Coordinating Services and Accessing Resources Conference Focuses on Understanding Policy; Follows Successful Mayors Challenge Model

Samuel Miller, HUD Region II Senior Management Analyst and Homeless Coordinator, addresses stakeholders.

Homeless Alliance of New York Executive Director Dale Zuchlewski and HUD Region II Senior Management Analyst Samuel Miller brought together federal partners, state representatives, funders, public and private decision-makers and area stakeholders at the Coordinating Services and Accessing Resources Conference held at the Salvation Army in Buffalo, New York. The goal was for program administrators and case managers to have a better sense of homelessness policy context and to use that information to leverage public resources in a unified manner to assist the homeless.

HUD New York Field Office Director Joan Spilman delivered welcoming remarks; Peggie Meinl, HUD Buffalo Field Office Community Planning and Development (CPD) Program Manager; and Abbilyn Miller, HUD New York Regional Office Data Analyst and SNAPs Specialist, Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs, provided valuable program information.

Participants included Michelle Frank, NYS-TEACHS; Robert Asaro-Angelo, Department of Labor; Heather Gresham, JD, Buffalo & Erie County Workforce Investment; Anthony Alicea, Department of Labor Veterans Employment Training Services; Dennis Romero, Regional Administrator, SAMSHA; Eric Weigel, Community Integration, Erie County; Jason Barnum, Prison Re-Entry Coordinator, Delphi, Rochester, NY; Eric Boerdner, Prison Re-Entry Coordinator, Community Mission, Niagara Falls, NY; Rick Umholtz, NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; Brenda McAteer, Bureau of Housing and Support Services (BHSS); NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, and Denard Cummings, Bureau of Housing and Partnership for Long-Term Care, NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH).

With this conference, nearly all the agencies and organizations with a hand in the work were represented in the same room to discuss how to best serve homeless people by integrating resources available to create effective, and coordinated, services.

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