Eddie A. Perez
Mayor
HARTFORD PROJECT HOMELESSCONNECT
Hartford Joins International Effort: Implements Project Homeless Connect
Major Step Forward in the “Journey Home” to Help End Chronic Homelessness
(December 12, 2007)--- Mayor Eddie A. Perez is proud that the “City of Hope and Opportunity” has lived up to its name by hosting its first ever “Project Homeless Connect” ever in the Capital City. It took place at St. Patrick St. Anthony Franciscan Center, 285 Church Street and hundreds of people lined up for access to information.
Philip F. Mangano, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the President’s national point person on homelessness joined Mayor Perez, Julie Fagan District Director of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and William Farley, President CT Region CB Richard Ellis and Chair of Journey Home, to kick off the event with a rally for community volunteers and service providers. Councilman-elect Larry Deutsch also attended.
Project Homeless Connect (PHC) is a national initiative sponsored by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and is now implemented in more than 130 cities around the world. This one-day event provided people with immediate access to resources and information that will help end their homelessness. Services include: housing, legal services, health care, employment services, and other basic needs for individuals, families and youth. It is anticipated that 500 people will take part in this event.
Project Homeless Connect is presented by the Hartford Continuum of Care, a citywide collaboration of agencies and individuals committed to addressing issues of homelessness in Hartford, other area service providers and JOURNEY HOME, a new organization charged to implement the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in the Capitol Region. The CT Coalition to End Homelessness provided significant organizational support for the event.
Continued
Mayor Perez says, “This is a unique, one-stop opportunity to provide information one on one to people experiencing homelessness. This is a major step forward in ending chronic homelessness in our city and region by 2015.”
“Project Homeless Connect combines political will with social will to generate quantifiable change in our streets and neighborhoods,” says Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. “The intent is to move our most vulnerable neighbors closer to the end of their homelessness. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last two decades, it is that no one level of government, no one sector can get this job done alone.”