Br. David Buer, ofm
West 1972
In his vocation as a Franciscan brother, David Buer has helped provide shelter, food and other assistance through his work as an outspoken and steadfast advocate for the homeless and others in need of care.
In Tuscon, Ariz., Buer coordinates two homeless projects. The St. Francis Cooling Center operates during the summer months, and the Franciscan Ministries Soup Patrol operates during the winter. He also is a volunteer with the Samaritans, who make daily humanitarian patrols in the desert around Tucson, offering food, water and medical care to migrants.
Buer has spent much of his life working on behalf of others, taking leadership of projects that make the hardships of the needy more bearable. From 1977 to 1989, except for one year in Quincy, Ill., and one year on a Catholic farm in West Virginia, Buer lived in Chicago working with and living in community with Franciscan friars and volunteers. During these years, he co-founded the 100-bed REST Shelter in 1979 and the 250-bed Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph Shelter in 1983. He also volunteered at the St. Francis Center Soup Kitchen, now known as the Marquard Center.
In 1989, he moved to a Franciscan community in inner-city Las Vegas and began his formation process toward becoming a Franciscan brother. He managed the Catholic Charities’ winter shelter that averaged 400 men each night. Over the next few years, he lived in various formation houses, including those in Oregon, California and Guatemala before making his Solemn Vows in 1996.
In 1997, he co-founded Poverello House in Las Vegas. The facility offers daytime hospitality to the homeless; a second one was established in Henderson, Nev., in 2002.
The Las Vegas City Council named Buer “Citizen of the Month” in 2000. Two years later, he received the Award of Merit from the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, and the Las Vegas mayor and city council signed and presented him with a proclamation in honor and appreciation of his work in and around the city.
In addition to his work directly with the homeless, Buer works with the justice system and city governments to be sure the homeless and poor are not mistreated. An advocate who doesn’t let politics get in the way of compassion, he speaks on their behalf to the media, urges city governments to commit to more summer and winter shelters, and occasionally sleeps in homeless camps to know and report on the conditions that exist there. Before taking up the Franciscan life, Buer himself was homeless for a few months in California, where he learned what it was like to be a person without dependable shelter, meals or medical care.
Buer lives at the San Xavier Mission on the Tohono O’odahm Reservation, just south of Tuscon, Ariz. The mission is over 200 years old.