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You are invited to receive the Report to the Community on Progress in Ending Homelessness, 2009-13
Farewell to the Mercer Alliance Executive Director
Next Steps in Ending Homelessness
Thursday, June 20, 2013
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Lounge C, Wood Hall,
660 Rosedale Road
Princeton, NJ 08541
Click here to download Directions
RVSP to jrosado@merceralliance.org by June 17, 2013
Report to Community on Ending Homelessness in Mercer County
The County of Mercer, The City of Trenton and the Mercer County Board of Social Services all committed to a rapid exit from homelessness by focusing on permanent housing
Thursday, June 20th
ETS
Princeton, NJ - On Thursday, June 20, 2013, 5pm-7pm, at ETS, 660 Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ, (Wood Hall parking, follow the signs) The Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness will release a Report to The Community 2009-2013, to inform the community about its progress toward ending homelessness in Mercer County, NJ.
Cliff Goldman, Chairman of the Mercer Alliance, noted that “our community has gone through a momentous change – moving from a sheltering model to a rehousing model.” Goldman emphasized that this change came about because the County of Mercer, The City of Trenton and the Mercer County Board of Social Services all committed to a rapid exit from homelessness by focusing on permanent housing with support services based on need.
Marygrace Billek, Mercer County Director of Human Services, noted that “through the Mercer Alliance’s work we have created a common vision and implemented national models for housing the homeless. Housing First and Rapid Rehousing have been shown to work here in Mercer County. Because of our work as an Alliance, we are shortening the amount of time that individuals and families spend being homeless.”
Frank Cirillo, Director of the Mercer County Board of Social Service, added that “the Alliance not only introduced these models, but helped create local adaptations and supported their implementation through training and technical assistance. The Board of Social Services has benefited tremendously from the assistance of the Mercer Alliance. The Board has become an agency that promotes solutions for ending homelessness.”
Cliff Goldman concluded by noting that “Housing First and Rapid Rehousing are clearly the direction for the future. Funding for homelessness in Mercer County is going predominantly to these best practice successful models, which are recommended by the Federal Government.”
The Board of the Alliance will also be bidding farewell to the current executive director, Herb Levine, who has served in that role since October, 2007.
Under Mr. Levine’s leadership, the Alliance has received national notice for its collaboration with the Mercer County Board of Social Services to help make it a rehousing agency, which led to The Mercer Alliance receiving grant funding to spread its work on Rapid Rehousing across New Jersey.
On the state level, Mr. Levine has served as secretary of the New Jersey Advocacy Network to End Homelessness and as the point person on General Assistance for the Anti-Poverty Network.
On the local level, he has chaired Mercer County’s Reentry Task Force, co-chaired the Mercer Housing Developers’ Advocacy Team and been an active member of the Trenton Neighborhood Restoration Campaign, in concert with the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.
The Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness is a partnership of government, non-profit and business leaders committed to implementing state and local policy changes that can end homelessness.
RVSP to jrosado@merceralliance.org by June 17, 2013.
With thanks to ETS for hosting this event!
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