Letter of Resignation – Neli Vazquez Rowland

Dear A Safe Haven Board of Directors,

After 28 years of having co-founded A Safe Haven and then served as the President of A Safe Haven Foundation, I hereby tender my resignation as the President of A Safe Haven Foundation to spend more time with my family, to focus on real estate investments and to pursue creative endeavors that may continue to help others in a different way. I will transition immediately, upon the appointment of my successor.

Serving at the helm and as the trusted steward of A Safe Haven, bridging our vision with the hopes and dreams of both people who want to make a difference and people in need who aspire to live a better life has been the joy and privilege of a lifetime.

There are no words to express the eternal gratitude that I have for all who have been a part of our journey.

Our success in helping over 140,000 people, of all backgrounds, get access to housing, peer to peer and customized professional services to help them overcome addiction, domestic violence and homelessness to become self-sufficient, has exceeded anything we ever could have imagined. The journey has been a long and arduous one, however, it could not have happened without the support and encouragement of so many like-minded people that shared our hopes and dreams for making this a better world for the least among us.

The pandemic has helped expose so many of the gaps in our systems and has made the issues we address and solve, mainstream concerns. For the first time in history, we have an opportunity to reimagine our broken and financially unsustainable systems. It is now a defining moment in our Nation’s history. I am proud to share that A Safe Haven is ready to meet the challenge. Today, A Safe Haven has a unique and solid vertically integrated delivery system in place, a diverse funding stream and is financially sound, a dedicated mission driven management team, a proven track record for success backed by data and thousands of anecdotal stories (read our book called: HEALING, Real Stories Told By People Who Overcame the Opioid and Homeless Epidemics), and we are humbled to have earned 60 local, national and international recognition, further validating our efforts. I am confident that A Safe Haven is truly poised to scale and to help serve as a national model.

I believe that this critical juncture is a good time for A Safe Haven to welcome a new leader who can take A Safe Haven to another dimension of growth and impact to meet the growing demand for services we are seeing every day. May we continue helping to elevate homelessness as an urgent public health issue and to integrate customized health, nutrition, behavioral health, education, employment and housing services. It is truly the framework that is needed to address all the social determinants of health and to achieve the best human infrastructure of the future. My greatest hope for all of us, is that we someday prevent and eradicate homelessness everywhere.

Finally, I defer to you all as the ASHF Board of Directors to name the best person to lead A Safe Haven Foundation into our next chapter.
I look forward to continuing to do my part to support A Safe Haven leadership and serving as a resource and an ambassador for the vision and mission in any way that I can in the future.

Thank you and God Bless,

Neli Vazquez Rowland