Monarch Housing’s Blog!

On February 28, 2008, the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Sussex County - Harold J. Wirths. Freeholder Director, Glen Vetrano, Deputy Director, Phillip R. Crabb, Jeffrey M. Parrott and Susan M. Zellman - thanked each of the volunteers who helped make Project Homeless Connect and Point in Time a success. The event was attended by more forty (40) volunteers who were thanked for making the 2008 events a success. To view the list click here.

The Herald News covered the event in an article entitled “Number of homeless children in county on the rise.” To read the article click here.

These are the photos, courtesy of Thor Carlson, from the event. Click on any photo to view it full size. Right click to save.

This is the article in the Herald News

Number of homeless children in county on the rise
Wednesday, December 31, 2008

By STEPHEN J. NOVAK [Email address: snovak #AT# njherald.com - replace #AT# with @ ]

NEWTON - Just last week, as Stephen Gruchacz walked through the county’s social services office, he saw about 75 people in the waiting room, and “an awful lot of strollers.

A recent survey confirmed the impression of the administrator of the county Department of Health and Human Services: the number of homeless or at-risk families with young children is on the rise.

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Tags: Point-in-Time-Count, Project Homeless Connect, Sussex County

Camden County hosted a successful Project Homeless Connect event on Tuesday January 29, 2008. These are some photos from the event. Click on any photo to see it full size. Click here to view all of the photos. To view a slide show click here. As they become available more photos will be posted.

The New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness’ mission is to advocate on a federal level for adequate funding for permanent affordable and supportive housing for homeless individuals and families.

The New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness (NJANEH) is a statewide organization that coordinated its First Annual Congressional Reception on July 11, 2007. New Jersey was well represented by more than one hundred (100) New Jersey constituents including the formerly homeless, passionate advocates and housing providers from across the state. People traveled by train, bus and car to get there to be part of this unique opportunity to meet with our legislators to let them hear firsthand issues of importance to our communities.

The New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness will be coordinating several upcoming events:

During the Congressional Recess mid-late March 2008, the NJANEH is sponsoring site visits by members of Congress to permanent supportive housing projects throughout NJ. This will provide an opportunity for the members of Congress to tour permanent housing for the homeless, see firsthand the impact McKinney Vento funding has made in their districts, and to learn more about how to end homelessness in New Jersey.

The Second Annual Congressional Reception has been scheduled for July 30, 2008. This year’s reception will build on the success of last year’s Reception and seek to have an even larger impact on federal policy issues that impact homeless individuals and families. A Save the Date form for the 2008 Congressional reception is attached. Please circulate to all interested parties.

The Steering Committee of the New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness encourages new members. For more information please contact Richard W. Brown [Email address: rbrown #AT# monarchhousing.org - replace #AT# with @ ] at 908-272-5363.

The Philadelphia Inquirer published a major report today on the Housing First initiative in the City of Philadelphia. The article entitled “The new mandate: First, find them a home” of a three part series on homelessness. The article highlights the success of the initiative and how and why it was developed. the article also has links with photos and other detailed analysis of homelessness in Philadelphia. To read the full article and to access the links click here.

This is a highlight of part of the article.

In 2006, Philadelphia lost 40 percent of its HUD funding for homeless programs because its bid - made collectively for all social-service agencies - sought too much for services and not enough for permanent housing for the chronically homeless.

In December 2007, the city regained its funding after every homeless agency cut its budget for services by 25 percent. Reflecting the new national focus, the project that got the most federal funding was a planned facility for permanently housing 79 homeless inebriates or addicts living on the streets of Center City.

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Tags: Housing First

We received an email from NAEH last week announcing that the 2007 National Symposium on Homelessness Research papers were now available. The National Symposium on Homelessness Research was held on March 1-2, and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This was the second National Symposium on Homelessness Research. The 2007 Symposium focused on lessons learned from research and practice. Teams of authors consisting of leading researchers and practitioners were commissioned to prepare 12 papers for discussion at the Symposium, all of which are now available to the public. To read all of the papers click here. The research papers are:

Historical and Contextual Influences on the U.S. Response to Contemporary Homelessness
Walter Leginski, PhD

Changing Homeless and Mainstream Service Systems: Essential Approaches to Ending Homelessness
Martha Burt, PhD, and Brooke Spellman, MA

Consumer Integration and Self-Determination in Homelessness Research, Policy, Planning, and Services
Susan Barrow, PhD, Lorraine McMullin, Julia Tripp, and Sam Tsemberis, PhD

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In reading the New York Times we came across an interesting article about Dan Schulman the Chief executive of Virgin Mobile USA. The article was part of The Boss Column and was entitled “Teamwork’s Rewards” detailed his career since graduating from Princeton High School. Mr. Schulman also serves on the board of trustees of Rutgers University.

The piece we found most fascinating was his experience of living on the street with homeless youth in New York City for a day. He states “being out on the street was a life-altering experience. If more people would get involved, we could all be a powerful force for change.” We could not agree more with his comments. This is again why it is important to engage the private sector as well as public leaders to experience homelessness. With their first hand knowledge they may become the change we need to end homelessness.

The following is the section in which Mr. Schulman describes his day living on the streets of New York. To read the full article click here.

Last summer I spent 24 hours on the street in New York with Rick Koca, whose nonprofit, StandUp for Kids, we support. It distributes survival kits and a hot-line number to homeless teenagers. Rick suggested that I see how they live, to know what it’s like. I didn’t shave for a week and wore dirty jeans, a ragged shirt and a blanket around my shoulders. I couldn’t bring a cellphone or watch. If we wanted to eat, we had to beg for money.

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Tags: Ending Homelessness

For more information click here.