Events link homeless, service providers

Some come for the haircuts and massages. Several want the free breakfast. Most need help finding housing.

But thousands of homeless people across the country are showing up at events designed like career fairs to help them tap into drug treatment, mental health and welfare programs, and navigate through the often confusing landscape of social services.

Project Homeless Connect started in San Francisco two years ago and has been adopted by about 130 cities nationwide.

"This is the first time in a while that I've felt like anyone wants to help me," Tim Cressetti said Friday after having his shoulder-length hair cut to ear level inside the MassMutual Center.

Without a job, Cressetti ran out of money to pay his rent in June and has been staying in a homeless shelter. His last haircut was about a year ago.

"I've felt like everything was against me," said Cressetti, 52. "It was like I was the only person in the world."

The idea behind Project Homeless Connect is to place as many social service providers as possible under one roof. The Springfield event included representatives from homeless shelters, housing authorities, substance abuse treatment centers and state and federal benefit agencies.

Attendees applied for state identification cards and copies of their birth certificates _ essential documents needed to get a house, job or disability benefits.

But some of the longest lines were for free haircuts, massages and eye exams.

"I feel pretty good now," Antonio Larouco said after a 10-minute back massage. Larouco, 34, has been living at a homeless shelter for six months since losing his job at a bakery because of health problems.

He says he's been having problems scraping together enough money just for buses to take him from one doctor appointment to another, let alone getting across town to meet with a social service caseworker.

"You just put all that stuff off and say you'll do it tomorrow," Larouco said. "But then you never get around to it. And before you know it, you've been living in the shelter for a long time. Having all this stuff in the same place for one day helps a lot."

The Project Homeless Connect events are tied to 10-year plans that about 300 cities, including Springfield, have adopted to end homelessness.

On any given night, 750,000 people are homeless in the United States. During the course of a year, as many as 3 million people experience homelessness at some point, said Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

"For too long we have been managing homelessness, but not really trying to end it," Mangano said. "In the past, we've had a series of crisis intervention and ad hoc services that just maintained the status quo."

The 10-year plans that he has helped cities develop place a greater emphasis on providing the homeless with permanent housing and services they'll need to keep from ending up back on the streets.

Mangano said several cities, including Houston, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco, have seen a decrease in homeless populations about two years into their plans.

But inside the MassMutual Center on Friday, all that people like Stacey Williamson cared about was getting through one day to the next.

After years of supporting her crack and alcohol addictions by selling herself for sex, Williamson credited agencies at the event with keeping her sober in the past year.

"I'm just glad these people are here and they can help me out," she said after taking an HIV test.

The test came back negative _ good news for her and her 2-week-old son, sleeping in a stroller.