Project Renewal, Inc.

Project Renewal has been and continues to be a blessing to me. I was addicted and homeless and hit bottom with nowhere to go. Ironically, the last person that I got high with told me they had just gone to a NA meeting. Helpless and alone I decided to go to a meeting at St. Marks Place, and shared my story of being distressed and sick and tired of drug addiction. Fortunately, three men who were graduates of the Manhattan Bowery Program (former name of Project Renewal) heard my testimony and ordered me to come with them. I had no idea that they were taking me to the now named Project Renewal. They took me to the director who took the time to hear my story and admitted me.

At that time Project Renewal was a therapeutic community in which, combined with the treatment we had in house volunteer jobs. I had various job functions while there but I ended up working for the maintenance department, controlling the storage area and supplies. I graduated the program but remained on staff in the maintenance department and worked for the RCCA another facility that at Project Renewal manage. I was later recruited to work for the director of facilities Ernie Talbot, as an assistant, that managed maintenance personnel, purchasing, and special projects for all the programs and facilities.

I worked at PR for about 6 years and left to be the Business Manager of the 1st NY State Charter School, Sisulu Children's Academy. Later I was recruited by one of the vendors that supply Project Renewal and now am a partner for that company. We still supply Project Renewal, and support the agency in any way possible.

Project Renewal and staff have supported me through drug addiction to recovery. They have enabled me to have a great life. I have regained my family relationships, wife, children, and career. My clan brothers that went through the program with me are still connected like a fraternity. Ed Geffner, Ernie Talbot, Barbara Hughes, Stephanie Cowles, Dan Maulk, Donald Myers, Aaron Atkinson, Arvey Campbell and the late William Washington, have been and still are great, dynamic influences in my life. When I had no idea of how to run my life, these individuals helped to direct, correct, push, encourage, and loved me, unconditionally, until I could love myself.

New Providence women's shelter needs leadership ASAP... can never reach staff when needed they never return clients calls nor dose clients complaints get addressed within the last eighteen months they staff has been replaced from clinical on down to the PA's if some many people had to be fired why hasn't the leadership been replaced if so many staff was let go don't you think the negligence starts at the top correct that first. Kitchen help when I say all are alcoholics they all come in drunk except the new worker Patrick kitchen is not cleaned nor is food handled correctly.. clients be punished for standing up for their rights when the rules say its the clients right ..mail is interfered with meaning opened or help and made to be opened in front of case mangers. Case mangers refusal of pass for working clients because they don't give New Providence money orders but they do provide proof of savings . No meeting is being held for the clients to express themselves with the conditions of the shelter. No maintenance services on the weekends not sanitary so much more clients need help changes are in order how do staff go on so many three week vacations a year when they rarely are a work sounds like time being stolen donations have been stolen as well staff member stole a clients five hundred dollar phone ..staff getting clients pregnant investigation needed asap

I was transferred to Project Renewal's Third Street Shelter just before Thanksgiving 2012 and currently reside there. In my first month there, I got food poisoning eight times. I have tried to avoid the food ever since, but I still got food poisoning two additional times. As someone general population (physically challenged (SSD rightfully says that I can work a desk job, but there are far more seekers of these jobs than there are openings), but educated, substance-free, and mentally sound), they admitted to me that my best bet for getting out of the shelter was to find a job. To this end, they sent me to their next step program on Varick Street, where I was to work with job developer Rome Birkett. His idea of job development was Google searches for "administrative assistant," from which he would print the results and have me apply on my own, as though I were too stupid to do that myself, when I've been online regularly since 1996, earned a BA in 1999, and an MA in 2005. As of this writing, I have applied to 1,862 jobs since the month before I became homeless, tracked in an Excel spreadsheet I have on a flash drive, and been granted nineteen interviews, six of which were for staffing services that have not placed me, six of which were either bad matches (one gave preferential treatment to Hebrew speakers, another was a retail job for which I would need accommodations, but even though I didn't tell them that, the interviewer said that my history of office work rather than retail was reason enough not to select me) or outright scams, and two of which were short-term freelance jobs, one of which was piece work paying less than minimum wage. Everyone says the best way to get a job is through networking, although it is also the slowest, and most events I have found that are designed for networking begin at 9 PM, and shelter curfew is 10.

The shelter itself is filthy and dormitory style, unlike my previous two shelters, which had rooms. I got impetigo from my pillow in the first month, and still have scars to prove it. The lack of cleanliness is part and parcel of their policies--linen exchange is Wednesday evening, and there's always an excuse that they are out of something, be it towel, or sheet, or pillowcase. At my last shelter, we brought our sheets down Wednesday morning and got new sheets at night, but since they have us do all the sheets at night, they don't have enough to go around. The heat is sweltering over the summer with only one tiny fan per section to cool the area, so one often goes weeks sleeping in old sweat because linen exchange has been denied to them. At other shelters, we are allowed to do our own laundry in machines in the building. At Project Renewal, they have someone do it for us, and many of my compatriots have complained about the horrible job they have done. Worse yet, they have a ten garment per week maximum. Even though they count a pair of socks as one garment, to have a clean set of underclothing each week is 21 garments alone. Thus, I use my own money to use the laundromat down the street. Project Renewal violates the spirit, if not the letter, of Department of Homeless Services rules via this policy. It seems like a concerted effort to convert homeless people into smelly bums so that the rest of society has someone upon whom to look down. This is emphasized by the fact that sometimes they will refuse to change your sheets even when they have them available. Since linen exchange is from 9 PM to 10 PM, if you arrive back at the shelter at, say, 9:45, they will tell you to go up to your bed for the count first, then when you come back down after the count, they'll say since it's after 10, you're too late. The one who does this most often is Randy, the supervisor, whom most of the clients have come to despise.

