Press Room

New York State discriminated against thousands of mentally ill people in New York City by leaving them in privately run adult homes, which effectively replaced state-run psychiatric hospitals more than a generation ago but turned out to be little more than institutions themselves, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

In what aides describe as proactive steps to prevent homelessness and hunger in New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine Tuesday signed legislation in a ceremony at Cathedral Kitchen in Camden.

Carrfour Supportive Housing's new building in Little Havana is taking some of the homeless off the streets and helping low-income families.

Daniel's Village, which provides supportive housing for young adults with early signs of mental illness, will hold its grand opening Sept. 11 in Santa Monica. The facility is in a former motel at 2624 Santa Monica Blvd. on what was once Route 66. It will house seven young adults experiencing the initial symptoms of severe and persistent mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression.

Just after dawn on Tuesday, the New Orleans Homeless-Assistance Collaborative led an effort to scatter a new homeless colony by connecting them directly to social service agencies.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the grand opening of the Alexandria House Apartments Project, 16 low-income units in Koreatown. Seven of those units are reserved for homeless or those at risk of being homeless and victims of domestic violence.

Miki Delemos stops by apartments on West Grand Avenue almost every day to check on her “family.” She doesn’t have to — she doesn’t get paid to - but she wants to see how her former homeless friends are doing. As a case manager for The Other Place, a non-profit homeless advocate group, Delemos is doing the grunt work of a Montgomery county-wide initiative to end chronic homelessness.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan is bringing his entire leadership team to New Orleans on Thursday to steep them in the city's post-Katrina rebuilding efforts and devise ways to speed it up and "move the place where we are in our work on the Gulf Coast from recovery to revitalization."

Mercy Housing Lakefront, along with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, County Executive Scott Walker, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority Director Antonio Riley and other Milwaukee officials, celebrated the groundbreaking of the Johnston Center, a new permanent supportive housing property that will be home to 91 people who are formerly homeless and have special needs.

Most homeless people in America are too poor to buy their own health coverage, but many also don't qualify for Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor. Medicaid is mainly for people who have children or a disability, and most homeless people are childless adults. So, like 63-year-old Walter Brooks of Baltimore, they make do without insurance coverage.