Care For the Homeless

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy It might seem like déjà vu but we’re in another fiscal crisis of our own making in Washington. The House and Senate have been unable to agree on at least three major funding items that are critical to the country. First, there’s the budget. In recent years it’s become usual to miss budget deadlines (the new fiscal year started October 1st) but keep the government going by passing temporary “Continuing Resolutions” to continue funding government at current levels until something is agreed to. In today’s hyper-partisan and frequently nonfunctional environment, short term resolutions add little optimism of reaching a real agreement. They just kick the can down the road, and not very far either. Second, the federal government will reach its debt limit, possibly in days but certainly no more than weeks, compounding the problem. The government can’t legally spend more than its debt limit. So reaching the debt limit doesn’t stop debt accumulation...

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (l-1963, r-2013) Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy America’s celebrating the 50 th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the iconic Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” speech. Care for the Homeless was able to take 10 of our client leaders to the anniversary celebration on the Mall in Washington, D.C. It was an uplifting experience. Now those participants in that historic anniversary are using their reactions to talk about that “Dream” and their dream for America. Two Care for the Homeless client leaders were present for both the 1963 March and the March last month. One of them, David Broxton, said “it might seem we’re still marching for the same things, like good jobs, affordable housing and voting rights, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been progress.” Bill Bryant, the other client leader who attended both events, was in the military and stationed near Washington in August of 1963. A New York...

Care for the Homeless Executive Director Bobby Watts has been chosen to give the annual “Susan L. Neibacher Address”, which is the keynote speech of a breakfast plenary session of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s national conference on Thursday, March 14, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill hotel in Washington, D.C. He will speak to several hundred health care administrators, clinicians and homeless advocates from across America about “Homelessness as a Public Health Epidemic." The speech is a particularly meaningful one for Watts because it is named for Susan L. Neibacher who was the founding Executive Director of Care for the Homeless in 1985. Not only was Neibacher an effective and inspirational organizer and administrator, she was also a mentor to Bobby Watts. In addition to being one of New York City’s oldest and largest providers of health care and human services to people experiencing homelessness, Care for the Homeless also operates a 200-bed s...