‘DOING GOD’S WORK’
Helping homeless more than a mission
When Thomas Neve’s coworkers at Reaching-Out Community Services told him they were nominating him for a Daily News Hometown Heroes award in public service, he responded in protest.
“We had shown him a clip from a newspaper with the (Hometown Heroes) logo, and he was like, ‘Don’t do that, guys, I’m not a hero. I’m just doing God’s work,’” recalled Jasmine Liss, Neve’s executive assistant at the Bensonhurst, Brookyn, organization.
But Liss and others have a different view of Neve, who committed himself to helping the homeless in Brooklyn nearly 30 years ago and never looked back.
“I see him as a hero all the time,” said Liss. “He puts everybody before himself.”
It’s a story of altruism that began in 1989, when Neve, then a city sanitation worker, bought a used van, stuffed it with food and blankets and got some friends to tag along and help.
“Saying ‘what a shame’ wasn’t good enough for me,” said Neve, 56. “I thought, ‘What can I actually do? How can I chip in, and be part of an end to homelessness?’”
Three years later, Neve left his city job and founded Reaching-Out Community Services, Inc. in Bensonhurst.
“I said, ‘C’mon let’s be a friend to the homeless,” he added. “Let’s go out and see if we can offer them something to eat and maybe give them something to wear, and maybe, hopefully, even get them off the streets.”
To date, more than 9,000 individuals are registered with Reaching-Out. With a bus that feeds the homeless and a pantry — now on New Utrecht Ave., its third and largest location — the organization serves more than 6,500 families across 16 zip codes in the borough.
And if people in other boroughs don’t have a pantry in their communities, ReachingOut welcomes them and provides assistance, Neve said.
“Some people have been with us for years, they’re like our grandmothers,” said Neve, who was born and raised in Bensonhurst.
In addition to the meals it provides, the organization offers a range of social services. Reaching-Out helps people apply for food stamps and offers nutrition counseling, and even tax preparation assistance.
“It’s not like a bag of food is being thrown at them,” Neve said. “The program is even designed where they can choose their foods digitally. We always made them choose their foods like a supermarket, so this way they can get food based on their dietary needs.”
Liss, 28, says he’s a role model for the community.
“He’s not doing it to get praise from anybody,” she said of her boss. “He does this because deep down in his heart, he sees this as his mission.”