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 People from all over the world arrive in NYC with big hopes and dreams, but Robert England's journey was different. "I came here and I got on the steps of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, 5th Avenue and 55th Street. I was in a cardboard box with the other people, on the second step on the left side as you're looking at it. That's when I started getting depressed."
After losing his telemarketing job in Hawaii, Robert England found himself sleeping on a bench on Waikiki Beach before he came to New York. "Because I'd lost the job in Hawaii - and I knew that I
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Geffner House |
didn't have any computer skills or anything like that. ... And I knew that every job, just about, you had to use a computer. So I knew that, once I lost that job, that was it. So that's why I started getting depressed. It started getting worse." Robert's health and outlook on life continued to decline until he was taken to Bellevue. He regained his mental health in a treatment program and arrived at Project Renewal's Geffner House on March 26, 2008 - "exactly one year after I was fired from the job in Honolulu. Amazing! That room up there - for me, it's like a penthouse on Park Avenue. It means the same to me."
Robert was one of hundreds who joined the Who Cares I-Do campaign and made their voices heard in the debate leading up to New York State's executive budget, which was passed on March 31. "You get to talk about things that are important. Plus, look what the shelter system and the Geffner House has done for me."
While the State budget was on time and balanced, it did not contain much good news for low-income and homeless New Yorkers. The State budget shifted $16 million in reimbursement for adult homeless shelters to New York City. It also gave the State Department of Health authority to end the exemption for homeless individuals and families from Medicaid Managed care.
 Thank you to everyone who signed the Who Cares-I Do petition and voiced their concerns to elected officials. Despite some disappointments, your advocacy was successful in convincing the State to allow the establishment of behavioral health organizations and special needs managed care plans for individuals with mental illness. Your advocacy was also critical in convincing the State to invest $15 million in a new rental subsidy program to be developed jointly by the City and the State.
Our attention turns now to New York City's budget. In enacting a City budget by the June 30 deadline, the Mayor and the City Council will have come to grips with the elimination of hundreds of millions of dollars in State aid. To show that we care about human services for vulnerable New Yorkers, Project Renewal will fight for them to restore cuts to medical services in shelters, to restore cuts in supportive housing services to HASA clients, and to replace the Advantage program with a rental subsidy that takes into account the needs of homeless people with disabilities. Let your elected official know how you feel! | 
