G. Robert Watts, Second Executive Director of Care for the Homeless

G. Robert Watts was appointed Executive Director of Care for the Homeless by its Board of Directors in February 2005. Mr. Watts succeeds the late Susan L. Neibacher, who successfully developed the original New York City health care for the homeless demonstration project from its origins at the United Hospital Fund to its incorporation as an independent not-for-profit in 1993. Since its founding in 1985, Care for the Homeless has arranged for health care and social services for more than 100,000 homeless New Yorkers.

Mr. Watts, widely known as Bobby, has more than twenty years' experience in direct service, administration, management, development, and implementation of health and social service programs with and for homeless, mentally ill, HIV-positive, and substance-abusing populations. He is the former Finance Officer of the New York City HIV Health and Human Services Planning Council, where he was responsible for delivering financial information about its $122-million service portfolio to Council members so they could make informed decisions concerning the allocation of resources. He was also a member of the HIV Planning Council's Health Workgroup for seven years. Bobby helped to develop safeguards for homeless people under New York City's Medicaid managed care program as a member of the Steering Committee of the New York City Medicaid Managed Care Task Force. He was also a member of the U.S. Public Health Service's Bureau of Primary Health Care Data Workgroup, a workgroup recommending reporting requirements for federally-funded health centers, and a National Health Care for the Homeless Council workgroup which published recommendations on outcome measures for Health Care for the Homeless programs. Bobby is now a Board member of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council and serves as its Treasurer. He is also a member of the Black Agency Executives in New York City.

Care for the Homeless' Executive Director began his work with homeless people as a live-in staff member of the McAuley Mission in Manhattan. He is recognized as a leader in meeting the health needs of homeless people, and has been invited to make presentations at annual meetings of the Community Health Care Association of New York State, at annual national Health Care for the Homeless Conferences, at Ryan White Care Act All-Titles Conferences, a Title III Data Workshop and at several American Public Health Association annual meetings.

Bobby has worked at Care for the Homeless since 1995, most recently holding the position of Deputy Executive Director. During this period, he also served as Acting Director of the Kingsbridge Women's Assessment Center, both before the agency took over its management from the Department of Homeless Services, and for a period after it proved to be one of the best-run shelters in the City. The challenge facing Care for the Homeless today, he asserted, “is to build upon the foundation of compassion and competence laid down by Susan Neibacher and CFH staff. At the same time, we must demonstrate the effectiveness of our interventions both in order to ensure we are serving our clients as well as possible, and to secure the funding needed to meet the needs of homeless people as we also strive to end homelessness.”

Bobby holds a Masters in Public Health in health administration and a Masters of Science in epidemiology, both from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. At Mailman, he was a Columbia University International Fellow and received the Gorman Humanitarian Award in 1988 for founding Homelessness Concern, which mobilized medical and public health students as well as faculty to volunteer at a homeless men's shelter. Previously, he graduated from Cornell University with a major in Biology and Society and minor in Africana Studies in 1983. He has also earned a Certificate of Theological Studies from Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, NY.

Mr. Watts is a member and former Senior Warden of All Angels' Church in Manhattan, which has a growing ministry to homeless people living on the streets. He grew up in Brooklyn, and is now a 20-year resident of the Bronx, where he lives with his wife, Deatra, and their three children.