Care For the Homeless

Care of the Homeless Remembers Lost Neighbors “I couldn’t believe it, when I first heard” CFH Client Leader Raymond West, said of the death of Miguel Durcio, the Bronx man who was attacked while sleeping on the steps of a church, simply because he was homeless. “He was only sleeping on the church steps because he thought he would be safe there.” Mr. Durio is gone but not forgotten- Care for the Homeless will remember his life and honor his memory on December 18 th , at 5:30 p.m., on Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, a national day of memorial for people who tragically passed away while unstably housed. Held with the NYC Rescue Mission at their 90 Lafayette Street location, our Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day program will feature a candle light memorial, a meal for those who are hungry, and a chance for attendees to remember friends on our Memorial Wall. People experiencing homelessness have terrible health outcomes compared to the housed population, with an age adjusted life exp...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy NYC’s New Rental Programs to Transition Families Experiencing Homelessness Last year Bill de Blasio famously campaigned successfully to become Mayor of New York City on the “Tale of Two Cities.” He spoke about the tragedy of low income people unable to get by or even find barely affordable housing in the U.S.’s biggest city. He promised, and along with City Council is now delivering, programs created to provide affordable housing and to address the expanding crisis of homelessness in our city. In addition to more and better programs to prevent evictions and homelessness (the best solution to homelessness is always prevention), the City has launched programs including priority targeting of a small number of NYCHA public housing units to families in the city homeless shelter system and three rental programs to provide partial subsidies to a modest number of homeless families in city homeless or domestic violence shelters if they can find a low ...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released its “2014 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress” estimating 578,424 people were experiencing homelessness either on the streets or in shelters on a given night in January, 2014. The information wasn’t surprising or really new, but it underscores the need to prevent, fight and end homelessness in New York City. New HUD Secretary Julian Castro pointed out the report indicates a reduction in homelessness across the U.S. of 10% since January of 2010. Unfortunately New York City hasn’t fared as well. The HUD report estimates 80,590 people experiencing homelessness in the Empire State on that January evening – about 13% of the entire national estimate – representing a 4.1% year-over-year increase and a 28.7% increase over the last seven years.  HUD reported 67,810 people experiencing homelessness just in New York City, meaning more than 1 in every 10 person experienc...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy Care for the Homeless client leaders, including members of our Consumer Advisory Board, recently completed a nonpartisan Voter Registration Drive that signed up 254 new voters, all eligible to vote tomorrow. That’s a CFH Voter Registration record. It breaks last year’s record setting drive success. Our client leaders have the satisfaction of having helped people to register and some great memories from the effort. They registered people with past criminal records who didn’t know they had the right to vote. In New York anyone not currently incarcerated for a felony or on active parole (people on probation have the right to vote) has the right to vote. They also registered people who were homeless and thought not having a regular permanent fixed address meant they couldn’t register. But being poor or homeless certainly doesn’t mean you lose your right to vote. At Care for the Homeless we believe poor policy choices helped create the evi...