Robert V. Hess

Robert V. Hess, a lifelong public servant, dedicated to ending homelessness, died, December 24, 2013 after battling cancer for 8 months. The South Jersey resident was 57. He was born on February 24, 1956 to Barbara Anne Neumeister Hess and the late Bernard Lawrence Hess in Baltimore, MD. Rob graduated from Towson Catholic High School in 1974, earned his BS from the University of Maryland, and is a veteran of the United States Army. He was married to Patricia Garmer Hess in 1980, and they lived together in Baltimore, MD before relocating to Philadelphia in 2001, NYC in 2006, and Egg Harbor Township, NJ in 2012.

Rob worked tirelessly throughout his life to help others. After he graduated from college, he ran a large thrift store for the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) in Baltimore City. During his 16 years there, he grew the store to over 150 employees and five different locations. This led Rob to take a harder look at the homeless. After learning there were nearly a thousand veterans living on the streets of Baltimore at that time, he and a small group of veterans investigated what other cities around the country were doing. He used the model of military-like structure and founded the Maryland Center for the Veterans Education and Training (McVETS). Twenty-five years later, McVETS has helped thousands of our nation’s veterans move off the streets and out of shelter into their own homes with a living wage job. In fact, the Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development declared the center as, “The national model for seamless services to homeless veterans.”

After this success, Rob went onto working for a policy group, Action for the Homeless, where he oversaw a mutually beneficial merger with the Maryland Food Community, which was named Center for Poverty Solutions. Five years later, he was called to Philadelphia to serve as “homeless czar” where he helped to drastically reduce the number of individuals living on the streets by more than 60%. He was then appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to serve as New York City’s Commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services. After serving in this role from 2006 to 2010, during which time he reduced the number of individuals living on New York’s streets by 47% and created successful programs that moved people off the streets and out of shelters into housing, he spent a year working on a national replication of the Doe Fund’s, Ready, Willing and Able program.

Rob founded Housing Solutions USA in July 2011. Since then, Rob and Housing Solutions USA, with its client-centered and results-driven approach and programming, have continued to make strides towards ending homelessness. With a clear sense of what is needed and a determined overall vision, the nonprofit’s plan is to further raise the bar on homeless services. Rob’s lifelong commitment to serving the public has proven to be as groundbreaking as it has been effective.

In his spare time, Rob enjoyed golf, cooking, reading, and spending time with his family.

In addition to his wife, Rob is survived by daughters Christi L. Hess and Brittany A. Hess; mother Barbara Anne Neumeister Hess; siblings Lynda Hess and Steve Hess; and many other loving family members.

The family will receive friends in the LEMMON FUNERAL HOME OF DULANEY VALLEY INC. 10 W. Padonia Road (at York Road) Timonium, Maryland 21093 on Sunday, January 5, 2014 from 2-4 PM and on Monday, January 6, 2014 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 10 AM in St. Joseph Church, 101 Church Lane, Cockeysville, Maryland 21030.

Interment will follow, 11:30 AM at Maryland Veterans Cemetery, Garrison Forest.

Expressions of sympathy may be directed in Rob's memory to the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET) &/or Project HOME &/or New York City Homeless Trust Fund.