Monarch Housing’s Blog!

On Friday July 25, 2008, the Hudson Reporter published an article by Ricardo Kaulessar [Email address: rkaulessar #AT# hudsonreporter.com - replace #AT# with @ ] entitled “Doing more for the homeless: Legislators, activists talk in D.C. about laws for N.J.’s population“. The article referenced the Congressional Reception by noting “this coming Wednesday, July 30, legislators and activists from around New Jersey will attend a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C. about how to help the homeless population in New Jersey. The briefing, in its second year, was organized by homeless advocacy organizations from across the state.”

The article noted the significant strides that the Hudson County Alliance to End Homelessness has taken to both develop and implement a ten year plan to end homelessness.

In the article Congressman Albio Sires is quoted as saying “By allowing more to be spent on preventing homelessness, Hudson County will be better off and have far fewer homeless persons than today.” Jacob DeLemos of the Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development is quoted as saying “I think it will help to meet with our congressional members to get legislation passed affecting the homeless population in Hudson County and New Jersey.”

To read the full article click here.

The following is the first few paragraphs from the article.

A one-day count of homeless people in Hudson County, done back on Jan. 29 in order to seek funding for federal programs, found 904 homeless people that day.

Read the rest of this entry »

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Third Annual National Summit for Jurisdictional Leaders in Washington DC last week. More than 250 state and local jurisdictional leaders, their representatives, “community champions”, and other business and community leaders partnered in over 325 10-Year Plans and in 53 State Interagency Councils gathered in Washington DC last week at the National Press Club.

The Council’s Home for Every American Awards celebrated political will, partnership, and innovation in ending chronic homelessness. Receiving the Council’s “Home for Every American Award County Leader” this year for inspiring, innovating, and investing through research, resources, and results on behalf of our homeless neighbors was awarded to County Executive Thomas DeGise of Hudson County. Pictured left to right are Phil Mangano of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, County Executive DeGise and Dan Altilio, President of the Hudson United Way.

This is a well deserved award because of the leadership provided by Mr. DeGise in the development of Keys to Ending Homelessness in Hudson County: Hudson County’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. Without his leadership and the dedicated and tireless efforts of his staff the plan would never have been developed. To read a copy of the plan click here.

The following is from the ICH web site.

Partnership between government and business, and investment in Hudson County’s residents have been hallmarks of the term of Hudson County, New Jersey County Executive Thomas DeGise, who first took office in 2002. In 2007, the County Executive devoted more than 20% of his State of the County address to the topic of ending chronic homelessness, noting: “If we look inside the numbers, we can gain an insight into how we might finally address this frustrating issue properly . . . our current, haphazard approach to dealing with chronic homelessness is shockingly expensive - and ineffective.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ending Homelessness, Homeless Trust Funds, Interagency Council on Homelessness, Keys-to-Ending-Homelessness-in-Hudson-County:-Hudson-Co, Tom DeGise

The Hudson Alliance to End Homelessness announced that their ten year plan to end homelessness had been completed and was ready to be implemented during the January 29, 2008, Project Homeless Connect event.

Keys to Ending Homelessness in Hudson County: Hudson County’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness can be viewed online by clicking here. This is a comprehensive plan that can and will end homelessness in Hudson County by 2018! We commend Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise and Mayor Jeremiah Healy for their leadership and commitment to implement this plan.

Pictured on the right is Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise (center right) and Jersey City Mayor Jerry Healy (center) recently presented the Ten Year Plan to Eradicate Chronic Homelessness in Hudson County to Phillip Mangano, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (center left) during Project Homeless Connect Hudson County, a day-long outreach to the homeless providing food, clothing and information on services to the homeless held at Grace Church VanVorst. Also taking part in the presentation were Daniel Atelio (right), Most Reverend Thomas Donato, (left) Reverend Janet Broderick of Grace Church VanVorst (center left).

For more information contact Kristin Green [Email address: kgreen #AT# hcnj.us - replace #AT# with @ ].

The Jersey Journal published the following editorial today about the importance of ending homelessness.

Homelessness stats not moving, Thursday, January 31, 2008

For the homeless in Hudson County, time has stopped and the words about improving their condition are just echoes of years past.

Tuesday, there was a news conference at Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City. It was to coincide with Project Homeless Connect, an annual event where many Hudson County nonprofit agencies set up tables to provide services to the homeless.

Officials are saying the obvious by offering that the basic approach to ending homelessness in the county is to provide housing. County Executive Tom DeGise said that ideally, with housing, service providers can “bring them there and bring the services to them.”

At the press conference, it was noted that the county has about 300 chronic homeless and another 2,700 people who are in and out of homelessness, but enrolled in programs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ending Homelessness, HUD, Hudson-County, Keys-to-Ending-Homelessness-in-Hudson-County:-Hudson-Co, Project Homeless Connect

Hudson County not only held a successful Project Homeless Connect on January 29, 2008, they also submitted their ten year plan to the community as well as to Phil Mangano from the Interagency Council on Homelessness. To read the article in the Jersey Journal click here. A copy of the full plan will be posted on this blog later this week.

These are random photos from the event. Click on anyone to see it full size. Click here to view all of the photos. To view a slide show click here.

The first homeless causality of the year occurred on January 3rd in Union City. With the Hudson County Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness to be unveiled on January 29th, we can hope that we will not have many more deaths form the cold.

The following is an article in the Union City reporter that we are sharing with our readers. To read it online click here.

Dying cold and alone on the cliffs

Should officials thwart homeless ‘camps’ on Union City/Hoboken hill?

By: Nicolas Millan
Reporter staff writer

While dozens of homeless men have built wooden shacks on the cliffs between Union City and Hoboken for the last 20 years, local officials have been puzzled over what, if anything, they should do about the makeshift campsite.

The death of a homeless man there on a cold night 10 days ago has further highlighted the situation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: homeless, homelessness, HUD, Keys-to-Ending-Homelessness-in-Hudson-County:-Hudson-Co