Care for The Homeless Sponsors NYC Homeless Policy Forum 2015 Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 8th, Care for the Homeless and Baruch College is sponsoring “New York Homeless Policy Forum 2015”, a  major policy symposium and public education event aimed at bringing people interested in homeless policy together to focus on how to produce better outcomes in New York’s homeless policy operation, do so more efficiently and move the city toward ending homelessness as we know it. The program, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., features top policy makers including New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, City Homeless Services Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, Public Advocate Letitia James and City Councilman Corey Johnson. All the schedule details are listed below.

Follow live tweeting from the Forum at #homelesspolicyNYC  


Jointly Sponsored by Baruch College’s Narendra Paul Loomba 
School of Management and Care for the Homeless

Wednesday, April 8, at Baruch College, Newman Library, 
Room 750, 151 East 25th Street (bet. Lexington and 3rd Ave.)

9-9:25 a.m.- Registration, Coffee and Networking         
9:25-9:30 a.m.-Welcome: Jeff Foreman, J.D., MGA, MS.Ed., MA, Policy Director, Care for the Homeless
9:30-9:40 a.m.-Presentation: Homeless Issues in New York City, Where We Stand? – Dr. John Goering, Professor, Baruch College
 9:40-10:40 a.m. - Scope, Scale and Overview of Homeless Issues in NYC: This panel serves as a New York City homeless policy and explores current trends and challenges. Includes analysis of how many people are homeless or at risk in New York City, the context of the current crisis, new and emerging city homelessness policy, NYC’s “right to shelter”, unique issues of homeless in NYC and what we’re doing right and wrong.

Topics/Goals:
o   Numbers and trends of those experiencing or at risk of homelessness
o   Why is homelessness growing in New York City as it appears to decline nationally?
o   What have we done right and wrong in New York City?
o   What is implication of right to shelter, what issues does it raise? What are current legal issues?
o   Discussion of homelessness feeder systems: (corrections, foster care, domestic abuse, etc.).
o   What needs to happen to end homelessness as we know it?
o   This panel will provide context for the day’s forum and discussions
·         Presentation: Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, New York City Department of Homeless Services (10 minutes)
o   Panel Moderator: Patrick Markee, Deputy Executive Director, Coalition for the Homeless
§  Joshua Goldfein, JD, Attorney, The Legal Aid Society/Homeless Rights Project
§  Letitia James, JD, Public Advocate for the City of New York
§  Gilbert Taylor, JD, Commissioner, NYC Department of Homeless Services
                                              
                                                                           10 min break

Break Out Panel Sessions (1st Break Out Round) 10:50-11:50 a.m.

10:50-11:50 a.m.-Panel: Stigmatization, Criminalization and Attacks On Homeless People. Panel will explore how and why we stigmatize homeless people; how the everyday activities of poor people and people experiencing homelessness are effected by stigmatization, societal attitudes towards poor and marginalized peoples, NIMBY attitudes towards shelters and other service locations for low-income New Yorkers and how societal attitudes contribute to an increase in “criminalization” of homelessness and poverty as well as attacks against homeless people. (Break Out Session 1, in Break Out Room #1)
Topics/Goals:
o   Two views of poverty – a personal failing or a societal responsibility
o   How daily activities of living without stable housing or in deep poverty are criminalized; “criminalizing” necessities of living or aid to people experiencing homelessness, unequal application of law, implication of ‘broken glass’ policing, targeting/hiding poor people from public view
o   Atmosphere of prejudice and stigma  against those perceived to be low-income and homeless
o   How societal attitude towards homeless people leads to psychological and physical brutality
o   What we can do to stop stigma, discrimination, criminalization and attacks on homeless people
o   Take Away: how stigmatization impacts poverty and homelessness and how we can ameliorate it
§  Moderator: Marc Greenberg, ED, Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing
§  Nicole Bramstedt, Policy Analyst, Urban Pathways
§  Lucinda Lewis, Picture the Homeless member, Housing Campaign Leader
§  Connor Hocks, Client Leader at Care for the Homeless and Ali Forney Center

10:50-11:50 a.m. – Panel: Children/Youth Homelessness in New York City. Panel will examine social and economic causes and impacts of dramatic increase in children in shelters and unaccompanied homeless youth, and resources available and required to ameliorate this crisis. (Break Out Session 2, In Main Conference Room, Room 750)

Topic/Goals:
o   Causes, issues & resources for children in shelter and unaccompanied homeless youth on the streets
o   The experience and impact of growing up without stable housing
o   What we’re doing right and what needs to be done better
o   What can be done to prevent or child and youth homelessness
o   Take away: How we can better serve children living in family shelters and youth living on the streets; how can we  prevent and end child homelessness
§  Moderator: Lizanne Fontaine, RN, JD, Director of Health Services, Care for the Homeless
§  Jack Bethke, MSW, Director of Drop In Programs, Ali Forney Center
§  Bonnie Stone, President and CEO, WIN
§  Clare Stone, MPH, CPH, Grants and Planning Administrator, NY Children’s Health Project
                                                                                                   
Lunch: 11:50 a.m-12:50 p.m. 

