[fla_tiger]

Unity of N.O. to offer 5,000 homes for disabled

CityBusiness staff report
March 28, 2006 7:37 AM

NEW ORLEANS — Unity of Greater New Orleans, a group of 60 agencies providing housing and services, will announce a plan at noon Friday to prevent homelessness in New Orleans through development of 5,000 units of permanent supportive housing for people with disabilities. The Unity meeting will be held at the Holy Angels Conference Center, 3500 St. Claude Ave.
Rosanne Haggerty, a national expert on supportive housing, will present the
keynote address, "Preventing and Ending Homelessness in New Orleans."

Haggerty will discuss research demonstrating that affordable rental apartments linked with services is a cost-effective strategy successful in ending homelessness. Haggerty is founder and president of Common Ground, a New York-based nonprofit and the largest U.S. developer of supportive housing. Unity is working with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, the Metropolitan Human Services District, the Jefferson Parish Human Services Authority, and other local, state and national groups to implement this model in the New Orleans area.

Unity will dedicate its meeting to the memory of Charles Johnson, a formerly
homeless person who served as an outreach worker for Volunteers of America and was an integral part of Unity's street outreach team. Johnson died in Hurricane Katrina.