Shelter Changing Hands
(Crain’s Health Pulse) Services for the UnderServed will take over the contract for a men’s shelter in Brooklyn on July 1 from SCO Family of Services.
The Renaissance Shelter serves about 175 to 200 men in Crown Heights. Glen Cove, L.I.-based SCO decided to stop managing the shelter to focus on its family shelters in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to a spokesman. It’s unclear whether S:US will be able to hire all 34 shelter employees, said Donna Colonna, chief executive of Services for the UnderServed.
“We make a genuine effort to hire existing staff,” she said. S:US provides services to about 2,000 individuals in Brooklyn annually, including behavioral health, employment and housing programs. “This was an opportunity for us to run a good shelter. We’d also like to see the shelter population reduced, and we want to be part of that equation, creating housing opportunities,” Ms. Colonna said.
That idea will be on display today in in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where S:US is celebrating a supported housing development three years in the making. The Truxton Residence, a 48-unit studio apartment building, opened for residents in February, with 80% of units reserved for homeless single adults with mental illness and the rest open to low-income single adults.
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