This started with phone calls.
Why this exists
For years, Vincentians in Forsyth County have been answering the phone when a neighbor calls for help, and then going to see them at home. That is what the Society does, and it has done it the same way since 1833. You go in pairs. You listen. You help if you can. And you pray with them.
What our members kept finding shocked them. Not just the conditions people were living in, but what those conditions cost. Neighbors living in extended-stay motels at rates higher than an apartment. Neighbors living in cars. Some of them for years.
And nothing about it was getting better. Housing here is not getting cheaper, and people on fixed incomes cannot outrun it.
"It's not that they've failed. It's that housing has become unreachable in our county."
Kathy Johnson, St. Vincent de Paul Georgia, Forsyth County
So a group of Vincentians formed a task force to focus on housing. The task force became an Advisory Committee, and the Advisory Committee led to this.
Kathy at Cumming City Hall, August 18, 2026
"We have the people, you can see. We have the need. We have a plan. We just need the opportunity to move forward."
Who we are
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a lay Catholic organization founded in 1833, whose members visit their neighbors at home, listen, help, and pray with them. In Georgia, the Society has been doing that since 1903.
Today St. Vincent de Paul Georgia works through roughly 3,500 volunteer members, called Vincentians, in 76 local chapters across the state, supported by professional staff. In 2025 the organization delivered more than $34.9 million in aid, programs, and services.
In Forsyth County in 2025, our Good Shepherd Conference provided $477,324 in direct aid to neighbors, including $263,954 for housing assistance, rent, and temporary housing.
That last number is why this project exists. We have been paying to keep people housed one month at a time for years, and it is not enough. The Cottages of providence is what we build instead.
We have done this before
St. Vincent de Paul Georgia is not new to housing, and this is the part a donor should check rather than take on faith.
The Society has operated housing in Georgia for years: transitional housing at Marillac Moms, House of Dreams, and St. Michael's House; a combined transitional and rapid rehousing program called STABLE; and a statewide Motel to Home program that moves neighbors out of extended-stay motels and into permanent housing. Alongside those it runs an Income Advancement Program for workforce development and employs a dedicated benefits navigator whose job is getting people connected to what they are already entitled to.
Those are not adjacent programs. They are the same programs that will serve residents at the Cottages of providence, run by the same organization, with the same staff. The support model here is not being invented for this project. It is being extended to it.
See SVdP Georgia's housing programs →How this project is structured
Three things are worth knowing, because they are what a careful donor asks first.
Who owns it. The Cottages of providence, LLC is 100% nonprofit, established specifically for this neighborhood's development and long-term stewardship, with its financial and operational activities reported on the Form 990 of St. Vincent de Paul Georgia.
Who stands behind it. St. Vincent de Paul Georgia is the sponsoring organization and the long-term partner to the City of Cumming and to Forsyth County. It is a 120-year-old institution with audited financials, professional staff, and housing it already operates. The question behind any first-time project is whether the organization will still be here in ten years. This one has been here for more than a century.
Where your gift goes. Gifts are received and administered by St. Vincent de Paul Georgia, a 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 58-0967972, and are restricted to the Cottages of providence.
SVdP Georgia audited financials and Form 990 →Our partners
AgeWell Forsyth · Avita Community Partners · Family Promise of Forsyth County · Forsyth Community Clinic · Mustard Seed Tiny Homes · NAMI Georgia · The Drop · The Place · United Way of Forsyth and Dawson Counties
We are talking with more. If your organization belongs on this list, we would like to hear from you.
Stewardship
We think you should be able to check us.
