2005 Annual Report

Page 1

Project Renewal In 2005, Project Renewal continued to expand its comprehensive core programs while also pioneering new initiatives to help homeless New Yorkers to get off the streets forever with health, homes and jobs. This year for the first time we began working with homeless youth by launching a unique healthcare-clinic-on-wheels we call StreetSmart. Estimates put the number of homeless young New Yorkers aged 15–25 at 15,000 to 40,000. StreetSmart, like our highly successful MedVan, provides quality primary, preventive, mental health and urgent healthcare to people living on the streets and in shelters, all carefully tailored to the needs and culture of homeless youth. Also like our MedVan, StreetSmart acts as a doorway through which homeless youth can access the other services they need to escape homelessness, including treatment, housing and employment. Also in 2005, we expanded our leadership in a federal initiative to end chronic homelessness with a 50% growth in our one-of-a-kind In Homes Now program. This program places the “hardest-to-help” homeless adults — people whose substance abuse problems prevent them from getting off the streets or out of shelters— into their own apartments where a team of professionals visits them regularly, providing health, counseling, and vocational services. If this program continues to be successful, it will serve as a national model in helping difficult-to-reach homeless addicts. This year we were also given the go-ahead to build desperately needed housing for 100 more homeless New Yorkers. One side of this unique U-shaped apartment complex will provide supportive housing for 50 mentally ill New Yorkers; the other will provide transitional housing, work and treatment for 50 New Yorkers in recovery from addiction. Our accomplishments this year were made possible by strong partnerships with the public sector and by generous gifts from individual, corporate, and foundation supporters. We are grateful for the passion and commitment of our supporters who share our vision of an end to homelessness in New York City. As the following stories document, Project Renewal is making a powerful difference.

Alan Belzer

Edward I. Geffner

Chairman of the Board

Executive Director


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