"As an assemblymember representing the west side of Manhattan and the CEO of one of the city's largest homeless services organizations, we grapple with this complexity daily-how mental health and substance use disorders often interact to push stable housing further out of reach, creating a vicious cycle that plays out in our streets and subways. Project Renewal has quietly developed and tested occupational therapy programs that address the daily living skills essential for housing stability, from medication management to emotional regulation and job interview preparation."
"As a career path, OT is more accessible than many health professions, typically requiring three years or less of postgraduate education. Project Renewal has built this workforce from the ground up, training 500 OT interns annually across more than a dozen colleges. Many remain to work in the city. These homegrown employees now fill Project Renewal's ranks-20 occupational therapists across 15 locations, serving more than 1,500 New Yorkers with histories of homelessness."
Homelessness involves complex interactions between mental health and substance use disorders that obstruct stable housing and create cyclical displacement into streets and subways. Project Renewal developed occupational therapy programs that target daily living skills essential to housing stability, including medication management, emotional regulation, and job interview preparation. Occupational therapists assess functional skills and identify barriers to tasks of daily living. OT requires relatively brief postgraduate training, enabling rapid workforce growth through internship partnerships with colleges. Local hiring produced 20 occupational therapists across 15 sites serving over 1,500 people and enabling mobile, low-barrier, high-impact behavioral health and substance use interventions.
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