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Mark Fontes of WZBN TV-25 did a video report on the highly successful July 10, 2008, Project Homeless Connect event hosted by the Mercer County Alliance to End Homelessness. Click on the screen to watch this video.

 

 Mercer Project Homeless WZBN-25 [2:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Click here to read our previous report.

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More than 550 receive help!

The Mercer County Alliance to End Homelessness hosted a summer time Project Homeless Connect on Thursday, July 10, 2008. This outdoor event enabled Mercer County citizens to receive vital information on housing support services. It also provided those in attendance with shoes, clothing, books, toys, haircuts, medical assistance, and legal advice, which were all donated by state-wide supporters. Volunteers conducted Point In Time interviews with those in attendance - the second set of Point In Time interviews to be conducted in Mercer County this year. On the left a young boy enjoys books donated to him at Project Homeless Connect.

To read an article in the Trenton Times click here. That article quoted Joyce Williams from the Rescue Mission as saying, “It keeps the people’s minds green. It reminds them that services are available to them and it lets them know people care about their situation.”

This PHC was held near the Rescue Mission building on Ewing Street, in Trenton. Over five hundred fifty citizens attended the event throughout the day and it was a great success.

These are some of the fourteen (14) photos from the Mercer County Project Homeless Connect held on July 10, 2008.

You can click on any photo to see it full size or click here to view all of the photos. To save a photo right click on the photo.

To view a slide show click here.

On February 1st the Trenton Times wrote an eloquent letter in support of housing first. it specifically commended the “the efforts of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, a consortium of leaders from the county’s business, government and nonprofit sectors, as it continues to develop new strategies to prevent and end homelessness in Mercer County. ”

We reprint the full editorial. It can be found on line by clicking here.

Housing first, Friday, February 01, 2008

It’s not a statistic that in spires pride: About 1,600 in Mercer County are without a home.

But it’s not that surprising, considering how many households — 20 percent — in Mercer earn less than $25,000 a year. That’s about 14,000 in the suburbs and almost 12,000 in Trenton. With that level of income, households don’t hold together very well, and it’s a very few steps to the street and the huddle of whatever hovel is available.

That could be a tent, a cardboard carton or an alley — not the most welcoming of quarters.

But, as was reiterated by some inhabitants of those haunts during this week’s tally of the homeless, they would rather have that flimsy comfort than the restrictions that go with more substantial structures.

Most programs aimed at housing the chronically homeless — many of whom are substance abusers or suffer mental illness — require them to stay sober, take medication or find jobs in return for the hospitality. More than a fair exchange, we might think, but those conditions are nearly impossible for the addled and the addicted to meet.

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Tags: homelessness, Housing First, Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Mercer County

The following article was written in Mercer County’s Trenton Times

 

 ‘Point in Time’ draws attention to Trenton’s homeless population: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

‘Point in Time’ draws attention to Trenton’s homeless population

By L.A. PARKER

Staff Writer

TRENTON - Hundreds of city dwellers tumbled into Shiloh Baptist Church yesterday as a U.S. Housing and Urban Development initiative attempted to count the number of homeless people in Trenton and throughout Mercer County.

“I’m trying not to die out there. Hope I don’t die out there,” said one street-battered patron who admitted a chronic alcohol addiction.

He could find assistance from scores of county-based agencies that offered information regarding essentially every need - dental, medical, social, psychological - during the Mercer County Project Homelessness event.

The event coincided with HUD’s Point In Time Count (PITC), an effort to count local homeless.

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Tags: homeless, Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Mercer County, Project Homeless Connect

The following editorial written by L.A. Parker was posted in the Trentonian Newspaper:

 

 A time when the homeless count: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A time when the homeless count

The healed cut meandered from the corner of her left eye to an area just under her left cheek, residue of an unwanted barter for alcohol and drugs.

“I was a 15-year-old in the park and partying. I enjoyed the stuff that the guy had, but then he wanted something from me that I wasn’t willing to give,” Jean said.

A broken bottle would eventually leave a scar as a constant reminder of past indiscretion.
She is 42 years old now, no longer homeless, and clean and sober for one calendar year.

In recovery terms, one year away from crack or alcohol is a watermark, although staying clean remains a “just for today initiative.”

Failure could be sparked by anything that life might deliver, whether the circumstance smells like potpourri or urine.

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Tags: homelessness, Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Project Homeless Connect

WZBN-25 News highlighted the Project Homeless Connect events that took place in Mercer County yesterday. The issues currently faced by the homeless of the county as well as the gaps in the system were discussed. Mercer County’s Housing First Initiative which accepted self-referrals at the PHC event was also highlighted in the broadcast.

To view the full broadcast click here

As we end the 2007 and prepare for the start of New Jersey’s initial Housing First demonstration in Mercer County developed by the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, it is very reassuring to read the Herald News Editorial of December 27th. The Herald News editorial summed up the issue even better than we could have done.

It appears that the Housing First model is a long term and cost efficient plan, as opposed to the traditional option of placing the homeless in temporary shelters with little privacy and the threat of crime.

Housing First seeks to help homeless people trade instability and homelessness for stable, productive and self-sufficient lives. The $2.5 federal grant should play a major role in helping some of the area’s most vulnerable people reach that laudable goal.

We applaud the Herald News for understanding and endorsing Housing First as one of the key steps in moving form managing homelessness to ending homelessness not only in Passaic County but in all of New Jersey. In 2008 New Jersey should have even more to celebrate!

The full editorial is printed below. To read it online click here.

Steps to self sufficiency - Editorial
Thursday, December 27, 2007
HERALD NEWS EDITORIAL

With an estimated 1,300 homeless people, Passaic County is one of four counties selected by the State of New Jersey and the Corporation for Supportive Housing to set up a pilot program aimed at helping the 349 chronically homeless become self sufficient.

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Tags: CSH, Ending Homelessness, Herald News, homeless, homelessness, Housing First, Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Supportive Housing