William (Bill) Greehey knows a thing or two about growth. Having served as chairman and CEO of Valero Energy Corp. from the company's inception in 1980 until he retired as CEO in January 2006, he was instrumental in the company's growth from a small, regional natural gas pipeline company to the largest refining company in North America.
Continuing his professional growth, Greehey now serves as chairman of San Antonio-based NuStar Energy LP and NuStar GP Holdings LLC. NuStar Energy is a publicly traded master limited partnership that is one of the largest asphalt refiners and marketers in the US and the third largest independent liquids terminal operator in the world. While establishing an impressive professional career, Greehey's dedication to community grew an equally impressive array of philanthropic endeavors.
In 2004, Greehey established the Greehey Family Foundation. To date, tens-of-millions of dollars in grants have been distributed to worthy establishments in the San Antonio area including the University of Texas Health Science Center, Our Lady of the Lake University, St. Mary's University, and others, but one of his grandest endeavors has been with Haven for Hope.
Greehey serves as chairman of the board for Haven for Hope, an innovative facility providing a wide range of social services to meet the needs of San Antonio's homeless community in a "one-stop" setting. The facility focuses not just on providing shelter, food and clothing, but on helping homeless individuals transform their lives by providing them with transformational services like education, job training , drug and alcohol treatment, legal support and more - all on a single campus.
Greehey worked tirelessly to raise over $100 million to build the campus, over half of it from the private sector (which included a personal $5 million gift for the capital campaign and millions more to support the operation of the campus and its partners), and Haven for Hope officially opened its doors in April 2010, becoming fully operational in June 2010. Today there are over 700 men, women, and children living on the campus working on individualized programs with the goal of moving from homelessness to self-sustaining and happy lives.
The individualized programs are made up of a combination of various social services including counseling, education programs, job training, life skills, legal services, ID recovery and others provided by 80 campus partners.
Since the opening of the campus there have been 383 job placements including 100% employment for those in the dental hygienist training program and those completing the first culinary training class.
The Restoration Center, opened in April 2008, provides critical sobering and detoxification services. Built with $6.1 million in State funds, the center is credited with saving the city, county jails, emergency rooms, and courts approximately $15.5 million in its first two years of operation.
The In-House Recovery Program, which provides designated housing and support for those with drug and alcohol addictions, has had a 60% success rate, with a total of 240 graduates.
For those unwilling, unable, or waiting to participate in the campus transformation programs, Prospects Courtyard offers a safe outdoor sleeping area. Of those who have utilized the courtyard, 797 have moved to the Transformational Campus and 126 have graduated into permanent housing.
Overall, well over 500 individuals have completed various transformation programs and are now living independently. Within the first 10 months of Haven for Hope's opening, the downtown streets of Houston have seen the homeless population decrease by 76%. So successful is the program that leaders from nearly 200 cities from 44 states have visited the campus in hopes of implementing similar programs in their communities.
A charity golf tournament, the NuHope Golf Classic, sponsored by many businesses in the oil and gas community, is held annually to help support Haven for Hope. In its first five years, the tournament has raised over $11 million for the campus. To continue this successful program, donations and volunteers are needed. To learn more, visit www.havenforhope.org.
Mikaila Adams | Managing Editor - News
Mikaila Adams has 20 years of experience as an editor, most of which has been centered on the oil and gas industry. She enjoyed 12 years focused on the business/finance side of the industry as an editor for Oil & Gas Journal's sister publication, Oil & Gas Financial Journal (OGFJ). After OGFJ ceased publication in 2017, she joined Oil & Gas Journal and was named Managing Editor - News in 2019. She holds a degree from Texas Tech University.
