How does our community address homelessness in a way that meets the needs of homeless people and everyone in the community?
Springfield, Massachusetts answered this question and had astounding results: the city went from having 100 homeless people living on the streets to 5 just a few years later. Geraldine McCafferty, Springfield's housing director, told the story of the city's efforts at an IForum this morning at the Lyceum in Hartford hosted by the Partnership for Strong Communities.
In our region, fiscal year 2008-2009 was a year of great triumphs for supportive housing. The efforts of advocates like The Partnership for Strong Communities, Reaching Home Campaign and The Lyceum Center drove home the importance of challenging government budgetary decisions. In the midst of one of the longest budgetary debates in Connecticut, previously committed Next Steps II (dollars to develop new supportive housing units) were zeroed out from the state’s FY2009 budget.
