May 2008

Greetings All,

We are almost mid-way through 2008 already so I would like to share with you what has been going on at IHA so far this year. I am very excited to tell you that our major fundraising event, Stand Up for Homes With Hope: A Fundraiser for IHA Starring Lewis Black held in January, was a total success. This was the first time we’ve ventured into an event this size but we were very fortunate to have the assistance of a very enthusiastic Fundraising Committee, IHA staff and the expertise of event producer Treva Cooke of Blue Flame LLC.

We do, however, continue to be a client driven agency and our only goal is to figure out how to serve them better. This has required a number of fundraising strategies—including a huge event—but everything we do to raise money enables us to continue to offer the best services possible to the most vulnerable members of our community.

Research continues to reaffirm our commitment to the supportive housing model. On March 6 the Wall Street Journal ran an article reflecting this. The article, Homeless Study Looks at ‘Housing First’ reports on a four-year study of homeless people with chronic medical problems including mental illness and addiction. If you missed the article I would be glad to send, fax or email a copy of it to you. The study of homeless people in Chicago followed a group that received intensive casework services and a group that didn’t. The group with the services spent half as many days in hospitals, nursing homes and emergency rooms as the group that did not receive the services.

This mirrors our experience at Homes With Hope and we look forward to having it be the experience of six more tenants when we open the Westport Rotary Centennial House. We are working on an additional 44 units of permanent affordable supportive housing now and if successful on all of them we will meet the challenge or our strategic plan.

We have had to shift the way we develop supportive housing. Initially we thought that most supportive housing would be developed by IHA. Our experience with the Westport Rotary Centennial House (10 West End Ave.) has been discouraging. There are just too many problems with public funding to get a project accomplished quickly. Working with Fairfield 08, the collaborative IHA founded with Saint Luke's LifeWorks, Operation Hope and the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA to bring supportive housing to Fairfield County, we are partnering with private developers and other nonprofits. While it is too early to announce the units we’re working on we are very excited about the speed that private funding brings with it.

Of course, given the funding model for IHA, it makes sense for us to work with for profit developers. From our beginning we realized that we could work more creatively if we had private support so we have always been shameless in asking you to fund the good work that makes us a uniquely positive experience for people at the limit of their lives.

An example of the impact we can have happened recently to a Homes With Hope tenant. One of our original tenants died recently from a massive heart attack. Wearing another of my hats, I officiated at his funeral. Members of the IHA staff and the other tenants at Homes With Hope were the only people in attendance. Were it not for Homes With Hope he would’ve died with no one in attendance. The work that our casework staff does to build community at Homes With Hope meant that there were people to mourn him. He was very young to have a heart attack. While he led a healthy lifestyle at Homes With Hope his drug abuse and mental illness before he found the Gillespie Center and then took his apartment on Saugatuck Avenue took its toll. But he enjoyed about a decade of independent living. He was able to work. He made a contribution to the world around him and he had a life.

On the other hand, and for about the same amount of time, another client has continued to live outside. He has no friends. He cannot work. He drinks heavily. If we had the housing the Journal writes about then we could offer him the chance to live with dignity and perhaps live soberly.

Your continued support is crucial to our expanding our solutions to include even those who live outside and will not take advantage even of the Gillespie Center.

Sincerely,

Peter R. Powell
President/CEO