Report to the Community June 2013 Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness Chairman Arnold Cohen Clifford Goldman, Ph.D. Policy Coordinator Goldman Beale Associates Housing & Community Development Network of NJ Former Treasurer, State of New Jersey Jackie Edwards Vice-Chair Service Area Director Emergency and Community Services Dennis Micai Catholic Charities Executive Director Trenton Area Soup Kitchen Jonathan S. Gershen Vice President & General Counsel Treasurer Moderate Income Management Co. Jacqueline (Jackie) Alberts, Esq. Henry L. Kent-Smith Private Practice Attorney Attorney-At-Law Secretary Fox Rothschild LLP Christine Stephenson Barbara Kirsh, Ph. D. Executive Vice President Executive Director Catholic Health East Office of Prof. Standards Compliance St. Francis Medical Center Educational Testing Service Executive Committee At-Large Elliott Levy, M.D. Richard F. Keevey Sr. Vice President Distinguished Practitioner in Residence Global Pharmacovigilance & Epidemiology School of Public Administration Bristol Myers Squibb Rutgers University Connie Mercer Directors Executive Director Mary Gay Abbott-Young HomeFront Executive Director John Monahan Rescue Mission President & CEO Kemi Alli, M.D. Greater Trenton Behavioral HealthCare Chief Medical Officer Robert Remstein, D.O. Henry J. Austin Health Center Vice President, Medical Affairs Mary Grace Billek Capital Health Director of Human Services Staff Mercer County Kathleen Cassidy, Strategic Consultant James Brownlee Herb Levine, Executive Director Director of Health & Human Services Joanne Locke, System Monitor City of Trenton Jennifer Rosado, EITC & Office Support Tarry Truitt, Dir. of Programs and Communications Frank A. Cirillo Michelle Williams, VISTA Director of Welfare Mercer County Board of Social Services Funders: The Mercer Alliance is blessed to have wonderfully supportive funders. We list our institutional partners and also our friends in the community who have contributed substantially during the last four years. Further, we express our deep appreciation for the government entities that have contracted with the Mercer Alliance: The City of Trenton, the County of Mercer, the Internal Revenue Service and the Mercer County Board of Social Services. We also celebrate the great work of the local Social Security Administration office in partnering with our Alliance. We thank ETS for sponsoring the launch event for this report and Janssen Pharmaceuticals for printing it. We salute two firms that have contributed their expertise to the Alliance: Princeton Partners, who created a logo and brand that has lasted for nine years, and Taft and Partners who designed and made possible our reports of 2009 and 2013. Bank of America Foundations PSE&G Borden Foundation Horizon Foundation for NJ Roma Bank Bristol Myers Squibb Karma Foundation Rue Foundation Bunbury Company Janssen Pharmaceutical Services RWJ Foundation Employees Butler Family Fund JP Morgan Chase Foundation Shiloh Baptist Church Capital Health System Lawrence Township Community Sovereign Bank Catholic Charities – Trenton Foundation St. Francis Medical Center CSH Merancas Foundation Taft and Partners Emet Realty / Escher Street SRO Moderate Income Management TD Bank ETS New Jersey Manufacturers Bank Tyco International Exxon-Mobil Nicholson Foundation United Way of Greater Fox Rothschild LLP Novo Nordisk Mercer County Fund for New Jersey PNC Bank Unitarian Universalist Association Greater Trenton Behavioral Princeton Area Community of Princeton Health Care Foundation Van Ameringen Foundation Gund Fund Princeton Partners Wells Fargo Bank Harbourton & Piper Sutton Provident Bank The Mercer Alliance salutes our key community donors: Jacquelin Alberts and James Fearon Jonathan & Jenny Crumiller Dennis & Donna Micai Donald Barb & Rev. Bruce Davidson Dr. Clifford & Irene Goldman William Jr. & Ashley Rue Dr. James & Carolyn Barnshaw Drs. Robert & Ruth Goldston Drs. Eldar Shafir & Anastasia Mann Marygrace & Mitchell Billek Katherine Hatton & Richard Bilotti Thomas & Janice Sullivan Frank & Pamela Cirillo Dr. Elliott Levy & Meryll Belfor Mara Connolly & Pete Taft James Lytle & Christine Stephenson thank you 1 Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary ..................................................................................3 2. Homelessness in Mercer County (2012) ..................................................4 3. Ending Family Homelessness ..................................................................7 4. Ending Individual Homelessness ...........................................................14 5. Progress Toward Ending Homelessness: Reporting on our 2009 Goals ........19 6. Next Steps for Ending Homelessness ....................................................23 2 Executive Summary Executive Summary The Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness was born from the transformational idea that homelessness could be ended and that one organization in the community had to be responsible for overseeing our collective effort. To understand our Alliance’s achievement, it is important to know what we mean when we say we can end homelessness. It does not mean that no one will ever become homeless. It means that the Mercer Alliance has found Homelessness in a way to get people who have been homeless into a home of their own, with a lease signed in their name. It means County Mercer that we have organized funding so that they can receive services that help them remain stably housed. The success of (2012) our Alliance can be measured by the hundreds of formerly homeless people who, because of this rehousing approach, remain stable in their …the transformational idea was that new homes. Once stabilized, they again become homelessness could be ended. contributing members of society —– as family members, as volunteers, as tax-payers, instead of being the drain on public resources they were Homelessness Ending Family when homeless. Our single-minded focus came about because more than 150 community stakeholders determined in 2002-03 that an organization had to be developed in Mercer County to get people into homes they could afford to stay in. So the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness was launched in 2004. The uniqueness of the Alliance was signaled in the make-up of its Board of Directors. Its members would include government officials, non-profit service providers, housing developers, policy experts and members of the faith and business communities. There is no other table in Mercer County where all these perspectives come together. This diversity has allowed the Alliance to develop a widespread consensus for ending homelessness and to nurture the relationships needed to move the solutions forward. Ending Individual Homelessness The direct services to the individuals experiencing homelessness are ably done by our non-profit providers, many of whom serve on the Alliance’s Board of Directors. The Alliance role is to research best practices on ending end homelessness, create local adaptations, be the forum where these ideas are discussed, identify funding sources and analyze data to measure the success of new program models. In our 2009 report, “A New Direction for Ending Homelessness in Mercer HEARTH ACT County,” we presented a community consensus on moving from what had been One of the major drivers of primarily a sheltering model to a rehousing model. The system’s goal would be the Alliance’s work over the Reporting on our to return people to permanent homes as quickly as possible. Since then, the last four years has been the 2009 Goals Federal Government, in the HEARTH Act, has challenged communities to not federal HEARTH Act, which allow anyone’s homelessness to go on longer than 30 days. stands for “Homeless The 2009 report identified that the majority of public resources spent on those Emergency Assistance and who were homeless went to shelter individuals and families, coming through Rapid Transition to Housing.” the Mercer County Board of Social Services. In that report, we identified It asks communities to: alternative program models that rapidly housed families and individuals in permanent homes in the community. • Reduce New Episodes of Homelessness Homelessness This 2013 report updates the community on our success. Through the Next Steps for Ending leadership of our Alliance over the past four years, Mercer County has changed • Reduce Returns to how services to the homeless in our community are delivered. The Board of Homelessness Social Services is now at the center of the new rapid rehousing model. Over • Reduce Length of $12 million in government funding has been directed to the implementation of Homelessness to our new direction. no more than 30 days 3 Over $12M Spent on New Direction: 2009–2013 Summary Executive (2012) Mercer County Mercer Homelessness in Testing the Housing Models The 2009 report gave the rationale for a new model of ending homelessness, known as Housing First (for individuals) or Rapid Photo from Finding Grace, Earth Aware Editions. Rehousing (for families). Though they have different names, the two ©2007 Lynn Blodgett. All rights reserved. Used with permission. programs share one underlying philosophy. The shelter-based system offered a slow, continuum of services, and was based on the premise that individuals and families had to prove that they were ready to be rehoused, From GTBHC’s Case Notes Ending Family on the basis of having developed pro-social behaviors and given up less on Housing First Tenants Homelessness desirable behaviors. ST is a 49 year old male who had been homeless for the last