History and Mission of Care for the Homeless
In 1984, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts, together with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, established the National Health Care for the Homeless program. A group of New York City homeless service providers and advocates met to respond to the proposal to provide health and social services to homeless people.
But bringing services to homeless people was only the first step. Based on their experience, the planners knew that homeless people are often reluctant to accept care, having experienced repeated failures of the social service system, including educational, penal, mental health, and health care institutions, both prior to and during their homelessness. In fact, many homeless people - either fearful or skeptical - actively shun service providers.
Homeless people with little or no privacy may want to avoid the intimacy necessitated by health care services. Health professionals may ask histories and questions, the answers to which may be difficult or painful to recall. Some homeless people fear that health care professionals will be judgmental or even punitive. Mothers with substance use problems often want to avoid professionals who might report them for child abuse or neglect. Battered women may be embarrassed to confide in strangers. And some mentally ill people avoid all close contact as part of their illness.
Therefore it was clear that the health care professionals would have to be particularly sensitive to homeless people's reluctance to seek care and actively reach out to engage them and gain their trust. The team members would have to understand the unique and profound rejection experienced by homeless people. Homeless people are shunned; it is therefore not surprising that they find ways to isolate and protect themselves from the world, avoiding even those who may be trying to help. It was this barrier that the planners were most concerned about and most determined to overcome.
Experience over the last 17 years has proven the importance of delivery services on the homeless persons' own turf. The informality of the setting helps to break down barriers. Soup kitchen guests or shelter residents can observe a caring sensitive staff that comes regularly and dependably to places where homeless people congregate - places that many people shun and are not usually visited by professionals. Service providers are informal and friendly. Gradually it becomes easier for a homeless person to believe that these outreach workers want to be of assistance.
What started as a small program under the leadership of the United Hospital Fund with three sub-contracts with licensed health care facilities and ten staff and one project director has grown into an independent not-for-profit with a staff of 26 and four subcontracts with licensed health facilities which have more than fifty full-time equivalent staff.
The Care for the Homeless staff includes intensive case managers, clinical social workers, substance use counselors, psychiatrists, health educators, a policy analyst, management information specialists, fiscal staff, supervisors, and managers. The medical teams include doctors, nurse practitioners, a physician assistant, social workers, medical assistants, and health educators.
From 1996 to 2000, Care for the Homeless jointly managed the Kingsbridge Women's Assessment Center in conjunction with the Tolentine-Zeiser Community Life Center on contract with New York City's Department of Homeless Services (DHS). While both agencies were bidding for the Kingsbridge contract, they responded positively to a suggestion that each could bring a particular expertise to the task, and a strong working relationship was formed. Each year the staff temporarily housed from 1500 to 1800 homeless single women - more women entering the shelter system through Kingsbridge than any other shelter. Care for the Homeless hired and coordinated the professional staff, and its Director supervised Tolentine-Zeiser which hired the support staff, many of whom lived in the neighboring community; e.g., security guards, program aides, porters, shift supervisors, and building superintendent.
The shelter was well-respected by the Community Board and community groups, including merchants, the police department, the Coalition for the Homeless, and sister agencies. The assessment center easily passed inspection done by the Coalition for the Homeless, the court-appointed shelter monitor, with sterling reports. The residents, other shelters, street outreach teams, and DHS officials repeatedly acclaimed the shelter as one of the best in the city. As the operators of Kingsbridge, Care for the Homeless staff met DHS' placement goals, nearly doubling the expected number of placements. The most relevant evidence of our ability and commitment to run an excellent shelter may be that in the most recent evaluation (FY00), Kingsbridge received an overall score of 99% on DHS' Shelter Monitoring Instrument.
When Kingsbridge was unexpectedly closed in June 2000 due to the renovation of the armory building in which it was located, Care for the Homeless and Tolentine-Zeiser immediately began to look for alternate space. In 2001, the Department of Homeless Services accepted our proposal for a new women's shelter in the Bronx whose development would allow the agencies to take up where we left off serving homeless single women. In these straightened times, it has been a struggle to secure the funding for a gut renovation, but all signs are go for beginning the work in mid-2003. With luck and good management, the new facility should open before winter 2004 sets in.
While this work was progressing, the Board of Care for the Homeless began a strategic planning process early in 2003 that reaffirmed the agency's historical mission while also pointing in new service-oriented directions.
Mission Statement
Care for the Homeless of New York City responds to the devastating effects of homelessness in New York City both by ensuring a wide array of high-quality support services to homeless children, women, and men, and by helping to improve the policies and programs affecting them. Care for the Homeless places at the core of our work the ultimate goal of eliminating homelessness within our city and country.
Vision Statement
Care for the Homeless is committed to ending homelessness by providing direct services for homeless single adults and families, by conducting public education, research, and analysis of model programs and practices that create permanent housing opportunities, and by shaping policies to prevent future homelessness.
We seek to achieve our Mission and Vision by:
 | Treating homeless people as individuals, matching services to fit individual needs, including:
- a full range of medical services
- mental health counseling
- social services
- substance abuse counseling
- HIV/AIDS and mental health intensive case management
- health education
- housing |
| maintaining strong partnerships with medical and community-based agencies |
| taking services into a variety of settings including shelters, soup kitchens, drop-in centers, and through street outreach teams |
| supporting our direct services with research and evaluation of effective approaches, and by disseminating the findings |
| effecting meaningful policy change through collaboration with a wide range of government agencies, advocates, service providers, and partner agencies |
To accomplish our Mission and Vision, Care for the Homeless seeks to join its public funding resources with private, philanthropic, and corporate grants and gifts as it launches an innovative shelter and drop-in center that seeks to become a model program to lift homeless single women out of homelessness and set them on a road to independence and personal responsibility.
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