The Camden Carlos Morales grew up in didn’t look like the Camden he works in today. 

As the son of a single mother raising two kids in a tough environment, the Morales family struggled. “Camden is a place with both pain and beauty, and for me, the pain came first,” Morales says. “We moved to Houston for a bit, but my father asked my mother to bring us back and told her he had a place for us to live. When we landed in Philadelphia, my mother realized my father had nothing. She had to call friends. We were sleeping in people’s basements. We were sleeping in bad situations.” 

They eventually landed in a VOA shelter specifically for women with children. But through it all, Morales’ mother continued to provide her children with a life that would set them up for bright futures – sending them by bus each day to Sacred Heart School and working various jobs to pay their tuition. But without a place to call home, the foundation she tried to build for her family was shaky at best. 

The late Father Michael Doyle and Carlos Morales

Then, they met the late Father Michael Doyle. 

“It was the tuition,” says Morales. “It just caught up with her, and the principal brought her in. I’d seen my mother cry, but not like that. The principal calls Father Doyle over and for him, it was a social justice issue: ‘No way can this be real, one of my families is homeless.’” 

As Morales puts it, the stars were aligned. Because Father Doyle had just started a project to help provide housing for the people of Camden who were left without. And he had just found his first recipients. “It was this home on Winslow Street,” Morales says. “I remember we walked in and Father Doyle said, ‘This is yours.’” 

Father Doyle had immigrated to Camden from rural Ireland in 1959. Years later, when poverty, crime and vacancy were defining traits of the city, he set out to “do his bit,” as he would say, and help his new congregation and community through affordable housing, support of the arts and working at Sacred Heart Church and School. And Heart of Camden was born. 

“There was a reason why people in power listened to this little Irish priest,” Morales says. “Once Michael believed in something, there was nothing you could do to stop him. Power can come in many different ways. His power came through his ability to take something and tell a story. People connected with it.” 

The Morales family moved into that house on Winslow Street 40 years ago. Today, Heart of Camden is experiencing a resurgence – with Morales at the helm as executive director. It continues to provide more than just a home for residents of Camden. The nonprofit has developed a community with neighborhood planning, and places like the Fireworks Art Gallery, South Camden Theatre Company and the Michael J. Doyle Fieldhouse, where programs are hosted for community members. 

And while the problems that motivated Father Doyle to act are not as visible as they were during Morales’ childhood, Morales says they do still exist in Camden.

“Sometimes, when the issues are not so in your face, you think they’re not there,” he says. “We all come from a time where we’re reacting, reacting, reacting. How do you move that to proactivity? We have block captains now, people coming to the community meetings, 30-40 people, and the police department is there and they’re having real talks about what’s going on. Stuff that I never thought of. Now being back at Heart of Camden and seeing all the work being done, it’s full circle.” 

But it almost didn’t happen. Five years ago, the organization hit a wall. It was a perfect storm of obstacles, says Morales. “A bad market, funding drying up, a governor that raided all the affordable housing money you had and on top of that, an executive director who didn’t know how to navigate through that. They were trying to figure out what their options were.” 

With his life’s work at risk, Father Doyle called Morales, who was living and working as a community developer in Jersey City. And just as Doyle couldn’t sit by and let a family of his parish suffer all those years ago, Morales wouldn’t let the organization that helped him thrive fall to disrepair. “That’s why I chose to come back.” 

Then the real work began. Morales and his staff worked to get the organization back to basics: building a strong foundation to set them up for success no matter what future developments arise. They focused on getting finances in order, applying for grants, investing in community programs and working on a neighborhood plan. 

“I don’t think a regular nonprofit would have been able to sustain if it wasn’t for people believing in the organization, believing in Father Doyle,” Morales says. “I had donors carrying my salary for three or four years without one thing being built. But I was cleaning up and I had to keep telling them, ‘Please trust me. We’re going to do this.’ And I thank God that they did.” 

Last November, Heart of Camden celebrated 40 years and sold its first home since Morales returned to the organization – a house Father Doyle had bought through donations that went to a Camden resident and her daughter. The org also announced a $689,813 grant from William Penn Foundation. 

“We had all these ideas for celebrating 40 years but decided to have it right in this gym [at the fieldhouse],” Morales says. “We need people to drive into the neighborhood, park here, come in here, because we all need to be reminded that we’re still in the City of Camden. The 40-year celebration – it wasn’t about the event, it was about the events that have been happening: all the new housing, the potential, the neighborhood plan, the community meetings.” 

Heart of Camden is now working to secure a vacant building that could provide 100 affordable housing units. They’re planning a building that will house artists on the top floor, community meeting rooms and a maker space on the ground floor with garage doors where local artists can make art with the community. They’ll implement the William Penn grant money to make improvements at the Fieldhouse, including a public computer area, accessibility improvements and increased programming year-round. The foundation is set, and there’s much more to build. 

“I wish Michael could see what it’s doing,” Morales says. “At one of his last dinners, they were honoring him and I said, ‘If you really want to honor him, let him know that the work he’s doing will keep going. That’s the best gift we can give. The man has written books, gotten awards, he has everything that you could possibly think of. But the one gift that he needs is to know that it will keep going.’ So hopefully we’re giving him that gift.”