North Bergen Housing Authority Director of Tenant Services Shamira Cruz was awarded with the Direct Support Staff Award at the 21st Annual Supportive Housing Conference. The SHA conference is an educational and networking opportunity for housing and service providers, community planners, housing developers, public officials, families/consumers and those interested in promoting and advancing supportive housing for people with special needs. Each year a Direct Support Staff Award winner is picked.
“Ms. Cruz who is bilingual works tirelessly to ensure that our tenants are receiving the appropriate State and Federal benefits that they are entitled to,” said NBHA Executive Director Gerald Sanzari. “She also ensures that those tenants who want to become US Citizens are referred to free citizenship classes; which includes a program that subsidizes the cost of US Citizenship applications for income eligible participants.”
Shamira is dedicated to helping others and has earned the respect of her community as a result of her work with the North Bergen Housing Authority. The work that Shamira does includes setting up screenings for dementia, direct support services for residents and excellent communication to ensure that the community understands crucial healthcare information.