Author Topic: Services for the homeless...  (Read 236865 times)

Offline Hope Donnelly

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #90 on: June 30, 2006, 08:13:48 PM »
Skipx,

You were very kind to let the woman in but please don't do that again.   Orchard St. has bathrooms that she could have used.

To Robin Reilly's credit, she gets homeless people into rehab programs in NYC, where programs are better.  Unfortunately, many of them return to Hackensack, some to show the others how well they are doing and they end up starting the cycle all over again.   Alcohol rehab experts say it takes at least 8 months of rehab to have any meaningful recovery - and that's for people who are developmentally developed.   Most of the alcoholics on the street are not - they are at the emotional development of the age they started drinking - most of them preadolescence and early teens.

Offline Skipx219

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #91 on: July 01, 2006, 10:36:47 AM »
 I'll not allow that to happen again -- that's for sure.
 It's difficult to observe their self destructive behavior on a daily basis.
 

Offline Editor

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #92 on: August 11, 2006, 09:45:25 AM »

Offline Hope Donnelly

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #93 on: August 11, 2006, 06:15:15 PM »
Lawrence Aaron tells it like it is...again.

I wonder if any people at all from Bergen attended this meeting.  After the ridiculous letter that BCCAP wrote that appeared in the Record in June, I doubt it. 

The United Way is busy throwing all its resources into 2-1-1.  Bergen County CAP either doesn't have the funds or the expertise to handle the most difficult cases.   Bergen Regional Medical Center has very little to offer the mentally ill and those addicted since childhood.   Passaic County understands the problems with discharging patients too early, with unfinished wound care, the length of time needed with detox and rehab, and what happens when there is insufficient follow up on medication.  So many Bergen mentally ill were SUPPOSED to be followed up on their "turf" as one mental health agencies states on their website, but weren't, and ended up decompensating, losing their housing and back in the hospital.

Bergen Regional, Bergen CAP and CompCare couldn't keep the high profile case that Tom Davies wrote about last year, under stable mental health care.   She is back on the street after being hospitalized for a year (read imprisoned)  and then placed in a group home.   The "program" in the group home was to bus her to the streets of Hackensack early in the morning so she could spend the day with homeless alcoholics.  SHe is now homeless again.

The service agencies in Bergen would rather argue amongst each other over who is doing the job the right way.  They could take many lessons from Common Ground in NYC and the efforts of agencies in Passaic County.

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #94 on: August 12, 2006, 07:28:55 AM »
The last poster mentioned there is a program to bus people to the streets of Hackensack so that they can mingle with the homeless on our streets. 

I can understand that a group home might bus people to a FACILITY in Hackensack, but I am very upset to learn that buses actually discharge people to be homeless at some location in Hackensack.  A few questions:

What is this program

What group home participates in this program

Where do the buses let people off

What time are these people let off, and then picked up

How many people daily are let off at this location

Offline Hope Donnelly

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #95 on: August 12, 2006, 05:11:47 PM »
The " facility" is at the corner of Ward and Main, which has become the makeshift waiting room for those clients.   An extended van discharges residents of group homes (one in Emerson,  the other in Garfield, but I'm not sure about that), in the muni lot at State St.   There is no program per se at CompCare, obvious from the amount of time the clients spend on the sidewalk outside the office and wandering about the Anderson Park area and from speaking with some of the ones I know.   The van drops the clients off before 9 a.m. and they leave for the day 3:30-ish. 

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #96 on: August 12, 2006, 07:31:16 PM »
The " facility" is at the corner of Ward and Main, which has become the makeshift waiting room for those clients.   An extended van discharges residents of group homes (one in Emerson,  the other in Garfield, but I'm not sure about that), in the muni lot at State St. 


That lot is right outside my window. There are 3-4 vans every day dropping off the same people I've seen them drop off for years. Some of them are in no physical shape (or of no inclination) to wander anywhere. I don't know what the rest of them do.
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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #97 on: August 12, 2006, 07:42:39 PM »
I'm confused............isn't this thread supposed to be about actual homeless people, as opposed to mentally-disadvantaged people who live in group homes?

If they live in group homes, they're hardly homeless.
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Offline Editor

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #98 on: August 13, 2006, 12:03:27 AM »
The post is "services for the homeless" but like other threads, I don't mind if it strays a bit. Maybe I'll split the thread into other topics.  We'll see where it goes.

As always, I'm glad to see the boards are being used.  Thanks for weighing in.

Offline Hope Donnelly

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #99 on: August 13, 2006, 08:06:41 AM »
CompCare serves the mentally ill homeless population in Hackensack and those in group homes.  However, as with the woman Tom Davies wrote about, who is now homeless again, there isn't much of a program for them.   She simply walked away to join her former friends on the street.   In defense of CompCare, there isn't much they can actually do legally to stop her because of her "rights." 

Many people assume the people sitting outside CompCare are homeless, but they are, like you said, residents of group homes.   Businesses have been persistent in their complaint about the homeless being a deterrent to shoppers, yet many people I talk with are rather surprised to learn that the people hanging out at Ward, State and Main are not homeless.   

Offline Editor

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Services for the homeless...
« Reply #100 on: August 20, 2006, 11:01:20 AM »
From Your Views in today's Record:

Columnist Lawrence Aaron has been a perceptive observer of the homeless problem and a strong advocate for its resolution. He is correct that Bergen County has a long way to go in ending chronic homelessness ("Working toward a solution for the homeless," Other Views, Aug. 11).

However, the county has gone beyond the stage described by Aaron: two agencies meeting and plans for a 100-bed county shelter when there are 780 identified single homeless individuals.

For instance, Christ Church Community Development Corp. (CCCDC) is collaborating with the Englewood Housing Authority to place a minimum of 20 chronically disabled individuals in permanent housing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Shelter Plus Program. CCCDC will be providing supportive services to assist these individuals in making the transition. In addition, it is coordinating with Advance Housing, another non-profit agency, to help secure housing for other homeless people.

At the same time CCCDC is working with the county's Department of Human Services Comprehensive Emergency Assistance Committee to assure temporary refuge for those still without a permanent home. Moreover, the agency is providing counseling, case management and advocacy services for individuals and families at risk.

CCCDC is only one of a number of social services organizations that have taken on the challenge of homelessness. The problem isn't easily eliminated. But if government, not-for-profits, business, citizens and clients pull together we can, as Aaron observes, make a difference and reclaim lives as well as our spirit of community brotherhood.

Benjamin Greenspan
Hackensack, Aug. 16
The writer is executive director of the CCCDC

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Services for the homeless...
« Reply #101 on: August 21, 2006, 09:19:52 AM »

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #102 on: October 25, 2006, 10:25:55 AM »

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #103 on: November 10, 2006, 10:15:57 AM »

Offline Hope Donnelly

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Re: Services for the homeless...
« Reply #104 on: November 22, 2006, 03:18:07 PM »
Latest story: Another tough break for Bergen's homeless

[Post modified by Editor.  Sorry I missed this article.  We can't reprint full articles here due to copyright issues.  We can only link to the source.  I deleted the full story and replaced it with a link].

Here's a related story:  Bergen clearing shelter site
« Last Edit: November 22, 2006, 05:02:49 PM by Editor »