A Frank Conversation About Homelessness

Cullen Ryan, Executive Director Community Housing of Maine, Deb Desantis, CEO of CSH, a national organization on homelessness, Dr. Jim O’Connell, President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and subject of renowned author Tracy Kidder’s book Rough Sleepers about his work with Boston’s homeless community, and Tracy Kidder himself will join the conversation about the homelessness crisis nationally and in Greater Portland and proposed alternatives to how we currently manage this issue.

• Dr. Jim O’Connell serves as the President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. O’Connell received his medical degree from Harvard University in 1982 and completed residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1985, he began full-time clinical work with homeless individuals as the founding physician of the program. He established the nation’s first medical respite program in 1985. Working with the MGH Laboratory of Computer Science, Dr. O’Connell designed and implemented the nation’s first computerized medical record for a homeless program. Dr. O’Connell served as the National Program Director of the Homeless Families Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. O’Connell is the editor of The Health Care of Homeless Persons: A Manual of Communicable Diseases and Common Problems in Shelters and on the Streets. His articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, , the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and several other medical journals. His book, Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor, was published in 2015.

• Tracy Kidder is an American author and has been described as the “master of the nonfiction narrative.” In 2023, he published Rough Sleepers in which he tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell and the founding and growth of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, following O’Connell and his colleagues for five years as they served the Boston homeless community. Kidder’s book, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation, received the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award in 1982. Other bestselling works include Mountains Beyond Mountains, Strength in What Remains, House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Hometown, Good Prose, and A Truck Full of Money. Born in New York City in 1945, Kidder attended Harvard where he earned a BA in 1967. From June 1968 until June 1969, he served as a lieutenant in Vietnam for which he was awarded a Bronze Star. Following the war, Kidder obtained his MA from the University of Iowa, where he attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Granta and The New York Times Book Review. Kidder lives with his wife in western Massachusetts and in Maine.

• Cullen Ryan has been the Executive Director of Community Housing of Maine, the largest supportive housing provider for the homeless populations in the state, since 2004. He has served homeless and special needs populations for 37 years. A formerly licensed clinician with a BA from the University of Vermont and an MA in Counseling and Psychological Services from St. Mary’s University, Cullen has provided case management, family therapy, and individual/group psychotherapy to homeless adults, families, and adolescents in a variety of clinical and non-clinical settings in three states. Cullen currently chairs the Board of the Northern New England Housing Investment Fund, the Maine Developmental Services Oversight and Advisory Board, the Maine Coalition for Housing and Quality Services, and was a recent past chair of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition. Cullen’s advocacy has been recognized by receipt of Spurwink’s 2021 Humanitarian of the Year Award and the MACSP Bonnie Jean Brooks Shining Light Award in 2023.

• Deborah Desantis is President and CEO of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), the largest Community Development Financial Institution in the United States devoted to housing solutions for those at risk of homelessness. She has led the organization since 2007, tripling its lending and support toward the creation of over 300,000 permanent stable homes for individuals and families struggling through multiple challenges, including homelessness, lack of healthcare, and intergenerational poverty. DeSantis has spearheaded the reorganization of CSH to deepen its focus on data-driven results, innovative funding models such as Pay-For-Success, and expansion into high-need communities. Prior to her position at CSH, she served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of New Jersey. In 2019, Deborah was recognized as one of the top 10 leading women in the affordable housing industry by Affordable Housing Finance magazine and has been cited as one of the 10 Most Influential Americans for Homelessness Reform. She is a graduate of Babson College and Columbia Business School.

Lead Sponsors for this event are Amy Woodhouse and Tobey Scott

Net proceeds from this event to benefit

Enjoy pre-lecture music for 30 minutes before the performance.

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