Widespread homelessness among mentally ill New Yorkers became a fact of life in the 1980s due in large part to the combination of a huge loss of low-cost housing through gentrification and the failure of policy makers to create adequate community-based care for mentally ill people released from long-term hospitalizations. So Project Renewal created a range of programs to provide psychiatrically disabled New Yorkers with whatever assistance they need to move from the streets to independent living and employment. The goal is to give clients the tools they need to live more and more independently.

Our Mobile Psychiatric Teams function as traveling psychiatric clinics, serving clients in the city's voluntary (privately operated) shelters and drop-in centers. The team includes a psychiatrist, a physician's assistant/nurse practitioner, a nurse, and a driver/aide and is coordinated by a psychiatric nurse. The team is equipped to evaluate and fully treat homeless mentally ill men and women - including medication monitoring - as well as consult with appropriate shelter staff.

This program brings our skilled professionals to the municipal shelter system, to assess and recommend treatment for homeless, mentally-ill women. Our case managers then help to place clients in transitional or permanent housing, and develop a support system that includes psychiatric and medical care, financial entitlements, and assistance with long-term rehabilitative goals including education and employment.

Our Safe Haven is a reception center for homeless, mentally-ill men and women and provides transitional housing to those who are ready and willing to come indoors. Referred directly from Project Renewal's Outreach Teams, clients have access to meals, showers, laundry and clothing, as well as psychiatric services, benefits assistance, and supportive housing placement. In 20056, 84% of clients moved into supportive or transitional housing and 66% completed either job training or a vocational program.

In 1990, the City and State signed the landmark New York/New York Agreement , by which each would bear half the cost of creating appropriate community housing-plus-supports for homeless mentally ill New Yorkers. That pact eventually created more than 3,600 units of supportive housing, and one of the very first community settings to be funded was Project Renewal's Clinton Residence on West 48th Street in Manhattan. The Residence provided housing and round-the-clock comprehensive supports to its 57 tenants, many of whom had spent much of their adult years in psychiatric institutions.

Initially, the Clinton Residence was imagined as residents' permanent home, because the severity of their illnesses suggested they would never live any more independently.

But we found that by offering clients closely coordinated comprehensive services including psychiatric and medical care, case management and employment assistance many of the residents could indeed achieve goals they, and the medical community, never thought possible. With the appropriate opportunities, clients began establishing a network of family and friends, taking on more and more responsibility and even pursuing employment. As a result we changed the program to provide maximum support for peoples' achievable goals of moving on and moving out. We added a strong emphasis on employment, which has been extremely successful both in improving clients' self-esteem and their ability to live with greater independence. Clients can work with nearby Fountain House, an excellent nonprofit skilled in helping mentally ill people succeed; they can work with our in-house printing operation, IMPRINTS; or they can work with our Job Links program, which helps individuals into competitive employment. Also, recognizing that the move from the Clinton Residence to less supervised settings was often too big a step, we converted one of the residence's seven floors into a "transitional" floor, where clients are still connected to the Residence but take on much greater responsibilities. As a result, 73% of the men and women who have come to the Clinton have moved into more independent housing and all continue to succeed in these new settings. And today, a full 75% of the residents are involved in some type of employment activity.

See what the New York Daily News wrote about the Clinton Residence

See what a New York Times Opinion piece said about the Clinton Residence

See what part the Clinton played in a feature article in the New York Times

House. The LeonaBlanche, located in the Bronx, allows psychiatrically disabled New Yorkers to take that next step toward independent living.

Project Renewal, with the Department of Corrections and the state Office of Mental Health is piloting an innovative new program to help 50 mentally ill men and women successfully transition from prison to a productive life in the community. The Parole Support and Treatment Program starts working with clients while they are still in prison to prepare them for life on the outside. Once released, clients move into apartments where they receive intensive support from a multidisciplinary team to help them transition to community living.

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