Susan's Place Spotlight: Robert Bennett

When you think of the Director of Operations at a shelter, you don’t typically imagine a Wall Street broker/DJ working with homeless women on a daily basis, but at Susan’s Place, that’s exactly who Robert Bennett is. Raised in New York, Bennett has the “challenging” role of making sure everything at Susan’s Place is run as it’s supposed to, but he’s not bogged down by the challenge.

“My favorite part of the day is any moment when I can make the women happy and make them smile.  They take to me,” he says. “I guess it’s the positive spirit I bring to them. I check on everything they need.”

Bennett is in charge of more than just the facility at Susan’s Place. He also hosts open-microphone nights for the residents, oversees the gym and yoga classes, encourages the women to attend sewing and cooking classes and he utilizes his bookshelf full of DVDs and old-fashioned popcorn maker in his office for movie nights.

“We wanted to change the mood by what they watch. On movie day we used to show whatever movie and now we tamed what we show. If people are violent in the movie, some of the women mimic that behavior and we don’t want that.”

Wanting the best for the clients has become part of Bennett’s hallmark at Susan’s Place and in Care For the Homeless.  

“When they first come in, they can be cursing out people – we get all walks of life. We’re concerned about them. We want more for them. There’s no place like Susan’s Place. We take pride in our clients. We have a great environment. I think SP is number one of all shelters. ”

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