Inner City Work Wins Accolades
Episcopal News Service. July 28, 1977 [77245]
ROCHESTER, N. Y. -- The efforts of an Episcopal priest to improve living conditions of the poor in this upstate New York see city have won accolades from both Church and secular sources.
The Rev. Canon St. Julian A. Simpkins, Jr., rector of St. Simon's Parish and canon for inner city work in the Diocese of Rochester, heads a team that, since 1970, has erected a major low income housing project in Rochester, established a day-care center, community center, tutoring programs and summer education programs. In addition, Canon Simpkins serves as head of the Rochester Housing Authority.
These efforts won the recognition of a magazine published for black audiences in the upstate area -- About... Time -- which in a spring edition featured Canon Simpkins and a cover article on how one church has shown how to be "an institution concentrating on the heaven and hell that exist on earth."
The lengthy, illustrated article traces the history of the work at St. Simon's from Canon Simpkins arrival in Rochester in the mid-60s, his increasing involvement in housing problems in the city, and the formation of St. Simon's Housing Company, Inc., in 1970. This is the organization that spearheaded the drive to finance and build St. Simon's Terrace -- a complex of 108 one bedroom apartments and 148 larger townhouses -- which is the focal point of the community service and education work that is carried on in the parish and community.
Supporting this praise from the magazine is a report from a diocesan assessment team which -- in its annual report on St. Simon's -- says: "Overall, the reviewers were favorably impressed with the leadership and the various programs. Canon Simpkins has maximized all funds and has become a very effective, dynamic and exceptional community leader. In seven or eight years, he has taken a poverty area (which it still very much is) and has established a community center, day care center and a multi-million dollar successful housing complex."