Log in

A CommonSpirit Health foundation in California supports a group serving unhoused people

A ministry founded by a Sister of Mercy and supported by a foundation connected with CommonSpirit Health is providing practical aid to the growing population of people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento, California.

The Mercy Pedalers nonprofit that Sr. Libby Fernandez started and now directs dispatches volunteers on cycles each day to provide coffee, water, basic personal care items and companionship to unhoused people throughout Sacramento. Sr. Fernandez recently expanded the initiative to Stockton and is soon starting up in Placerville. Sr. Fernandez says these California communities have serious issues with homelessness.

Sr. Fernandez says the main goal of the ministry is for the pedalers to provide a loving presence to some of the communities' most vulnerable people. She hopes that the pedalers also can address some unmet needs of those they meet, including by referring them to social service providers.

Sr. Fernandez says she encounters dozens of people during each of her own expeditions as a pedaler. "I get to know them by name," she says. "I always ask, 'How can I help?'"

It can take time for some to trust Sr. Fernandez and the other pedalers and ask for more than the basics. "Over time, with deeper conversations, I can (learn of) their deeper needs and goals," she said, and perhaps help address them.

Eye to eye
Each of the 200 pedalers goes out at least once per week. Some volunteer alone, some in teams. Some use their own cycles. Some use bicycles or adult tricycles from Mercy Pedalers. Each volunteer tows a small cabinet or basket full of coffee and staples, with most of those items from Mercy Pedalers. Volunteers usually stick to established routes, so they can get to know people who stay in particular neighborhoods. The volunteers offer what they have in their carts to the unhoused people they encounter who welcome the volunteers into their space.

Sr. Fernandez usually rides out alone from around 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. most days of the week. She stops at various encampments. She usually visits with about three dozen people each day.

She writes on her blog on Mercy Pedalers' website: "I have found it to be very profound meeting someone eye to eye and sharing at an equal level of care. We Mercy Pedalers build trust and grow in relationship each time we go out. We chat, we laugh, we share our hard times and good times."

Many people that Sr. Fernandez and the pedaler volunteers encounter simply accept only the items offered from the carts and enjoy the interaction with the pedalers. Some take up the pedalers on their offers of more extensive help. The pedalers can refer people to medical and social service providers, including at CommonSpirit hospitals in Sacramento.

Genelle Smith, one of the pedalers, says, "It's really important to show up and provide resources when people are in the action phase of being ready to make a life change, because there are so many barriers to change, and if the action phase passes with no action taken, people often will regress."

Growing counts
Smith is the executive director of the nonprofit Wellspring Women's Center. In 1987, two women religious established the Sacramento drop-in center to provide basic nutrition and services to vulnerable women and their children. Smith and seven colleagues go out in teams as volunteer pedalers.

Smith explains that Sacramento's homelessness crisis is related to the area's systemic housing affordability concerns. She says that there has been a "huge influx" of people fleeing San Francisco and other large cities in search of less expensive housing. San Francisco is nearly 100 miles from Sacramento.

The increased demand for housing has pushed Sacramento rental and residential real estate costs higher and higher, which has been especially unfortunate for people with low and fixed incomes, Smith explains. An analysis by California State University, Sacramento, and Sacramento Steps Forward indicates that rents in Sacramento jumped an average of 20% from March 2020 through November 2021. Sacramento Steps Forward is a nonprofit aimed at ending homelessness.

Sr. Fernandez says, "People can't afford to live in California because it's so difficult to find affordable housing. So, there are more people who become homeless. And things are not getting better."

The university and nonprofit organization's analysis, which looked at the 2022 point-in-time homelessness count for Sacramento, says the unhoused population increased 67% in Sacramento County from 2019 to 2022, to 9,278. Sr. Fernandez says the count is now closer to 10,000.

Welcoming the stranger
Sr. Fernandez became a Mercy sister in 1990, the same year she earned her master's in social work at California State University, Sacramento. From 2006 to 2017, she was executive director of Sacramento Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit that serves those who are unsheltered.

Around 2016, she went on a silent retreat to Crater Lake in Oregon and spent time discerning what God was calling her to do next. It came to her that she could combine her love of cycling and her passion for meeting the needs of the homeless community. The idea for Mercy Pedalers was born.

Sr. Fernandez said a touch point for the ministry is the scripture verse in the Gospel of Matthew: "For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

Folk hero
For nearly seven decades, Mercy Foundation has been raising philanthropic funds for Sisters of Mercy-supported ministries in the Sacramento area, including CommonSpirit hospitals and clinics, some of which are Sacramento facilities founded by the sisters. Mercy Foundation already had been providing support to Sacramento Loaves & Fishes when Sr. Fernandez decided to depart that nonprofit to start Mercy Pedalers. Kevin Duggan, Mercy Foundation president and CEO, says that when evaluating the purpose of her new ministry at the time, it "continued to make sense in terms of our mission" for the foundation to support Sr. Fernandez's work.

From the start, through Mercy Foundation, donors have provided funding for operational support. Mercy Foundation has continued to provide Mercy Pedalers with connections to potential donors and to aid with fundraising. Mercy Pedalers has an annual budget of about $185,000, which covers Sr. Fernandez's salary, storage facilities for the bicycles and adult tricycles, the cost of replacing and maintaining the cycles as well as some of the supplies the cyclists hand out on their visits. Mercy Pedalers is funded solely through monetary and in-kind donations, which can include coffee, creamer, cups, water, hygiene items, flashlights, lightweight blankets, hats, gloves and socks.

"So many people resonate with Sr. Libby and her ministry," Duggan says. "She's a trusted individual and a great storyteller. We feel blessed to help her in her effort. She's a folk hero here, doing God's work and the work of the Sisters of Mercy."

He notes that her cycling ministry echoes the earliest days of the Mercy congregation, when the "walking sisters" would travel around towns by foot to care for people where they lived.

Sr. Fernandez says numerous people have seen their lives improved because of the pedalers, including successfully taking steps to rebuild lives and become housed.

Bringing mercy
Smith says, "there's personal meaning in all of the interactions. All the interactions are meaningful because we're developing relationships. There are different opportunities for quality relationships as we get to know people."

Smith adds, "The concept is that we are bringing mercy to the streets, and that is cool. People are reached out to and attended to, and this is so vital."

>> Watch a video of Sr. Fernandez appearing on "The Kelly Clarkson Show"