New Street Outreach Program For Homeless In Newark: ‘It All Starts With Trust’

NEWARK, NJ — A city grant will help to launch a new street outreach and engagement program for people experiencing homelessness in Newark.

According to Integrity House – one of New Jersey's largest licensed nonprofit providers of substance use disorder and mental health services – it recently received a grant from the City of Newark Office of Homeless Services to launch a new street outreach and engagement program serving unsheltered residents in Newark.

Operating seven days a week, the program will deploy outreach teams to public spaces and other high-need locations across the city, including transit sites and hotspots identified in collaboration with community and public safety partners.

The program will prioritize people with mental health conditions, substance use disorders or chronic medical needs, or who are living outside or in places not meant for habitation.

Services will include behavioral health assessment, crisis intervention, overdose prevention education, and connections to housing, behavioral health treatment, medical services, and other community resources. Staff will coordinate with hospitals, crisis systems, shelters and community providers to support continuity of care.

Each outreach team will include two street outreach specialists and a clinician.

“People experiencing unsheltered homelessness often face complex challenges that can make it difficult to engage with traditional systems of care, housing and other essential services,” said Robin Shorter of Integrity House, who will be overseeing the program.

“It all starts with trust,” Shorter said.

For more information about Integrity House's street outreach program, email outreach@integrityhouse.org or click here.

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