Even while expanding our program horizons, we have stayed the course in developing replicable models for renewing the lives of homeless people - and while doing so, have led the way in establishing new public policies for solving the problem of homelessness. Highlights include:

1967 - Founding the nation's first medical detoxification unit for public inebriates, an experiment that established the safety and effectiveness of outreach to and treatment of homeless alcoholics. Project Renewal's work influenced the development of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism which worked with states to decriminalize public intoxication in the 1970s - a major triumph in the policy arena.

1970 - Opening of the Brooklyn-based Renewal House, the city's first residential and work rehabilitation program for homeless alcoholics.

1976 - Influencing New York State to decriminalize public inebriation, largely as a result of our successful work in treating homeless alcoholics.

1977 - Founding the first non-medical detoxification unit in a major city, demonstrating that such an approach was as safe and far more cost-effective than medical detoxification. The program's success resulted in nationwide standardization of the new treatment for homeless alcoholics.

1980 - Preparing a plan requested by Governor Hugh Carey to address the problem of mentally-ill homeless people in the Times Square area. The plan eventually led to the creation of several innovative Project Renewal programs.

1981 to 1988 - Initiating the nation's first mobile psychiatric outreach teams, among the first street and shelter outreach teams, and the first mobile medical clinic (MedVan) to serve homeless people.

1990 - Building the Clinton Residence, New York's first supportive residence that allows seriously mentally ill, formerly homeless New Yorkers to live in the community.

1995 - Opening of Holland House, a model of permanent supportive housing for 307 formerly homeless and very low-income residents, and among the largest such residences in the country.

1995 - Inaugurating Next Step , a unique employment initiative that provides formerly homeless, recovering substance-abusers a full range of services to help them prepare for, obtain and keep good jobs.

1995- Launching, as part of the Next Step, the award-winning Culinary Arts Training Program preparing clients for and placing them in food preparation jobs.

1996-1998 - Starting social purpose enterprises Comfort Foods, a catering business, and Renewal Farm, an organic farm located in Garrison, New York, both of which train and employ clients.

1998 -Initiating comprehensive primary care services. Our fully-licensed medical clinic system, which consists of clinics in three Project Renewal shelters and three mobile clinics, provide preventive, primary and urgent health care to 4,000 homeless New Yorkers annually. HIV prevention and counseling services were added in 2000 through a federal Ryan White Title III grant.

1999 - Creating Job Links, one of a handful of supported employment programs aimed at assisting people with serious mental illnesses and a history of homelessness into competitive jobs. In 2001, Job Links received the Office of Mental Health's Excellence in Service Achievement Award.

2001 - Receiving the first-ever grant from the State Office of Mental Health to provide mentally ill individuals exiting the state corrections system with intensive clinical services linked to transitional housing. The pilot program, the Parole Support and Treatment Program (PSTP) serves as a national model in helping mentally ill ex-offenders reintegrate into the community.

2002 - Receiving two first-ever grants from the US Department of Health and Human Services to establish New York City's first dental clinic dedicated exclusively to serving homeless and indigent New Yorkers. The Dental Clinic, located in our Fort Washington Primary Care Clinic in Washington Heights, began serving patients in 2004.

2003 – Creating nation’s first ‘housing first’ program for long-term homeless, chronically relapsing substance abusers, In Homes Now. Funded through the innovative federal Collaborative Initiative to End Chronic Homelessness, a joint effort among the Departments of Housing, Health and Veterans’ Affairs, In Homes Now offers 85 chronically homeless men and women still struggling with addiction their own apartments and provides integrated health, support and employment services to clients in their new homes.

2005 – Initiating New York's most comprehensive mobile medical clinic for homeless youth: StreetSmart.

2006 - Receiving "Outstanding Residence of the Year" award from the Supportive Housing Network of New York for In Homes Now program.

2007 -Opening The Detox, New York's first non-hospital detoxification clinic, which offers a promising new model for providing medical detox services to homeless addicts, with dramatic savings to taxpayers in State Medicaid costs.

2007 - Launching the ScanVan - the nation's first radiology/mammography clinic which provides poor and homeless New Yorkers breast cancer screening and tuberculosis screening, including testing, x-rays, education, and referrals for treatment.

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