11:50 a.m.-12:10 p.m. Lunch, buffet style, served in room adjoining conference room, to be eaten at tables in conference room (buffet will remain open); if conference room is at capacity, can be eaten in the adjoining room
12:10 -12:15 p.m. – Carmine Asparro, Chairman, Care for the Homeless Board of Directors, Welcome, Brief remarks, Introduction of City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito:
12:15-12:45 p.m.  - Featured Speaker: New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, MPA (The Speaker will deliver remarks and take questions; she will be assisted in Q-and-A by Dr. Rogoff)
12:45-12:50p.m. Thank you and Concluding Remarks: Dr. Edward G. Rogoff, Professor and Department Chair, Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management, Baruch College
5 minute break

Break Out Panel Sessions (2nd round) 12:55-1:55 p.m.

12:55-1:55 p.m.- Panel: Reimagining Living in and Operating Shelters: Suggestions for Better Outcomes. Former and current NYC shelter residents and shelter providers discuss making the system more effective, producing better outcomes and increasing the dignity afforded clients in the system. (Break Out Session 1; In Break Out Room #1)
o   Problems to solve in the system: issues of dignity and respect for homeless clients,
o   What services and resources are needed to produce better outcomes
o   How to make the system more productive and reduce unnecessary burdens on clients in shelter
o   Suggestions regarding assessment, programming, management, human resources  and more
o   Take-away: How to move to a client-centered shelter system focused on better outcomes.
§  Moderator: Chris Parque, MSW, ED, Homeless Services United
§  Selestina Martinez, Parent Organizer, Child Welfare Organizing Project
§  Philip Malebranche, CFH Client leader
§  Tata Traore-Rogers, CEO, Turning Point
§  Dale Williams, ED, Midnight Run

12:55-1:55 p.m.- Panel: Homelessness and Health Care: Public Health Issues and Impacts on People Experiencing Homelessness. This panel will address homelessness as a public health issue, its impact on city health resources and health impacts of homelessness on children and adults experiencing it. Panelists will discuss what’s being done and what systems and resources are needed to best address health care access and provision of health services for homeless people, how to get better outcomes and how to deliver care most efficiently. (Break Out Session 2; In Main Conference Room, Room 750)

Topics/Goals:
o   Is homelessness a public health issue?
o   How to best facilitate supplying best services and outcomes? What are provider issues?
o   What are the impacts and costs of homelessness on children and adults?
o   Is health care for the homeless a medical specialty?
o   What has the city done right and wrong? What needs to be done?
o   Take-away: Impact of health care issues, what are best practices, what works and what doesn’t
§  Moderator: Debbian Fletcher-Blake, FNP, Ass’t. Executive Director, Care for the Homeless
§  Dr. Neil Calman, M.D., President and CEO, Institute for Family Health
§  Aaron Felder, Assistant VP for Special Populations, Lutheran Family Services
§  City Councilman Corey Johnson, Chair, City Council Health Committee
§  John Lozier, MSSW, ED, National Health Care for the Homeless Council

                                         10 min break

2:05-3:05 p.m.-Panel: Extremely-Low-Income Housing Market- Availability for New Yorkers Living Below Poverty. Panel explores current availability of housing units for extremely-low income and below poverty New Yorkers including people with subsidized vouchers, trends in very-low income housing and what needs to be done to provide stable housing for people experiencing homelessness. 

Topics/Goals:
o   Impact of rent control and stabilization, Supportive Housing, Section 8, city subsidy programs, NYCHA and other public housing resources
o   Changing housing stock: Disappearance of SRO and other affordable housing, trends in housing for extremely-low income New Yorkers and people living in deep poverty
o   How Mayor’s Affordable Housing Plan and inclusionary zoning will affect low income New Yorkers
o   Current issues: City’s LINC program; New York/New York 4; tax abatement issues and more
o   What are solutions and needed improvements in housing for extremely-low income New Yorkers
Moderator: Nicole Branca, Deputy Executive Director, Supportive Housing Network of New York
§  Daniel Farrell, LCSW, Vice President, HELP USA
§  Tom Waters, Senior Housing Policy Analyst, Community Service Society of NY
§  Jessica Yager, Policy Director, NYU Furman Center
3:05- 3:25 p.m. - Conclusion and Final Remarks: Bobby Watts, MPH, MS, Executive Director, Care for the Homeless, Can We End Modern Day Homelessness in New York City?

