Thursday, 24 February
Last night, our CEO was interviewed by a TimeOut: New York reporter asking about the City's planned HOPE Count, to take place next Monday evening. Here is the exerpt from the article that was published this morning, before a representative of DHS came to speak to our organisation:
This being New York, the HOPE naturally has its critics. "The goal of trying to get an accurate census is laudable," says Arnold Cohen, president and CEO of the Partnership for the Homeless, "but one night using untrained volunteers is not going to get an accurate count." Cohen describes last year's estimate of 2,694 homeless in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island "an undercount"—not a good thing if you're using those numbers to determine policy. "It baffles me," Cohen says. "The city has outreach in the five boroughs already who could get an unduplicated count—why not use them?"
So this morning, when the Panel was assembled and the audience in place, the first thing the CEO did was issue an informal apology to the Deputy of DHS for making his "baffling" comment, a faux pas on the part of the CEO that kept the Development staff grumbling about how to keep our CEO from sticking his foot in his mouth.
The Discussion itself was great. Dr. Tsemberis's study on the comparison between the "Consumer Choice" and Continuum of Care models convinced me, at least, that the current models of servicing homeless people need a change. The Deputy of DHS was open and honest, interested and well-spoken. She didn't seem defensive, though she must have felt like she was standing in a room of sharks, and she was the bait. But the audience was well-behaved, even our Lead Advocate, who sat on her hands almost the entire session. I know because I was monitoring her breathing from the back row.
The discussion went off without a hitch and I went back to the office, cleaned up from the morning's activities and went home.
I was in for 6 hours today.
This being New York, the HOPE naturally has its critics. "The goal of trying to get an accurate census is laudable," says Arnold Cohen, president and CEO of the Partnership for the Homeless, "but one night using untrained volunteers is not going to get an accurate count." Cohen describes last year's estimate of 2,694 homeless in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island "an undercount"—not a good thing if you're using those numbers to determine policy. "It baffles me," Cohen says. "The city has outreach in the five boroughs already who could get an unduplicated count—why not use them?"
So this morning, when the Panel was assembled and the audience in place, the first thing the CEO did was issue an informal apology to the Deputy of DHS for making his "baffling" comment, a faux pas on the part of the CEO that kept the Development staff grumbling about how to keep our CEO from sticking his foot in his mouth.
The Discussion itself was great. Dr. Tsemberis's study on the comparison between the "Consumer Choice" and Continuum of Care models convinced me, at least, that the current models of servicing homeless people need a change. The Deputy of DHS was open and honest, interested and well-spoken. She didn't seem defensive, though she must have felt like she was standing in a room of sharks, and she was the bait. But the audience was well-behaved, even our Lead Advocate, who sat on her hands almost the entire session. I know because I was monitoring her breathing from the back row.
The discussion went off without a hitch and I went back to the office, cleaned up from the morning's activities and went home.
I was in for 6 hours today.
posted by Ruth at 5:16 PM
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