Even though shelters make $3,500 per client per month (or $117 a day, about $20,000 a day since this shelter houses 170 residents), they refuse to fix the boiler and have been using a temporary truck boiler from prior my arrival to the present day (9/11/13). Only one shower room in the place has a temperature adjustment knob, and going to it if it's not on your floor can get you chastised, while the other rooms typically offer water that is either freezing or scalding. You can't plug anything in, such as a cell phone charger or alarm clock, but they expect you up at 6 AM, woken only by the lights being turned on, and ready to leave the building at 6:30, when they serve breakfast, which they demand you be in your street clothes to take. Starting tomorrow, we will not be allowed back upstairs after 7:30, which is normally the time I use to shave, go to the bathroom, and do my hair and teeth, because those don't really need to be done prior to eating, like showering and dressing.

A month back, they claimed that the Department of Homeless Services has a new policy so that if you arrive one minute after curfew, you are officially a missed curfew, and they have to call DHS in order to rebed you. Previously, if you were in before 10:30, you simply had to wait to sign. As a member of Picture the Homeless, I learned that this is not really a DHS policy, but simply a method to harangue and create stress in those who leave the shelter for job search while privileging the lazy people who spend all day in the rec room. When HRA (Human Resources Administration, also known as welfare) refused to pay for my storage because I receive unemployment, the shelter director, Shannon Potts, sent me there to collect a letter stating as such so that the storage expense could be calculated into the mandatory savings plan. When I was refused repeatedly, I started raising my voice and was arrested with a summons for disorderly conduct. If she were competent, she would have known that this is not the way one obtains these things. I managed to get such a letter only through one of my contacts on the staff at Picture the Homeless. Either that, or she knew exactly what would happen to me and was hoping that I would miss curfew so that they could cut my lock and take the contents of my locker, which include quite a few old comic books. I have detailed extensively the shenanigans that Project Renewal plays on my WordPress blog.

Because they give me a place to sleep at night, albeit on a cot that exacerabtes the back problem that makes me unable to take a non-desk job as a stopgap, and a place to change my clothes, and sometimes to shower, if there is water of an appropriate temperature available, I can't say the place gives me no help at all, but it would be unreasonable to claim that the help that they provide is worth anywhere close the $117 a day that they receive from the taxpayer. Project Renewal is a shining example of why money needs to be diverted from the shelter system to fund the creation of community land trusts.

First they don't care about their employee,this organization make money and they clearly state in the oraintion that they
Fire you for any reaaon, they fail to provide union, its not a work place where u can grow to makes matter worst they hire alot of ex offender criminal under pay them also, and where u can find the most discriminatiin people to work around.

The scanvan has a problem. I did use them up in Harlem twice but two years ago they were not at the address designated for my appointment, and again this morning the van was not there. I located it an hour later when I could no longer participate.

If one is homeless and hopeless, and seeking assistance to acquire housing and trying earnestly to change their life, then Project Renewal is one of the best places to accomplish that. I went there entirely by luck,and I am ever so glad I had done so. But here's the kicker, I had been there in the past and didn't follow the plan they helped me develop to bring me back on the right road, but NOOOOOOOOO!!! I had to find a way to do it my way, and of course my way didn't work at all. I was a resident at Project Renewal for 17 months, and the way I look at it, that was 17 months that I didn't have to sleep on the train, a park bench, Central booking, or hope for a bed in a mission. I am very very Grateful for the the good people and staff of Project Renewal who have shown me the way to overcome and live a better and more meaningful life. Project Renewal has a dedicated staff and can truly assist one, provided they are truly trying to live a better life. Since I've been a client at their shelter, my life has improved immeasurably, as has my health, my peace of mind, my familial relationships, my outlook and my immense gratitude. I have maintained permanent housing now for 4 years(through Project Renewal) and am thoroughly pleased that I had the patience to hear and to heed the guidance of the staff at Project Renewal. What a joy it is to Go Home each day. I Love it, and it became possible because of Project Renewal. I also wish to say that everyone I've seen who were in the shelter and was impatient to go through the process, did their best to sabotage their chances to obtain adequate housing and maintain sobriety are probably still in a shelter system process, trying to manipulate where they are going to end up, which is not possible. So for those who don't have the patience, don't bother, for those who wish to make a change in their life, step forward and let the process begin. Again I wish to thank Project Renewal for all they have done for me. From Darrell Bristow

Unfortunately, I was turned away and told to make an appointment by your staff. I only wanted a routine mammogram and have insurance, just thought I could use your services. I went to the van @ approximately 12:25pm and was told they would be there till 3pm. given this business card and told to make an appointment, even though the flyer in my lobby said i need no appointment. in the future i wish they would specify by appointment only so people like myself don't feel embarrassed for asking for this type of service.

My name is Jame Lovett. I currently live at Renewal House. I've been clean and sober for three years and have experience in the Social Service field. I have a criminal history but I've been completely rehabilitated. I'd like to if Project Renewal conducts criminal background checks, and if so, will my past be used against me, and prevent me from gettting hired if I applied? Thanks.

yes project renewal help me alot i was homeless in less than two months i was help by receiving a voucher and a lovely home thankyou new providence shelter on east 45street 2nd avenue i love your and miss everyone