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Fort Washington Director Etta Graham and alumnus Scott McDonald. |
Scott McDonald stood on the George Washington Bridge in the middle of winter, exhausted and alone. "There is nothing else for me in life, I am done." He stood on the bridge for three or four hours. "I seriously considered going off the bridge. I would put my foot on the railing then put it down."
In a unified effort to preserve the safety net that Scott desperately needed that day, Project Renewal joins the Human Services Council's Who Cares? I Do. Campaign to fight proposed budget cuts. The State of New York has a $10 billion deficit and some of Governor Cuomo's proposals to close that gap would make it more difficult for our clients to find a path out of poverty and homelessness. We're facing a $16 million cut for adult shelter services and the elimination of $35 million in the Advantage program, which provides rent subsidies for people leaving shelters. Another cut that would affect our clients is a nearly $3 billion cut in Medicaid. The Mayor responded to the Governor's budget with his own cuts that include eliminating the Advantage subsidy program altogether.
 Without these critical funds, we would have fewer resources to help those who are in our shelters including Fort Washington Men's Shelter where Scott McDonald finally found help. After living a "normal American life", Scott lost his marriage, home, and job when pressures drove him to alcoholism. The low point came the day he stood on that bridge. "I gave everything away and had nothing left. At the end of it I decided to take a walk instead. I checked into Bellevue. It wasn't really until I got to Fort Washington that I tried to start dealing with things."
Fort Washington Director Etta Graham voices the fear and frustration of losing services that helped Scott and so many others. "Our shelter provides a place where people can begin to rebuild their lives one goal at time. The services that each staff provides to the men that are in our care are invaluable and to have these services cut or reduced would not only affect the men, but it will affect all of us in the Human Services world. Our main goal in the shelter is to help our clients re-capture their humanness and decrease the stigma that is attached to being homeless, mentally ill, and poor by providing our clients supportive housing and services that will increase their self-worth."
In fact, the cuts would end up costing government a lot more to deal with the resulting crisis of homelessness than it would to invest now in helping people to get stable housing, employment and help with addiction or mental illness. The elimination of all rental subsidies is just going to cause the shelter system to grow. Unfortunately, emergency shelter is the fastest-growing part of the homeless system. The Homeless Services Commissioner has said that without the Advantage program, the City will have to open 70 new shelters throughout the City. We would much rather see more public investment in supportive housing and other solutions that help our clients get out of that revolving door between the streets and institutions.
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Scott in Albany |
"What Fort Washington did for me is I went from being foggy with no direction to being on a straight path. The people at Fort Washington were able to gently and respectfully get me back to where I can function with normalcy." After renewing his life at Fort Washington, Scott McDonald now fights to save the programs that saved his life. Speaking in Albany, Scott urged legislatures and state officials to protect funding for homeless services. "I never thought I would have gone to Albany in my past life, but now I would. It was vital for them to see a person there instead of pie charts and numbers."
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