They helped us clean nightstands, picked up trash around the entire facility, as well as clean and organize Building Three for use as a Computer Lab and Classroom for instructing our residents.
They showed great pride in working to help our residents, and were eager to hear of stories about our residents and their struggles.
Thank you to the students and faculty of Albuquerque Academy for their support and interest in our work.

MHP applied for Grant and Per Diem funding through the VA Health Care System in July 2007.  Grant and Per Diem funding helps provide shelter to homeless veterans in transitional housing facilities, helping them transition out of homelessness, and into productive living situations. In January 2008 the Veterans Transitional Housing Program grant and contract was awarded, and became a reality for MHP.

In 2008 a full time Program Manager was hired to coordinate the Veterans Transitional Housing Program and ensure we are meeting the goals of our grant. In 2008 66% of all participating veterans discharged to stable housing situations.

In 2009 the National Veterans Affairs Office declared a goal of ending homelessness among veterans within 5 years. We are proud to say we are part of this collaborative effort to keep veterans off the streets of our nation today by providing over 5,000 bed nights of care to homeless veterans each year.

Collaboration was the cornerstone of our growth for the following year, and continues to be the vehicle for continued growth and success in Grant and Per Diem programs.  In 2009 MHP began working together with the Veterans Outreach Program (VOP) to help veterans access immediate VA care for medical, mental health and substance abuse concerns. This program allows veterans to access these services as a Walk-In or MHP referred patient.

In 2011 new Grant and Per Diem Liaison was assigned to our site and was instrumental in helping us improve treatment planning for veterans, by partnering with VA providers to implement expedited consults for residential and outpatient treatment, group therapy and individual counseling for PTSD and other mental health crisis as well as specialized medical care and dental services.

The program innovated dramatically in 2012 and is now organized into “phases”. There are now three time-focused phases to the GPD program. Each phase is typically 30-60 days but the time frame is subjective, dependent on the needs of the veteran. The GPD contract indicates that a veteran can stay up to two years and/or have up to three episodes of care in their lifetime.

Phase I- Self Determination is impacted by providing resources, education and training to understand basic life skills such as getting basic medical care, help with substance use problems, applying for food stamps and finding adequate shelter. We want to empower the veteran to advocate for himself. Each veteran is assessed for their knowledge of basic life skills during Phase I.

Phase II- Skill level or Income is enhanced by referring the veteran to employment leads, job resources and development. Providing assistance with resume writing and interviewing skills, a computer lab onsite to conduct job searches and complete applications. This is in addition to Voc Rehab resources provided directly at the VAMC. The veteran is encouraged to save money once income is established and provide proof of that. His savings is applied directly to move in expenses. If a veteran is not employable or lacks training and education, the program works to get the veteran engaged in educational resources and training. Budgeting and financial literacy are major components of Phase II.

Phase III- Residential Stability is the ultimate goal of the program and is the major focus of Phase III. It focuses on identifying appropriate housing for veterans with special needs, disabilities and/or the need for subsidized housing payments. Many veterans are on a fixed income and need assistance finding affordable housing programs. The goal is to have the veteran transition to a more stable living situation at program discharge. This does not always include permanent housing, but may be a residential treatment program or sober living house.

This approach creates a Chronological Progression which best assists the veteran in making transition, designed in parts and intended to achieve incremental successes and avoid situations that might overwhelm the veteran.

MHP strives to provide the best services to veterans possible and follows a formative and summative evaluation process to evaluate effectiveness.

We look forward to serving veterans as long as we are needed.

Community Voice Mail Spring Wire (CVM), started at Metropolitan Homelessness Project (MHP) in 2007.  Executive Director, Dennis R. Plummer, saw the important of having a program that focused on free communication for anyone in need. And that it would become a program at MHP.

In its first year, a contract grant was provided by the City of Albuquerque, which allowed the CVM voice mail numbers to be given free of charge to agencies that offered  services to people in need. During this time, CVM became a direct enrollment service for clients over the phone. Direct enrollment is not common in the CVM communities; voice mail numbers are typically bought by other agencies that enroll the clients at their sites.

Once the contract from the city finished, it was a challenge to find funding for CVM, so the decision to sell numbers to agencies, and still provided direct service seemed to be a possible solution. As it turned out, agencies that service people in need have a tight budget.

In 2012 we tried a different approach; we decided to look for money through grants and other funding resources. We received more money in this fiscal year then CVM ever has!

During 2012 Community Voice Mail Spring Wire National Conference, major changes were announced. The national office decided that it was time to change the name from Community Voice Mail, to Spring Wire, the agency that brings you Community Voice Mail. The reasoning for the change was they wanted the opportunity to make CVM more than just a free phone service, but an agency that helps in other ways as well. They started projects such as Veteran Connect which is an initiative of

Spring Wire in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide homeless veterans with a free personal voice mail number to reduce and end veterans’ homelessness. With this unique, proven, communication-tool, veterans can access information and receive regular contact about VA benefits, medical care, housing, employment, and more. Veteran-serving institutions can stop sending mail to nowhere and make their investments in outreach and service delivery count” (Spring Wire National Website).

They have also stated Health Connect, which is a “national demonstration project aimed at improving the health of 600 people with chronic health conditions who are homeless” (Spring Wire National Website).

As you can see Community Voice Mail is making a difference in many lives at a National and Local level.

