Fr. John McVean, OFM, 85, passed away on Dec. 19, 2024, in Beacon, New York. A professed Franciscan friar for 62 years and a priest for 55 years, he was a trailblazer in the movement to create permanent supportive housing for the mentally ill in New York City. 

A visitation will be held 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 8, with the Funeral Mass at 11 a.m. at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi at 135 West 31st Street, New York, NY 10001.  Interment will be at a later date. 

Fr. John was born Oct. 29, 1939, in Rochester, New York, to Julian and Margaret (née Keefe). He attended Scottsville Grammar School and Scottsville High School in Scottsville, New York, before attending St. Joseph’s Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, New York, from 1957 to 1961. 

Fr. John was received into the Order of Friars Minor on July 14, 1961, and professed his first vows as a Franciscan on July 15, 1962, at St. Raphael Novitiate in Lafayette, New Jersey. He professed solemn vows on Aug. 22, 1965, at Christ the King Seminary in Allegany, New York. He was ordained to the priesthood on Dec. 16, 1967, at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C. Following ordination, Fr. John continued his education at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology and master’s degree in sociology.  

In 1969, he moved to New York City, where he served for the next 53 years. His first assignment was to the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. In the mid 1970s, Fr. John began an outreach ministry to the elderly and mentally ill living in a nearby rundown single room (SRO) hotel, inviting tenants to the lobby for coffee. As the community grew, Fr. John and a psychiatric social worker began providing residents with desperately needed services.  

When the hotel announced it would close in 1979, Fr. John, together with the late Fr. John Felice, OFM, and Fr. Tom Walters, OFM, purchased a nearby building and, in 1980, opened St. Francis Residence I, a 100-unit SRO facility offering permanent housing, support services and community for the mentally ill. It was one of the first permanent supportive housing projects of its kind.  

Today St. Francis Friends of the Poor comprises three residences and is home to some 255 tenants. A model for the permanent supportive housing movement, people have traveled from across the United States to visit, study and replicate its methods. The Fathers John advocated for funding and policies to help spread their supportive housing model and in 1990, the historic New York/New York Agreement to House Homeless Mentally Ill, the nation’s first long-term commitment to supportive housing, was signed in front of St. Francis Residence I. Today there are more than 32,000 supportive housing units in New York City alone. 

Fr. John served as co-director and program manager of the three residences until 2016, and continued to be present at the residences and a member of the board of directors until his passing.  

He is preceded in death by his parents and his siblings Jane and Malcolm. He is survived by his sister-in-law Barbara McVean, his nieces and nephews, numerous cousins, the St. Francis Friends of the Poor community, friends and the friars of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe. May he rest in peace.

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