Deb DeSantis Appointed President and CEO of the Corporation for Supportive Housing

On December 7th, Denise O’Leary, Board Chair of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), announced the appointment of Deborah DeSantis as CSH’s new President and CEO, effective January 1, 2007; she will be based in New York City. CSH is a national, nonprofit organization that helps communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.

Most recently Ms. DeSantis has been the director of the New Jersey office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH). To read the full announcement from CSH on her appointment click here.

Across New Jersey both members of the the twenty-one Continuum of Care committees as well as advocates for supportive housing welcomed the appointment. Ms. DeSantis was praised for her long-term commitment to ending homelessness and increasing the supply of supportive housing in New Jersey. Her advocacy and commitment make her the ideal candidate to be President and CEO of CSH.

Although she will be missed, we are confident that she will continue to play an important role in ending homelessness in her home state.

The New Jersey CSH office will be directed until a permanent appointment is made by Alison Recca-Ryan. Ms. Recca-Ryan is also a strong advocate of ending homelessness and has decades of experience.

’The Pursuit of Happyness’ Receives Applause in Trenton

Actor Will Smith's new movie, ’The Pursuit of Happyness’ received a resounding round of applause and praise at the Destinta Independent 12 Cinema in Trenton. The event was hosted by Mayor Douglas H. Palmer of the City of Trenton. Mayor Palmer, who is also the President of the US Conference of Mayors, stressed the importance of the screening in Trenton. Noting that the movie focuses on the crisis of homelessness in the world’s wealthiest country, he reminded the almost 200 people in the theatre “it will take all of us to end homelessness not just the city or government, but non-profits, the faith based community, business and civic leaders.” < br>
The movie is based on the real life story of Chris Gardner who survived homelessness in the early 1980’s to become a successful stock broker. The realistic scenes of the degradation of homelessness moved many in the audience to tears.

Carolyn Lewis-Spruill, Director of the City’s Department of Health & Human Services, thanked each of the attendees and reminded them that much work remains to be done in Trenton and in New Jersey to end homelessness.

Morris Holds First PHC Event

On Friday December 8th, Morris County held the first-ever Project Homeless Connect event in New Jersey. Twenty government, health and nonprofit agencies came together on Friday to reach out to some of the estimated 1,300 homeless of Morris County. The event, attended by more than 200 homeless or other disadvantaged individuals was seen as a success.

Morristown’s Project Homeless Connect offered health screenings, help with housing, information on a variety of services, lunch and various giveaways including clothing and toiletries.

To read the full article and to view photos from the Project Homeless Connect event in the Daily Record click here.

On Sunday, December 10th, internet music magazine Let’s Rock America sponsored the very first Blank-Fest in New Jersey, a charitable 12 hour concert that collected blankets for the homeless, at The Crossroads, 78 North Avenue in Garwood, NJ. At the end of the day an estimated 200 blankets were donated to Project Homeless Connect through Monarch Housing Associates.

The concert began at noon and featured a dozen of New Jersey's indie rockers including the Paterson-based duo the Kimballs, Fords-native singer-songwriter Melinda Davis and Wayne rockers She Could Be King.  A blanket, new or gently used, purchased admission to the show for the entire day, plus an arm’s length of raffle tickets for giveaways between sets.

Randi Moore, pictured on the right, Monarch Housing Associates' Senior Associate and Team Leader of the Ending Homelessness Team, accepted the estimated 200 blankets on stage from Rich Kubicz.   Ms. Moore stated that the blankets will be given to the homeless who attend the Project Homeless Connect New Jersey events on January 25th. She thanked the sponsors of Blank-Fest for selecting Project Homeless Connect as the recipient of these blankets.

The original Blank-Fest was started 10 years ago by Kenn Rowell and Chuck DeBruyn of the band the Baghdaddios in Nyack, NY.  It has grown into an annual event collecting hundreds of blankets for the homeless in New York City.  The event has now expanded to New Jersey, thanks to Joe DiBlasi and Richard Kubicz, the founders of Let’s Rock America.  Monarch Housing and Let’s Rock America plan to make this an annual event. To learn more about Blank-Fest, click here.

Project Homeless Connect is picking up momentum as the January 25th date quickly approaches.  At least 15 counties across the state have committed to event and have begun planning.  In addition the United State Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the New Jersey Department of Human Services are fully supporting the statewide event.

It is important to recognize that Project Homeless Connect will be linked to this year’s HUD mandated Point in Time (PIT) Count. This will allow CoC’s statewide to reach out to and survey more of the homeless people in their communities, and will also allow the CoC to provide those people with much needed services. It is expected that connecting the PIT with PHC day will improve the numbers generated by the PIT count, thus helping CoC’s statewide to prove a need for funding.

For more information go to the Project Homeless Connect.