At the end of July, we hosted David Orton, who came from London as part of the Transatlantic Practice Exchange. For two weeks David toured our sites, met with staff, and learned about our efforts to end elder homelessness.
In London David works for SHP, an organization that provides a wide range of accommodation and support services to 7,000 people a year across many London boroughs. He took part in the Exchange and chose to focus on homeless older adults and the elderly because, as he put it, “I’ve always been struck by the lack of adequate provision for older homeless people.”
As part of his visit, David created a blog recounting his experiences as he toured Hearth and met with staff, including going with Outreach Case Managers on their visits to shelters and even a stabilization visit to a newly housed client (photo above). You can read about his experiences with Hearth on his blog: http://davestransatlanticexchange.wordpress.com
David has also written a report about how our model of permanent supportive housing bridges the gap between services for the homeless and those for the elderly and makes recommendations on how services in the UK could better designed for older homeless people, based on his experiences at Hearth.
His report, along with those of other participants in the Exchange, will published later this month.
The Transatlantic Practice Exchange Program is organized by Homeless Link and the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and is funded by the Oak Foundation.