- Organizing Sponsors
- Participating Sponsors
Project Homeless Connect began in October 2004, when 278 volunteers surveyed the downtown San Francisco homeless population, which consists of a 60-square block area in the Tenderloin District where 85% of the City’s social services currently exist. One year later, San Francisco enlisted more than 2,000 volunteers to connect the homeless to vital services on a bi-monthly basis. To date, more than 10,000 San Franciscans have participated in this innovative program.
Since San Francisco’s inaugural PHC, the movement has grown to include more than 200 cities doing similar events as part of the National Project Homeless Connect. Participating cities include Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Miami and San Diego. Denver’s Road Home began sponsoring the events in December 2005.
Denver’s first PHC served more than 800 homeless people, providing healthcare, employment services, housing information, legal assistance and employment benefits.
Since then, Denver’s Road Home has worked with sponsors to host five more events. PHC4 marked the first time the program was been held in a non-governmental facility, and DU was the first college campus in the nation to host a PHC event. This coming PHC7 will be the third event that DU has hosted.
Project Homeless Connect works to break down the myth that homeless people do not seek assistance and services and prefer life on the street. Based on data from San Francisco, homeless people are responsive when approached with available resources in a respectful and kind manner. One of the goals of PHC is to make multiple contacts with the homeless population in order to build trust towards accepting assistance.