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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.


Street Outreach
Mental illness is - in and of itself - highly isolating. Outsiders can be seen as threats or, at the very least, usually have no understanding of what is going on in the afflicted individual's mind. Once a mentally ill person becomes homeless, he is all the harder to reach, since the dangers associated with living on the streets isolate people even more. So it becomes extremely challenging to create sufficiently trusting relationships with homeless individuals suffering from mental illness to persuade them to accept help and come indoors. Despite these challenges, Project Renewal has been successfully working with homeless mentally ill clients living on the streets of Manhattan (between City Hall and 59th Street) since 1981. With counselors and driver/aides, the street outreach teams offer clients food, a bed and a familiar face in the hopes of getting them even more help.

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Mobile Psychiatric Teams
In addition to working with mentally ill New Yorkers living on the street, Project Renewal also sends Mobile Psychiatric Teams to privately-operated shelters and drop-in centers. Composed of a psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, physician's assistant, nursing staff and a psychiatric aide, the teams function as traveling psychiatric clinics, offering clients evaluation and treatment including help with medication.

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Shelter Outreach
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.

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Safe Haven
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.

Success Stories The mother of four, Wendy came to the Safe Haven after two decades of living on the streets... Read more.

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Times Square Homeless Engagement Project
Working in collaboration with the Times Square Business Improvement District, our engagement teams provide intensive outreach and on-the-street treatment services to hard-to-reach homeless people in the Times Square area. Our team members work toward engaging and assessing individuals, encouraging them to 'come indoors' to our Times Square safe haven. Team members then continue to work with these new clients on health, housing and employment issues, providing them with a continuity of care so critical to success with this fragile population.

Success Stories Victor Fields - "I kept in contact with my Project Renwal case manager he helped me with getting a job at the Times Square Homeless Engagement Program... Read more.

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New Providence
In 1998, we opened New Providence for homeless women. This transitional housing program, located in a newly renovated building on East 45th Street, serves two groups of clients: 50 women who are diagnosed as mentally-ill or mentally ill and substance abusers, and 80 who are solely substance abusers. At New Providence, women learn how to cope with their disabilities and recreate their lives, eventually moving on to their own housing and jobs. The New Providence program's goal is to stabilize, treat and offer rehabilitation to women who will ultimately be helped to move on to long-term housing.

Success Stories Russian-born, Zena had 15 years of homelessness and a lifetime of relocation when she came to New Providence... Read more.

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Fort Washington
Once a notorious men's shelter so renowned for violence and drug activity that it was the backdrop to a major motion picture about homelessness, our Fort Washington Program now provides transitional housing to 200 mentally-ill men, many of whom are also coping with substance abuse issues. Case management and on-site rehabilitation programs help residents connect to employment and housing.

Success Stories Pedro witnessed the entire decade of the 1990's from state psychiatric inpatient wards... Read more.

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Clinton Residence

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.

Success Stories Robert is perhaps the Clinton Residence's most famous resident, being the subject of several books... Read more.

Press Clipping See what the New York Daily News wrote about the Clinton Residence (40K .doc)

Press Clipping See what a New York Times Opinion piece said about the Clinton Residence (32K .doc)

Press Clipping See what part the Clinton played in a feature article in the New York Times (.doc)

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LeonaBlanche house
Opened in 2004, and rechristened in 2006, the LeonaBlanche house provides supportive housing to fifty three homeless mentally ill New Yorkers. The residence fills an important gap in Project Renewal's continuum of services for homeless mentally ill individuals by providing housing that affords less supervision than our Clinton Residence but more than Holland House. The LeonaBlanche, located in the Bronx, allows psychiatrically disabled New Yorkers to take that next step toward independent living.

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Parole Support and Treatment Program

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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Job Links
Established in 1999, Job Links is an award-winning supported-employment program for clients who suffer from severe and chronic mental illness. Job Links' professionals train and prepare clients for employment, place them in competitive jobs, and provide extensive follow-up support to ensure smooth adjustment to the work environment. The early success of Job Links demonstrates that, given the proper supports, mentally ill individuals can get and keep competitive jobs, helping them to move on to independent living.

Success Stories At last December's State Office of Mental Health award ceremony, Irene walked to the podium, took the microphone, and spoke about her experience at Job Links to an audience of more than 200... Read more.

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Clinton Residence



LeonaBlanche house