While at the Forum, please visit our information/sign up tables in the lobby by the registration desk for information about ongoing activities, upcoming events and to sign up for e-mail alerts and newsletters. 

Popular posts from this blog

Join Us on Mon, June 22nd for 2nd Annual Summer Solstice Success Celebration!

Image
Join Care for the Homeless and our Client Leaders on Monday, June 22 nd at 4:30 p.m. in celebrating the health care successes of homeless and formerly homeless New Yorkers. The 2 nd Annual CFH Summer Solstice Success Celebration will feature live entertainment, fun and the opportunity to recognize the successes of our clients and thank the providers who delivery high quality, client centered services every day. “So often people focus on the bad news coming out of the shelter system,” said David Broxton, a formerly homeless cancer survivor and Care for the Homeless client. “We want to put the focus on the successes of New Yorkers who have experienced homelessness - people do get back on their feet with the right services available to them.”   The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the dining room and gardens at Red Oak Apartments, 135 W. 106 th Street in Manhattan, on Monday, June 22, at 4:30 p.m. In addition to celebrating health care stor...
Read more

CFH Executive Director Bobby Watts Responds to Police Homeless Photos on Pix11

Image
Care for the Homeless Executive Director Bobby Watts was featured last night on Pix11 news to talk about an initiative by the Sergeant Benevolent Association to photograph homeless New Yorkers on the street. The officers are posting their pictures to an online Flicker photo album in an attempt to expose a supposed “decrease in quality of life in NYC” but what these pictures really highlight are the difficulties of life on the street. Whatever the politics of the initiative, we know that it’s crucial to find real fixes for the problems of people experiencing homelessness.  “I don’t take a position on the letter or motivation. I really focus on results,” Bobby Watts, executive director of Care for the Homeless, told PIX11 News. “To the extent that more people are aware of homelessness and are determined to find solutions, that can be helpful.” If you see someone in need of services on the street, call 3-1-1 to alert city homeless outreach teams. Click here to watch the ...
Read more

Provider Profile Vol. 5 | Dr. Andrea Littleton

Image
Addressing the Whole Person Dr. Littleton with a Patient The streets outside the Care For the Homeless (CFH) Health Center (located at the Living Room/Safe Haven Shelter) rattle with a rhythm that should be familiar to most New Yorkers. Semi-trucks blow by, footsteps patter on the sidewalk, and the nearest park teems with laughing children. Across the street, a Dominican monastery stands as tall and proud as the day it was built in 1891, adding a touch of history to the area. Conversely, the rhythm inside the halls of the shelter and health center are anything but familiar. Located in the Bronx, the Living Room/Safe Haven a is a 24-hour, open access drop-in site, meaning anyone experiencing street homelessness is welcome to come in and spend time off the streets. CFH site partner BronxWorks offers hot meals, showers, laundry, and housing services to compliment the medical services provided by CFH. Despite the similarities it shares with other CFH sites, the Living Ro...
Read more

Sophie Cares for the Homeless

Image
This young lady couldn’t stop giggling during her health check-up by Sophie As a Nurse Practitioner, Sophie cares for homeless individuals in New York City in her own special way. She started working at Care for the Homeless only two months after graduating from Yale University with her Master’s Degree in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Sophie is originally from Portland, Oregon. She received her bachelor’s from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California in 2013 and moved to New York City in 2014 when she started her studies at Yale. Sophie says her mentors at Yale referred her to Care for the Homeless (CFH), where she now practices medicine at two CFH health centers, one in Queens and the other in the Bronx. She enjoys working at CFH because she is always “learning from [her] patients.” She says coming from Oregon to living in New York and working at CFH, she learned a lot about the challenges the city brings and the “incredible resilience” that is needed to live i...
Read more

Reducing Eligibility to Life Saving Services

Image
The current administration has continuously targeted federal benefit programs important to low-income Americans for drastic cuts. A new effort follows suit by proposing a change to how the ‘poverty threshold’ is to be calculated, which will decrease the number of people eligible for important federal benefit programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. This would affect millions of extremely low-income individuals and families. The current measurement called the “consumer price index (CPI)” has been used for a long time to set the annualized increases in the official poverty threshold. The administration is considering using what is known as “the chained CPI”, a different inflation measure that would result in a slower annual increase of inflation over time. “Chained CPI” assumes that as the prices of goods go up, individuals substitute less expensive items, thereby reducing their overall expenses. Why is this important? The proposed change wou...
Read more