Care For the Homeless

The above photos were taken by Steve Latimer, a volunteer photographer for Care for the Homeless (CFH) since December 2016. He first got involved with CFH after answering a request for a photographer on Volunteer Match. Steve says during his first encounter with employees at CFH, he saw “a group of dedicated individuals that are committed to working with people who are experiencing homelessness.” “I could tell CFH employees were trying to make life better for clients,” he said. But volunteering with CFH is not Steve’s first experience with helping individuals who are homeless. In 1966, Steve retired from his position as an officer in the Navy and in 1968, graduated from law school. He worked at a few law firms before starting to use his skills to help people who are experiencing homelessness while working for Bronx Legal Services. Having worked in the South Bronx for several years and in other low-income communities, he became very familiar with the problems that people expe...

Ely assists a resident of Susan's Place with her finances.      Living  in a homeless shelter is never anyone’s first choice. But if there is some good to come out of the experience, it could be the services offered that strengthen a resident’s knowledge and skills, preparing them for living independently once again. Financial setbacks and a lack of basic understanding about budgeting and saving, frequently play a role on the path into homelessness so it makes sense that achieving financial security is an important tool on the path out of homelessness. Here is the story of two residents of Susan’s Place are on that exciting path.  On February 8, Ely Nunez a financial counselor at Ariva, visited Susan’s Place and held one-on-one financial counseling sessions with the residents. She works with the women so that they may reach their ultimate goal of moving out of the shelter. Ely says that some of her clients have applied for housing but were rejected by mul...

New York City (NYC) recently reached levels of homelessness not seen since the 1930s and 2017 has had the highest number of sheltered persons ever. As of February 7, there were 61,075 homeless people—including 22,967 homeless children, sleeping each night in the NYC homeless shelter system. This number does not include the official street homeless tally which is now nearing 4,000, or approximately 20,000 individuals in shelters operated by municipal Domestic Violence shelters, HIV/AIDS Service Administration (HASA) temporary housing, runaway and homeless youth shelters, and some other smaller systems aren’t include in the NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS) census.  NYC has the largest homeless population of any US city, and 3rd largest in per capita terms. Unsurprisingly, the city’s shelters are at full capacity and can’t handle further increases in the homeless population. It’s clear there is an unacceptable number of homeless persons living in NYC’s shelters and on...

On Monday, February 5th, as part of CFH’s First Monday Policy Briefing series, CFH Policy Associate Nathalie Interiano and CFH Client Advocate Mike Austin will discuss “How to Talk About Homelessness.” It’s a discussion and training on how to better frame and message our advocacy positions for more favorable outcomes. Care for the Homeless and our allies are passionate about the issues that affect homeless or unstably housed people, and other people living in deep poverty. Though advocates have a comprehensive understanding of the systemic causes of homelessness - lack of access to housing and healthcare, or discrimination - and statistics and studies to support those conclusions. Our messaging is not always successful in winning supporters over or moving public opinion or media attention.   Advocates can be more successful when we frame our issues to appeal to people’s deeply held values – values like equality, opportunity and the idea that everyone deserves a fair cha...

The biggest share of federal funding for Community Health Centers, like Care for the Homeless, expired with the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30, 2017 – that’s 124 days ago. Of course, we weren’t alone: at the same time funding for CHIP (Childrens’ Health Insurance Program), the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education program (THCCME) all expired. When authorization for federal funding through these programs expires that is sometimes referred to as “going over the fiscal cliff.” Nurse Practitioner, Joy Favuzza providing care to a client at a CFH Community Health Center. Going over the fiscal cliff isn’t corrected by Congress just passing a Continuing Resolution to keep funding government temporarily for a short period of time. They need to pass language specifically extending the program that expired. When they passed a three week Continuing Resolution they did that for CHIP, but not for the Community Health...