Care For the Homeless

Change a Life Today Access to health care is under attack in our country. Please help us to expand our work serving homeless New Yorkers and continue to make health care accessible to those who desperately need it. We ask you today to consider making a donation, of any amount, to support the fight against homelessness. Here's how you can make a difference this holiday season. Photo cred: Steve Latimer $10 Provides a family experiencing homelessness with a personal care kit. Restore a touch of dignity to a homeless family $27.50 Provides a round-trip metro card to five patients experiencing homelessness. Help a homeless patient get to their doctor   $100 Provides a flu shot to four homeless children or a family of four (a gift of $50 pays for two flu shots). Keep homeless children and families healthy ...

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...

Destiny found herself homeless after her mother’s home became “overcrowded.” Her family realized it was time for someone to move out or else they would need to find a larger place to live, which they could not afford. To ease her mother’s financial burden, Destiny decided to leave home with her two children. After an unsuccessful search because she could not afford New York’s high cost of living, Destiny and her two daughters moved into a family shelter. They have been living in the shelter for three years now and receive health care at one of Care for the Homeless’ (CFH) health centers. During one of her health center visits, Destiny learned about CFH’s Peer-to-Peer Outreach Program (PPOP). PPOP is a program created by CFH to reach out to and connect with unstably housed people, who are often hard to reach and may not have adequate access to health care. Destiny currently has a job, but says she does not work enough hours to qualify for housing through Section 8, federally su...

2016 Homeless Persons' Memorial, Photo Credit: Sai Mokhtari On Thursday, December 21, Care for the Homeless (CFH) will hold a memorial service in observation of Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. In the United States and remainder of the Northern Hemisphere, December 21 is also the winter solstice, which marks the longest night of the year. The memorial will commemorate those who passed away in New York City while unstably housed. The memorial is co-sponsored by the Master of Public Administration Program at LIU Brooklyn and Urban Pathways . At CFH’s memorial service, the names of approximately 100 individuals will be read at the service. As each name is read a bell will toll, a candle will be lit, and information about the person will be projected on a screen. Several individuals will receive short eulogies by people who knew them. There will also be an opportunity for participants to add the name of anyone they are remembering who passed away this year while unstably hous...

After constant disagreements with her mother, Yasmin found herself homeless. “I guess you could say things were a little dysfunctional growing up,” she said. Yasmin does not blame her mother for being homeless. “If it were up to my mom, I would have never left home, but I was rebellious, a lot. I would leave and always come back,” she said. It eventually got to a point where Yasmin’s mother ran out of patience. Yasmin decided to leave home with her two-year old daughter and move into a shelter. “I’ve been in the shelter for about a year now,” she said. We need more people to care about homelessness. When asked about her stance on the growing number of homeless people living in New York City, Yasmin said, “we need more people to care about homelessness in order for it to end. There is an obvious money issue in the fight to end homelessness.” She said if people can afford to give to the cause, they should. If they cannot financially afford to give, then they should try to he...

As you may know, Congress recently passed a Continuing Resolution to continue federal appropriations until December 8, 2017, avoiding a general government shutdown when the current federal fiscal year ends this Saturday. Unfortunately, they did not reauthorize the largest portion of funding for Community Health Centers like Care for the Homeless – and that funding authorization WILL expire on September 30 if Congress doesn’t act. (Congress also needs to reauthorize CHIP – the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and several other well-known programs, or they too can face a fiscal cliff.) As a lead advocate and key contact for both NACHC and CHCANYS, Care for the Homeless has been very actively advocating for both authorization and full funding for community health centers. Our efforts have included contacting and visiting members of Congress, making phone calls, and writing and signing on to letters and e-mails supporting this effort. With less than a week to go to meet the de...

Care for the Homeless (CFH) is pleased to announce the appointment of George Nashak as its Executive Director. Many know Nashak as the current Executive Vice President of HELP USA and the former Deputy Commissioner for Adult Services for the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS). George Nashak, new Executive Director at Care for the Homeless As Executive Vice President of HELP USA, Nashak oversees the operations of the organization’s $100 million portfolio of housing and supportive services for homeless people. Before joining HELP in 2012, he spent eight years at DHS, first as Assistant Commissioner for Housing and Program Planning, working on the New York/New York III Agreement and other permanent housing initiatives for homeless clients. Then, as Deputy Commissioner for Adult Services, he was responsible for the single adult shelter system, street homelessness services, and the re-housing of homeless adults.  Prior to his stint at DHS, Nashak served as Vice ...

Suggestions to End Homelessness             On June 14 th , Care for the Homeless and the LIU Brooklyn MPA Program held a Policy Forum on Preventing and Ending Homelessness in New York City. Over 300 people came together to discuss how to prevent and end homelessness in New York City. The Forum included multiple panels and presentations on a range of pressing topics involving homelessness. It featured panelists who were educators, advocates, policy makers, service providers and experts in the field, including a number of people with the lived experience of homelessness. The Policy and Advocacy team at Care for the Homeless and staff from LIU’s MPA program compiled a list of suggestions that were shared by the speakers and panelists during the Forum and the attendees who added their ideas to our suggestion box. It was our promise that we would put all the suggestions together and circulate it to Forum participants and New Y...