A STORY OF A HOMELESS MAN I ONCE KNEW, AND WHAT THAT MAN SHOWED ME HE KNEW

We met on a day much like today,

You were relaxing and enjoying your day,

I was making meetings and quickly moving on my way.

I sat and listened as you talked away,

I tried not to be distracted by thoughts of my day.

I showed you how to focus and make good sense of your time,

You showed me how to relax and not be so busy all the time.

I showed you how to be serious and go the extra mile,

You showed me how to smile and laugh a while.

I showed you how to make an honest dollar,

You showed me that value in life is never in a dollar.

I showed you how to live life with four walls,

You showed me your freedom outside of those walls.

I showed you how to find your loved ones again, that process was painful and slow,

You showed me why I should never, ever let them go.

Thank you homeless man, for showing me how to use the eyes of my heart better.

Sincerely, ME!

Author- David Sisneros 2012

“What is home?”

This is one of the powerful and complex questions Fiachra MacFadden ’13, Ireland/Singapore, and Ana Dougherty ’13, USA-NM, ask in their documentary Speaking from the Streets.

The 20-minute film, produced entirely by the two second-year students, was inspired by their mutual curiosity about the root causes of homelessness – although they each arrived at this curiosity through very different means.

Ana attributes her “lifelong preoccupation with the idea of home” to multiple relocations across the globe throughout her childhood, in addition to having several family members employed with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that builds homes for low-income families.

Fiachra, on the other hand, was confronted with homelessness more abruptly. Growing up in Singapore, he never encountered homelessness until his first trip to the U.S. at age 16 when he found himself staying in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco – an area notorious for its number of people living on the streets.

Driven by a shared interest, Ana and Fiachra teamed up in their fourth semester to tackle the documentary project. They visited the Casa de Samaritan Homeless Shelter in nearby Las Vegas every week, helping to serve meals and document personal stories of the people passing through.

Ana brought skills as an interviewer, and Fiachra had technical expertise. Together, they methodically worked to create a comfortable space where their subjects could open up and share. “The biggest challenge was interviewing them with a camera,” says Ana. “It took an hour or more to establish a relationship before we could ask that of them.”

Through the interviews, Ana and Fiachra delved into the ways homeless people are often stereotyped. “The main purpose of doing the documentary was to show that people experiencing homelessness have their own stories,” says Ana. “They are human too, but there’s such a stigma around homelessness. All sorts of different scenarios get them to that place.”

Not everyone was willing to share their stories, but those who did often covered the vast territories of hard luck, substance abuse, and mental illness. “The main thing I’ve been struck by is the strength and resilience so many of them possess,” Ana says. “It’s crazy that homelessness isn’t seen as more of a big deal. It can happen to anyone but there aren’t many support systems in place to help.”

For Fiachra, it’s important to keep interactions personal. “If you see a person on the side of the street and you have change in your pocket, why not give it to them?” he says. “Ask them how they are doing. They might have an interesting story, and it might change the course of their day.”

To view a larger version of the film on YouTube, click here.

Ana and Fiachra created a short documentary video to ask people experiencing homelessness in New Mexico about their struggles and “What the Meaning of Home” is to them.

Ana is a strong supporter and volunteer of MHP. She worked to connect the Albuquerque Academy Community Service Program to our shelter in 2010 and volunteered to do vulnerability surveys for Survey Week in 2011, which helped kicked off the Albuquerque Heading Home Initiative. Students from her former high school continue to do regular Community Service Projects at our shelter.

Please follow the links below to view the United World College article about this project and the video: “Speaking from the Streets” produced by Ana Dougherty and Fiachra MacFadden.

http://www.uwc-usa.org/page.cfm?p=672&newsid=51

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2It2iFoGD4&feature=youtu.be

Thank you Ana for your support.

We are proud to introduce Lisa Maury as our new Volunteer Coordinator for Albuquerque Opportunity Center (AOC). Lisa is a dedicated and passionate nonprofit professional in homelessness and has volunteered for us since 2011. She began working us as an administrative volunteer – helping out with around the front desk, answering phones, even helping out with resident transport to medical appointments occasionally.  She still volunteers every Friday evening as part of the spiritual companion program.  She is also a case manager for New Mexico Solutions and is on Albuquerque Heading Home’s Care Team.

Metropolitan Homelessness Project celebrates its tenth anniversary in April 2014.  We’re taking a look back at the last ten years with a series of interviews with people who have contributed mightily to our history, nourished our work and continue to engage with our vision of homelessness in Albuquerque.

In April 2004, Metropolitan Homelessness Project (MHP) opened Albuquerque Opportunity Center, an emergency shelter for men experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque.  Since the outset, MHP has faced a number of challenges and has managed to bridge relationships with local business neighbors along Candelaria and the Stronghurst Neighborhood Association.  Even more, MHP has expanded it programmatic outreach from just emergency shelter to include veterans transition housing, 24/7 respite care and free voicemail service.  MHP is now the backbone agency behind Albuquerque Heading Home, a new community-wide initiative to house the most medically vulnerable and chronically homeless.

We begin our video series with an interview with four very important figures who played key roles bringing the organization to life.  These individuals include our first executive director, Josh Allison, former board members Trey Hammond and Sam Carnes and Mike Robertson, who was the executive director of Homeless Advocacy Coalition and now is with the the city’s Behavioral Health  Department at Family and Community Services.

Stay tuned as we will post videos of various past stakeholders ranging from staff, volunteers, donors and board members.

Mike and Josh:

Sam:

Trey: