Since 1985, Care for the Homeless has met the health care and social service needs of homeless people in New York City. Homeless people have special needs that make it difficult to access services. For example, homeless people are most often displaced from their neighborhood of origin, do not have regular access to a phone, and focus on seeking shelter and food, not health care and social services.
To reduce barriers that homeless people face in accessing care, Care for the Homeless coordinates health care at 23 service sites where homeless people congregate and without regard to their ability to pay. Our service sites include shelters for single adults, family shelters, soup kitchens, drop-in centers, SROs, and a street outreach program to the mentally ill in four of New York City's five boroughs.
In addition to these basic health-related services, our contracted medical providers refer clients, when appropriate, to our social service professionals who address a range of psychosocial needs among homeless people, including mental health and substance use services, and entitlement benefits, including help with Medicaid.
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with Bronx County, it was the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated. Located north of Manhattan and Queens, and south of Westchester County, the Bronx is the only borough that is located primarily on the mainland.
People all around the world know the Bronx as the home of the New York Yankees, the Bronx Zoo, and the New York Botanical Garden—not to mention as the birthplace of hip-hop. Look deeper and you’ll discover the quaint maritime village of City Island, the cultural attractions of Fordham and Belmont, aka the “real Little Italy,” centered on the restaurants and cafés of Arthur Avenue. Grand Concourse, in the South Bronx, is full of art deco marvels.
About one-fifth of the Bronx's area and one-quarter of its land area is given over to park land: about 7,000 acres. Nearer the borough's center, and along the Bronx River, is Bronx Park. Its northern end houses the New York Botanical Gardens, which preserve the last patch of the original hemlock forest that once covered the entire county, and its southern end the Bronx Zoo, the largest urban zoological gardens in the U.S.
Education in the Bronx is provided by a large number of public and private institutions, many of which draw students who live beyond the Bronx. The New York City Department of Education manages public non-charter schools in the borough.