Neighborhood News Fall 2019
Letter from Ann L. Shalof, Executive Director
Tenants move in to the NCS Residence, our supportive housing for homeless adults, some having spent decades on the street or in shelters. Supportive services help them manage the mental illness, addiction, or other factors that contributed to their homelessness and can still threaten their stability. While housing at the NCS Residence is permanent, we’re delighted when it doesn’t have to be. If by providing a secure home and the services they need we can help our
residents get their lives back on track, we are thrilled when they move on. We’ve recently said goodbye to four tenants who reunited with family or moved on to their own independent apartments.
At Louis Nine House (LNH), our young adult supportive residence, the goal is for everyone to say goodbye. Tenants move into LNH having aged out of foster care or having been homeless. LNH offers a stable place to live and comprehensive services to help them address the trauma they’ve experienced, compensate for their disrupted childhood and schooling, and learn the basic skills they need to successfully move on. And they are moving on! This newsletter features Tihirah, who is living on her own and teaching in a public school. And she’s not the only one moving ahead.
We aren’t finished yet! As I write this, NCS is planning a new project to address an overlooked group of people who experience homelessness in alarming numbers. In the coming months, you will hear more from me on this project and how you can partner with NCS to continue providing New Yorkers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with a home, a community, and access to the services that they need to thrive.
Tihirah Has Left the Building!
Louis Nine House resident finds her way to a better life
Before Tihirah moved into Louis Nine House, she had big dreams. Her life circumstances had put many of her goals on hold, but she believed that she would graduate from college and have a meaningful career.
But she also had a problem—she didn’t have a home.
She had stayed with friends and relatives who could offer her a temporary place to sleep. But moving around so often was getting in the way of her dreams, and she moved to a homeless shelter. While this was more consistent, she knew that it was not a solution.
Things started coming together for Tihirah when she moved to Louis Nine House. She worked with a case manager to set goals and make plans to achieve them. Her motivation to work and save money while she earned a degree was supported by the OPTIONS education and vocational team. She got tutoring help, accessed donated clothing in the Career Closet, and expressed herself through the Aim High with the Arts! creative arts programs. She also received financial support from a generous NCS donor who helped cover expenses to ensure that she could finish school.
“In tough times, I was able to have the assistance that I needed to succeed,” says Tihirah.
Tihirah earned her Associate’s degree, and then her Bachelor’s degree. She finished the NYC Teaching Collaborative program, and started teaching special education in the Bronx, where her principal chose her to lead a student advocacy group. And now she is taking classes to finish her Master’s degree.
"I’m not a quitter,” said Tihirah. “When I believe that I can do something, I do everything in my power to accomplish it.”
Earlier this year, Tihirah moved out of Louis Nine House to her own apartment in the Bronx and is able to support herself, including paying her own rent.
“Louis Nine House helped me to change my life, to get on my feet, and find my way to a better life.”
Thank you for your support of Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, which helped us create an environment at Louis Nine House that supported Tihirah's success.
Louis Nine House, located in the Bronx, has 46 studio apartments for young adults (aged 18-25) who are homeless or have aged out of foster care. Many of our tenants have experienced multiple foster care placements, emotional trauma, neglect and/or abuse, and many also struggle with mental illness and substance use. Louis Nine House is also the home to OPTIONS vocational and educational program and the Aim High with the Arts! creative arts program.
NextGen Network Launch
Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter has launched the NextGen Network, our young professionals (20s and 30s) group that supports our mission by volunteering at NCS programs, hosting social and fundraising events, and building relationships with like-minded peers. Are you a young professional who wants to make a meaningful difference in someone’s life or do you know someone who may be interested?
Learn more and join today at ncsinc.org/nextgen
From Generation to Generation
At NCS we think of ourselves as a family helping our neighbors. For two of our board members, they really are family!
Ann Loeb joined the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter Board of Directors in 1995. She was working for Settlement Housing Fund, a non-profit developer of affordable housing and her work brought her to the NCS Residence on the Upper East Side. Ann explains that she was inspired “by the passion of the charter board members who were determined to keep the 81st street tenants housed.” She has been an active and invaluable member of the Board ever since, sharing her expertise...and now her granddaughter!
Rachael Piltch-Loeb grew up not only with a grandmother working to develop affordable housing in NYC, but also a mother who worked as an anti-discrimination attorney focused on fair housing. This taught her at a young age that not everyone has a consistent home. She was also given a strong foundation in volunteering and philanthropy. As a teenager, Rachael started a jewelry business to raise money for breast cancer support services and research, raising over $100,000 in less than four years.
Rachael is both the newest member of the NCS Board of Directors and the founding chair of the NextGen Network, a young professionals group supporting NCS’s mission, which she now co-chairs with Board Member, Matthew Hughes. She was excited to join NCS because of the “priority on neighbors helping neighbors” and our focus on wanting to “engage everyone in the community,” including the younger generation.
Summer Highlights at the Programs
NCS clients and staff from both Chance for Change and the NCS Residence enjoyed summer holidays with barbecues and celebrations in Central Park. Clients had the opportunity to share meals, enjoy books, and relax in a safe environment.
NCS Welcomes New Board Members
Matthew D. Hughes is a Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker at Brown Harris Stevens. At the end of a work event in the Fall of 2018, he noticed how much food was left over and donated it to our tenants at the NCS Residence. Meeting some of the residents, Matthew was inspired to do more. Since then, has been appointed to co-chair of the NextGen Network, facilitated clothing and linen drives, and been a tireless ambassador for NCS among his friends and colleagues at BHS and beyond.
Rachael Piltch-Loeb, PhD, is a fellow with the Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation & Practice (EPREP) Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a member of the Program on Population Impact, Recovery, and Resilience at the New York University College of Global Public Health. As the founding chair of the NextGen Network, Rachael helped to develop the Network's signature project, the NextGen Innovation Award, and sits on the Selection Committee for the Award.
Marta Radzyminski is a private investor and multi-family office manager, actively managing real estate as well as public and private investments. She has almost 30 years of experience in the business and financial sectors, including positions at McGraw-Hill, Time Inc., and Credit Suisse. Marta became involved with NCS through former board member Brinton Parson and has become an advocate, volunteer, and supporter at our fundraising events and program activities.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors 2019
In May, NCS celebrated the 10th anniversary of Louis Nine House at the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Benefit at the Loeb Central Park Boathouse. We also announced the NextGen Innovation Award which will support the work of an emerging leader who is advancing creative approaches to homelessness in NYC. We heard from Rachael Piltch-Loeb, PhD, who co-chairs the NextGen Network that spearheaded this initiative, and from Don Peebles, Chairman and CEO of The Peebles Corporation, who chairs the Award Selection Committee. “Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the event a huge success,” said Ann Shalof, Executive Director of NCS. “We loved having so many friends gather to celebrate NCS and deeply appreciate your support of our work.” The Benefit raised more than $250,000 to support NCS.
Left: Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Board President David Oliver, Don Peebles, and NCS Executive Director, Ann Shalof
Right: Louis Nine House Residents Tihirah, Dawson, and Muray
