.
“That was very hard,” she confessed.
Photographer: JIM DAVIS | FC
Both casual and formal shoes were among the 12,000 pairs collected May 6, 2024, by Loving Soles, a student-run charity, for the Camillus House homeless shelter.
Fuentes lived in her car for 15 days, then heard about Camillus House from her English teacher. Now, she looks forward to starting her new job in housekeeping at a hotel. After that, maybe a job in education. And she hopes to bring her children back.
“It’s not easy to start from nothing,” Fuentes said. “It'll take a lot of fighting.”
Still, with clothes and shoes, food and lodging, plus helping hands, the Camillus clients say they can hope for a better life.
“I feel like I'm moving forward,” Chille said. “The past is past. God doesn't give you things; he gives you the opportunity to do things.”
Mijares feels the same. Asked how well Camillus House has done for him, he smiled and said, “Demasiado (very much).”
And Urcuyo said expansively: “It’s like I'm being bombarded with too many good things. Thank God.”
