By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Sixty-two-year-old Joanne Perkins was homeless for nearly two-and-half years, battling a drug addiction and mental illness. Greater Trenton Behavioral HealthCare helped transition Perkins off the streets and into a home.
“I remember when I opened the door, I was standing there, I shook because she gave me the key and I started turning it and I didn’t believe this is gonna be mine,” said Perkins.
In Mercer County, the number of chronically homeless during a point in time count dropped from 194 in 2007 to 62 this year. The number of homeless families also decreased from 271 in 2007 to 71 in 2014. Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes says the key is placing the homeless in a home immediately and offering programs to help get their life on track. He calls it the Mercer Method.
“When they get that home, they get that first check, when they have their wrap-around services, they go to the workplace for the first time, people are grateful and they have a tendency not to come through the system over and over again,” Hughes said.
Housing First is one of 20 programs offered by Greater Trenton Behavioral HealthCare, whose clients struggle with a variety of health issues.
“Initiatives like this, like Housing First where we take people off the streets, offer them an apartment and build the supports around them that they need to succeed. That’s the whole point behind Housing First,” said Greater Trenton Behavioral HealthCare President and CEO John Monahan.
Despite recent budget cuts at Greater Trenton Behavioral Health Care, staffers have agreed to take on more clients, from 84 to 165 people who were once chronically homeless. Now they have the keys to their very own apartments and they’re on the road to recovery from mental health issues, substance abuse issues and physical aliments.
“Now that I received my own place, I have less headaches, less trips to the emergency room,” said Hamilton Township resident Keia Thompson.
“We make sure that homeless have all the resources they need in order to claw their way out of poverty,” said HomeFront Founder and CEO Connie Mercer.
HomeFront, a non-profit, has 19 locations in Mercer County. It offers a free furniture bank, job and literacy training, children’s programming, an arts program for clients, emergency shelter, permanent, affordable housing and more. Mercer says the numbers prove the county and its partners have become better at handling homeless people who are ultimately homeless for a shorter period of time. But homelessness is still a growing problem.
“The number of total homeless during a course of a year is up significantly. Certainly HomeFront last year saw a 28 percent increase,” Mercer said.
As for Joanne Perkins, she’s been in her apartment three years now.
“I’ll never be homeless again. I never will, never,” she said.
She has no plans to ever move out.