The Harry Tompson Center is a low-barrier day shelter specializing in delivering hygiene, hospitality, health, and housing navigation services to the unhoused community of New Orleans.
The HTC is a faith-based nonprofit founded by Father Harry Tompson, S.J. in 2001. Our mission is to provide a calm and caring environment in which to serve the needs of unhoused individuals in New Orleans. The Harry Tompson Center is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all those who come to us in need, not only by responding to physical needs, but also by attending to the whole person with respect and compassion.
Our Center helps ~200 individuals per day.
The Harry Tompson Center is a collaborative day shelter for unhoused individuals that provides low barrier access to a myriad of services designed to improve their daily lives. We strive to meet our guests’ basic daily needs through our four pillars of service: hygiene, health, hospitality, and housing.
Guests to the HTC can access showers and hygiene items, restrooms, case management, local and long-distance calling, cell phone charging, WIFI, and more.
Our hygiene facilities often act as a gateway to greater care. While guests are waiting in our courtyard, they can talk to case workers, volunteers, and staff about their challenges, and we work collectively to connect them with the resources they need to be successful.
Our case managers help chronically unhoused individuals move through the housing navigation process and volunteers and community partners are on site to help with resource referral and individual task assistance.
We treat our guests with love and compassion and are always looking for ways to improve their experiences. Our bike program, book cart, monthly haircuts, and other special programs help our guests feel seen, heard, and cared for.
Help Us Help Others
A smile. A shave. Greeting someone by their name. It doesn’t take a lot to offer a helping hand that could change the day of one of our guests. Our volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds, giving their time and talent to our guests.
Are you interested in serving the unhoused community? We’d love to welcome you to the team as a volunteer.
Our Next Chapter
Renovating and rebuilding our most crucial facilities
I Need Your Hello
This compilation of 45 stories compiled by former HTC Executive Director, Vicki Judice, tells the stories that make the Harry Tompson Center and our partners at St. Joseph’s Rebuild Center a remarkable place for personal transformation.
A portion of each sale goes to support the continues operation of our services at the Rebuild Center. Study guide companions are available upon request. If you are interested in making a large batch order, please reach out to us at pkelley@harrytompsoncenter.org