Bulletin Board
The place where you can stay up to date with the latest events, stories, news, and opportunities for our City Relief community.
Lessons from Kilimanjaro - What a Storm and a Lost Bag Taught Me About Vulnerability (Week 2)
Last week I wrote about rhythm — how the mountain forces you to slow down.
This week is about the storm.
Lessons From Kilimanjaro - Why I Climbed Africa’s Highest Mountain (Week 1)
I didn't climb Mount Kilimanjaro because I needed an adventure.
I climbed because I lead an organization that depends on generosity.
When a group of nonprofit leaders invited me to join a fundraising expedition up Africa's highest peak, I saw it first through a strategic lens. If shared challenge inspires generosity, maybe this could help more people move from crisis toward stability. Maybe it could open doors. Maybe it could strengthen City Relief's work across New York and New Jersey.
WEEK 7: Disability Discrimination & the Systematic Exclusion of People Who Are Different
I had planned to land the plane on this series about the complexity of homelessness—why the tidy stories we tell ourselves are incomplete and, often, harmful. But last week, I only brushed up against a reality that deserves far more attention: the intersection of disability discrimination and homelessness, and the quiet ways people are excluded from support long before they ever fall into crisis.
WEEK 6: He Had Heart Surgery. Then He Was Back on the Street.
This week, I want to zoom in on another layer of complexity that makes accessing safe and sustainable housing so difficult: healthcare, mental health services, and long-term care for aging or disabled loved ones.
WEEK 5: Those Who Don’t Know History Are Destined to Repeat It
Over the past few weeks, I've written about the complexity of homelessness—why congregate shelters aren't a solution for everyone, why creative approaches matter, and why the data we track doesn't always capture the full reality of the problem.
Underneath all of it is a more fundamental question: How did we get here, and why is homelessness so hard to fix?
WEEK 4: Why Counting Homelessness Isn’t the Same as Ending It
Part of the challenge in addressing homelessness is that many of our public conversations focus on managing the most visible effects of the crisis rather than understanding the deeper systems that keep people stuck in it. In city halls, community board meetings, and policy discussions across the country, the way we measure the problem often shapes what we believe is possible in responding to it.
WEEK 3: Creative Solutions for a Systemic Problem
Last week, I shared some of the reasons why traditional shelters don't work for everyone, and why sleeping outside is not usually a first choice, but a last resort.
So the question becomes: what are the alternatives, if any?
WEEK 2: The Shelter System That Pushes People Outside
I'll never forget the first time I toured the Bellevue Intake Shelter in New York City when I began working at City Relief.
Walking toward the former psychiatric hospital—now the primary intake point for single adult men entering the city's shelter system—I immediately felt uneasy. The building looked like something out of a Batman comic, the kind of place designed to contain danger rather than do any good.
WEEK 1: Why One-Size-Fits-All Fails
Over the years, I’ve noticed something about how we tend to talk about homelessness: We want it to be simple.
We want one solution. One program. One policy. One clear fix that, if implemented well enough, would finally “solve” the problem.
I understand the impulse. Complexity is exhausting. Nuance takes time. And when human suffering is involved, we’re understandably eager for answers that feel decisive and hopeful.
But, like most things on this side of heaven, homelessness is not simple—and pretending it is often does more harm than good.
The Growing Faces of Homelessness
I hope 2026 is beginning with a sense of hope and anticipation for you. A new year always invites reflection—and for us at City Relief, it also brings clarity. After a brief pause between Christmas and New Year’s, our team is back on the streets of Newark, Paterson, and New York City, stepping into what we believe is a pivotal year.
The Power of Not Walking By
This week, I want to go a step further and talk about how loneliness is interrupted not just by noticing people who are struggling, but by choosing to engage with them.
A Lonely Christmas for Our Unhoused Neighbors and What We Can Do About It
The Christmas season is officially here. Twinkling lights, packed calendars, school recitals, and Amazon boxes arriving at the door around the clock (just me?). And somewhere in the garage sits the bin of decorations we promised ourselves we'd organize last year. It's a beautiful kind of chaos. At least for most of us.
But in the middle of all that holiday hustle, while we're sprinting from one thing to the next, many of our unhoused neighbors are standing still, quietly overlooked as life moves around them.
The Week I Became the Good Shepherd (Guest Newsletter from Dan Sadlier)
On the morning of October 30th, 2024, our apartment—usually alive with six kids—was quiet. Around 8 a.m., our son Judah went to check on his oldest sister, our adopted daughter, "M." She wasn't there. I walked upstairs, assuming she was out with the dog or in the shower. But her room was empty, and her phone, something no 21-year-old ever leaves behind, sat on the table. Within minutes, our quiet morning became every parent's nightmare.
Experts in Gratitude
Today is the annual tradition of gathering with loved ones, eating a ridiculous amount of food, and acknowledging the good things that we experience throughout the year. Gratitude is an exercise, not a feeling. And frankly, I'm out of shape. I don't know about you, but I struggle to remain "thankful" on a day-to-day basis.
The Cold Some People Can't Escape
Have you ever felt the kind of cold that sinks all the way into your bones? Not the quick shiver you get walking to your car, but the kind of chill you can't shake with a hot drink or an extra blanket?
What happens when the first snow falls and you have nowhere to go?
It got cold this week. Not sure where you're reading this, but in New Jersey and New York City we saw the first snow flurries of the year. It reminded me of my first winter doing outreach with City Relief back in 2010. I was still working part-time at Starbucks but went out as often as I could to serve alongside our team.
Responding to hunger with hope and celebration
People are hungry and scared, and we need to respond.
The question is…how?
Over the next six weeks, City Relief is hosting two really powerful events designed to help our community respond with both compassion and celebration.
Millions of Working Families Could Lose Groceries Tomorrow
If SNAP benefits are halted on November 1, millions of working families will lose access to groceries overnight.
How Do You Keep Showing Up When You’re Running on Empty?
There's a kind of strength we don't talk about enough—the strength it takes to keep showing up for work when the odds are stacked against you.
Take Saheed Adebay Aare, for example. Every evening around 5 p.m., Saheed left the shelter where he was staying in New York City and began a long, exhausting commute to his job at an Amazon warehouse in Carteret, New Jersey. The trip took hours—buses, trains, and transfers across bridges and boroughs—all so he could clock in for a short, four-hour shift.