Media Releases

September 19, 2007

United Way, City Of Rochester And Monroe County Collaborate To Address Homelessness

National expert is among the speakers at a symposium today focused on sharing ideas on combating the problem

Rochester, NY – Each night in our community, 600 people are homeless—many of them are children. It may also surprise you to learn that only 20% of our homeless here are deemed ‘chronically’ homeless, yet use up 50% of resources to help them. Homelessness is a multidimensional issue—with no single cause or solution.

Today, members of the Continuum of Care collaboration—which includes representatives from the City of Rochester, County of Monroe, United Way and several other private and not-for-profit organizations—gathered for the 2007 Western New York Homeless & Hunger Symposium. The daylong event was created to open discussion among providers about addressing homelessness and hunger in our community.

More than 250 people listened to keynote speaker Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Mangano has more than 25 years experience in homelessness issues in both public policy and solution-oriented programs, and was recently nominated as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

“There are many causes to homelessness—but we’re also working on solutions. Last year, our support helped more than 2,200 people who needed emergency shelter and food. Four out of every ten of them were children,” shared Peter Carpino, President of United Way of Greater Rochester. “For the sake of our children, and their children—we need to break the cycle. We’re honored to collaborate with so many caring partners to work on this.”

"Homelessness is a daunting challenge facing communities across America," said Mayor Robert J Duffy. "It's crucial that we work proactively to formulate programs that address the root causes, so we can meet the needs of people in our community who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Together, we are committed to this challenge."

"Our community has a rich tradition of coming together to tackle the tough issues," said Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks. "I commend the efforts of our community partners, particularly the United Way, who have come together to address homelessness in our community. Collaborative efforts like this have the potential to bring new resources, partners and energy to the table."

Today’s event was sponsored by The Homeless Services Network.

# # #

United Way’s mission is to magnify and focus the power of community resources to address our most pressing social needs.