MEDIA RELEASE WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2009
from Felicity Reynolds, CEO, Mercy Foundation
FOUNDER OF COMMON GROUND IN SYDNEY
Rosanne Haggerty, Founder and President of Common Ground is currently
visiting Sydney. On Thursday 19 November she will have a joint media
conference with David Borger, Minister for Housing to talk about the new
Common Ground development in Sydney.
Rosanne will also be speaking at several functions for housing and homelessness
workers over the next couple of days. She is also the special guest of the Mercy
Foundation at a function on Thursday evening to highlight the Foundation’s work
on solving homelessness.
Ms Haggerty is a renowned pioneer in the field of ending homelessness. She
established the Common Ground model of permanent supportive housing in the
USA, developing more than 2,500 units of supportive housing in New York since
1991. The model is being adopted worldwide, including in Australia.
CEO of the Mercy Foundation, Ms Felicity Reynolds, stated that “the Mercy
Foundation is very fortunate to have someone of Ms Haggerty’s experience and
expertise in Sydney to speak about Common Ground and other initiatives that
solve homelessness”.
The Mercy Foundation has been working with several other organisations to
advocate for Common Ground in Sydney. In August 2009, the Minister for
Housing announced the proposal for a Common Ground model to be built in
Camperdown in Sydney.
Rosanne is visiting Australia to speak at a number of functions and seminars
and to meet with political, community and philanthropic leaders to support
Australian efforts to develop supportive housing and to reduce homelessness in
this country.
Next week, she will be guest speaker at the First Annual Supportive Housing
seminar in Melbourne, an event hosted by the Australian Common Ground
Alliance.
More information about Rosanne Haggerty can be found at:
she is in Sydney or for more information, please contact Felicity Reynolds on
0438 771 518.
NEWS 
