Jairo Barreto perched on a chair in the parish hall at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown getting his hair trimmed – a fresh cut and, he hopes, part of a fresh start.
On his own since he was 16, the Morristown native weathered some rough-and-tumble days and acquired a criminal record. “I got into a decent amount of trouble when I was a kid,” said Barreto, now 32.
He’s been out of trouble for years now, but he is having trouble finding work. Legally blind, he lives in Section 8 housing in the Hollow. His girlfriend, Debra Gallia, brought him to St. Peter’s on Dec. 6 for Project Homeless Connect 2012, run by the Mental Health Association of Morris County. There, he took the first steps in learning how to clean up his record and move forward.
“They opened up a new road for me,” he said. “It’s like a new doorway.”
Introduced in Morris County five years ago, Project Homeless Connect started in San Francisco in 2004 and spread across the country.
