When Peggy Cronyn co-founded The Resource Exchange, she saw it as a way to meet a critical need in her parish at St. Vincent de Paul and put her professional skills to good use.
Fourteen years later, the Jonestown parish program has helped furnish more than 1,400 homes for people who had previously experienced homelessness.
“It’s been a joy and a blessing,” said Cronyn, 79, who has coordinated the program and served as its primary fundraiser since 2011. “Anybody can pull this off. We saw a need and have been meeting it.”
Cronyn grew up in Federal Hill and Northwood, attending now-closed Holy Cross School and Seton High School. She earned an undergraduate degree from what is now Loyola University Maryland and a master’s degree from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University.
“Is that Catholic enough for you?” she jokes about her education.
Her work as a development director fit a unique need at St. Vincent de Paul, which has had a long history of ministering to people experiencing homelessness who often encamp in a park near the church.
Cronyn says The Resource Exchange is a fairly simple operation helping address a complicated societal problem.
Volunteers work with Health Care for the Homeless after the agency assists a person or family attain a housing voucher and a new place to live.
The Resource Exchange then steps up to help furnish the home, supplying beds and other items such as sofas and televisions. The exchange purchases new beds and provides other donated gently used items, which are stored in one of its storage units.
Over the years, Cronyn has used her professional fundraising expertise to solicit donations from several groups such as the Knott Foundation and the Abell Foundation. Donated funds are used to pay for storage, purchase bedding and rent moving trucks.
It’s all done through word of mouth or notices in parish bulletins.
“It’s a very low-tech operation,” Cronyn said. “We don’t have a huge budget.”
Cronyn’s 79-year-old husband, Joe, heads the move-in and delivery team. She said most volunteers average about one shift a week, mostly on Thursday’s move-in day.
She noted that after deliveries are made for a family’s new “permanent home,” the volunteers and family stand and hold hands in a circle for a prayer and blessing of the home.
“That’s when you can really feel the joy and presence of Christ,” Cronyn said.
“For us as volunteers, it’s a blessing,” she said. “It shows what just a small group can accomplish. I never expected how much we would get out of this.”
Cronyn said it has helped immensely that St. Vincent de Paul’s pastor, Father Ray Chase, has been incredibly supportive as was former pastor, the late Father Richard T. Lawrence.
“Homelessness is supposed to be rare and brief,” Cronyn said. “Unfortunately, it’s neither.”
Father Chase calls the work that The Resource Exchange does “extraordinary” and moving.
“Peggy and her cadre of volunteers are profoundly committed to their ministry,” Father Chase said. “Health Care for the Homeless opened the door for our parish community to get involved and the TRE committee has responded.
“We are very proud of it,” Father Chase said of the program. “It takes a heck of a lot of physical, mental and spiritual work. They have an ability to not let difficult times affect them.”
Executives at Health Care for the Homeless are grateful for the assistance from the team at St. Vincent de Paul.
Shauna Griffin, a therapist case manager at HCH, has witnessed the impact firsthand.
“The most positive impact I’ve personally witnessed was the furniture delivery to a client and her family in October 2024,” Griffin said. “The family happened to receive their items on the youngest son’s birthday. My client is always looking for spiritual signs and felt the date/delivery postponement was meant to be. She was overjoyed to have bedroom furniture to surprise her younger children after school on the day of delivery. The eldest child, who was also home at the time, insisted St. Vincent’s leave beds ‘as is’ so the kids could experience building the frames together. Additionally, the eldest child spoke with SV staff about volunteering as a mover with them in the future. It was truly heartwarming.”
Lawanda Williams, the chief behavioral health officer at HCH, said the St. Vincent de Paul program had a transformative effect for some of her clients.
“Furniture from St. Vincent de Paul’s Resource Exchange program has had a profoundly positive impact on clients transitioning from homelessness into housing,” Williams said. “By providing essential furnishings, the program not only helps individuals and families meet basic needs but also fosters a sense of stability and dignity. The ability to transform an empty space into a true home helps clients to establish a foundation for long-term success. Over the years, we have heard such wonderful feedback about the kind spirits of the volunteers as they make deliveries.”
Cronyn is ready to pass the torch to the next coordinator, Peggy Meyer, who has been involved with the ministry for all 14 of its years.
“It’s a beautiful ministry,” Meyer said. “So much of what we do in ministry is a Band-Aid approach. This is an opportunity to assist in a more permanent way and really make a difference.”
The group isn’t currently in need of furniture donations but is always seeking new volunteers.
To learn more about The Resource Exchange, visit stvchurch.org or call 410-657-5874.
Email Gerry Jackson at gjackson@CatholicReview.org
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