Health Care for the Homeless: Beyond Repairing the Safety Net

Jeff Singer is the President and CEO of HCH, Inc. A clinical social worker, he has experience in child and adult protective services, mental health and addiction services, street outreach, and community organizing. In 1983, Mr. Singer organized HIV/AIDS and homeless services at the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, where he was employed for 14 years. In 1987, Mr. Singer moved to HCH, Inc. to organize that agency’s social work and addiction services. He later served there as Director of Community Relations, before becoming President and CEO in 1998. Mr. Singer also has served as the national policy staffer, lobbyist, and President of the NHCHC, the organization which represents 200 homeless healthcare agencies throughout the USA. In these roles, he has been involved in developing and advocating national policies and programs related to homelessness, healthcare, housing, and poverty. Mr. Singer is a founding member of the Baltimore Homeless Union, the Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc., and City Advocates in Solidarity with the Homeless and has authored numerous articles regarding homeless health care.

Ernest saw dead bodies and blood in the streets – or at least he thought he did. A gentle, generous man, when not hallucinating he made coffee for everyone in the waiting room of Baltimore’s Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) program. When, however, he was in the thrall of hallucinations, his 300-pound frame would shake with fright and rage. “Take me to the morgue. I need to see the dead bodies,” he would plead, as if the experience of the verifiably real bodies would overwhelm the virtual corpses scattered about him.