The Anne Arundel County Homeless Resource Day Wrap-Up meeting was held on Friday, April 8. Service provider coordinators were invited to review the successes of the day and to plan for next year by discussing challenges encountered on the day and the service provider feedback.
County Executive John Leopold welcomed all meeting attendees as they arrived and thanked them individually. The County Executive spoke to the group and stated that he believes that it is the responsibility of this mostly affluent county to meet the needs of those in need. Leopold sees Homeless Resource Day as a great example of the collaboration of many different entities resulting in the delivery of concrete services without cost to those in need. It was the county Executive who was behind Anne Arundel County’s first Homeless Resource Day four years ago. After seeing such a program offered in another state, Leopold approached the Department of Social Services and asked that they implement the program in Anne Arundel. DSS has coordinated the program ever since.
Governor Martin O’Malley, after reading about this year’s Homeless Resource Day, would like to replicate the Anne Arundel County program across the state. Marcia Kennai, Director of DSS, reported that Cecil, Carroll, Montgomery and Baltimore counties are already planning a Homeless Resource Days to take place by next October.
Final statistics for the day reported at the meeting were even higher than first estimated. There were 674 individuals served including 230 men, 207 women and 237 children. I was able to report that eight attorneys served 70 individuals by providing legal advice to answer 94 questions.
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