well for decades people without a home have used Newark's Penn Station as a place to find shelter food and water Now the folks at New Jersey Transit and Newark Mayor Ros Baraka's office are using that as a way to reach vulnerable residents launching a program to support the homeless population with a goal of helping them stabilize their lives and find a permanent place to live Senior correspondent Joanna Gagas has more on the gateway to hope You have a railroad to insurance companies uh three different state agencies a hospital No they didn't all walk into a bar but they did all walk into Penn Station this week to announce Gateway to Hope a massive collaboration of public and private partnerships to address the growing problem of homelessness in the city Gay to Hope brings a multid-disciplinary medical outreach team directly into the station providing on the spot care and people and helping people access critical support As part of this program we're going to have one of our community health workers right here uh in Penn Station That health worker on site will be from RWJ Barnabas Health an underwriter of NJ Spotlight News and one of the key partners in the program along with Horizon Bluec Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey So we will find a private room on the other side of the station where nurses and community health workers can talk to these homeless folks in a safe space talk to them about their options and then come up with transport so we can transport them to their their places NJ Transit CEO Chris Kori says he started thinking about a program like this in his first week on the job as a way to transition Penn Station from the only place a homeless person can find shelter to a resource where folks can get connected to services To have a team dedicated to Penn Station and in and around this area is tremendous Right up the street will have a a drop-in center uh for the homeless population as well or we say residents without addresses So instead of washing up in Penn Station's bathroom they get to go up the street and take a shower and wash their clothes and get services and treatment not too far from here One of the key components of this program will be connecting homeless individuals with permanent housing opportunities They'll do that through vouchers provided by New Jerseys Department of Community Affairs and the Newark Housing Authority The program also includes the activation of 200 transitional housing units throughout the Nor Housing Authority giving people not just shelter but a pathway to stability and another 100 housing vouchers from the Department of Community Affairs which comes with an investment from the state to the tune of about $3.2 million plus a $6 million investment through public and private funding for the drop-in center nearby And to get folks the meaningful support they need The program is pulling in grassroots organizations like Bridges Outreach to connect the dots Once those folks are connected to their housing we're the ones who are making sure that they're going to keep that housing And because they're inherently transitional ultimately also doing the housing navigation to find the ultimate permanency Why is a program like this important especially at a time when budgets are so uncertain yeah I mean for a lot of reasons right so first of all who is more needy than the homeless population in the state of New Jersey number one Number two we also look at this as a capital stack of investment So this is also investing in the economy here in Newark So if we are making sure that we are not just in making these home opportunities available for individuals but then we are also making the city even more attractive for investment to come and call Newark home itself And that really will help just raise up Newark as a whole We hope we see a beautiful thriving busy buzzing Penn Station every day that uh residents and visitors and commuters that workers right people passing through here feel good about it Places have eliminated chronic homelessness You know that ultimately is our goal here too And we think that's possible by threading these things together with outreach with housing supports once you're in housing to have supports while you're there It has to be comprehensive and thought out but that's the goal I mean it sounds big but it's possible The outreach center at Penn Station is expected to open in the next several weeks and the Sheila Y Oliver dropin center up the road is set to open by the end of 2025 It's a model state leaders will be watching closely to see if it can be scaled around New Jersey In New York I'm Joanna Gagas NJ Spotlight News [Music]