
Benigno ‘Benny’ Rodriguez,
MSW, CFH Senior Medical Case Manager
While growing up in the Bronx, Benny Rodriguez
had his first encounter with homelessness after his father lost
his job.
When he was 15, Rodriquez and his brother entered foster care and
quickly learned about the tough road ahead of him.
“There was some difficulty in terms of the foster brothers
I had at the time,” Rodriguez says. “Sometimes we didn’t
get along – I was the only light skinned guy there a lot of
the time and nobody spoke Spanish. Growing up, I never knew where
I belonged.”
When he was in high school, Rodriguez was confronted by a professor
that was head of the Law Institute program. He told him if he’d
get an 85 average by the next semester, he would let Rodriguez into
the Law Institute Program.
“Lo and behold, I got into the honor roll junior year and
the last two years of high school,” he says. “I was
able to be in the Law Institute Program. I’m happy that even
through high school, I was able to get an opportunity, which is
something that motivates me even today. I’m able to provide
that same opportunity to people who are less fortunate that I am.”
Recently promoted to Senior Medical Case Manager at Care for the
Homeless, Rodriguez is able to do supportive counseling to people
who are in the same position he was in at one point in his life.
He feels it’s a unique way he can help them because he knows
first-hand what it feels like to not know where you belong.
“I enjoy the work I do,” he says of his work at CFH.
“Sort of like a giving back approach. It’s been an exciting
feeling for me to go through the foster care system and now see
clients who have been part of the foster system. It’s just
exciting.”
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