For 20 years, Anna Bissonnette has been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to elder homelessness. As a community nurse, Bissonnette, now 75, of Waltham could not walk away from the patients she was treating in various Boston neighborhoods. It was the mid-1980s and seniors in the 70s and 80s were being forced out of their homes and into homeless shelters by gentrification. "It is inhuman to make elders go to shelters," she said.

Bissonnette and six other women formed The Committee To End Elder Homelessness in 1990, which later became Hearth, Inc., and now they are celebrating having six residences for the region's elders to live permanently, safely, in a community with activities and comforts, that she envisioned for them two decades ago.

The Hearth model is Housing First - with services. Hearth proudly runs six residences with 136 units for formerly homeless elders, and the homes are staffed with nurses, social workers, homemakers, and aides. All of the apartments are Section 8 housing so residents contribute 30 percent of their income, primarily from Social Security, toward their rent - thus, giving them a sense of ownership and pride unlike a temporary shelter arrangement.

Various banks, State Street Bank, Citizens Bank, Wainwright Bank, the Boston Foundation, and numerous other community groups support Hearth with funding and volunteers who do a variety of tasks. Those public-private partnerships are critical to Hearth's success, Bissonnette said. "It takes a village. Anything you want to do, you've got to collaborate," she said, adding that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was critical in launching Hearth when they gave her a leadership award in 1994 along with financial incentives to grow the organization.

But, Bissonnette knows it is also a difficult time. Although Hearth's model is being replicated in other cities across the country and Gov. Deval Patrick has a statewide initiative to end elder homelessness by providing permanent homes rather than "shelter-izing" elders, Bissonnette is concerned that federal funding and public policy makers are not addressing the problem adequately today. "It's a disgrace," she said.

And, even the Governor's proposed budget for 2009 cut out Hearth's funding of $216,000 which supporters are rallying to re-instate.

Bissonnette, who lives with her wife, Marion Kenneally, is writing a memoir of her work.