Housing Collective matches clients, landlords
BRIDGEPORT — Roger Martin had a lifestyle most people dream about. But at the age of 70, he was laid off, and after a series of financial setbacks found himself living on the streets in Bridgeport.
“I spent two winters living on the street with just a blanket and my wits,” Martin, now 77, said. “I do not do drugs and I don’t drink so I was able to survive minimally. But it was probably the worst experience of my life.”
Martin recently detailed his struggles of being homeless for several years before receiving the help he needed. A new program by The Housing Collective, which specializes in addressing housing issues in Fairfield County, is expected to help individuals like Martin find a quicker, more convenient way to find housing.
The new housing program, a network called Welcome Home, Neighbor, is designed to connect unsheltered individuals with landlords.
“Welcome home, Neighbor is a partnership,” said David Rich, president and CEO of The Housing Collective. “We work with all and every willing partner agency and affordable housing providers. And we bring the landlords to the table who have the housing stock.”
The network is powered by the website Padmission, a closed listing service accessed by homeless service providers and unsheltered individuals seeking housing.
Individuals can join the Welcome Home, Neighbor network for free and will then create a Padmission account.
Once connected, they will have access to listings and will be able to submit applications for housing.
“They have their first initial assessment and appointment and that’s where they officially enter our system,” Rich said. “We have navigators that work with them and we follow them until we have actually housed them.”
The network launched in October, too late for Martin to use, although he did receive help finding housing from Alpha Community Services YMCA.
“We took Roger in and set him up temporarily in the Harrison Apartments because we did not want him out in the cold,” said Katharine Weldy, senior program director of permanent supportive housing for individuals from Alpha. “We put him in a vacant unit until his unit was ready in another building,
where he is now.”
Now, Martin has his own studio apartment in one of their permanent supportive housing locations.
“It’s the nicest thing that’s happened to me since I was homeless,” Martin said. “This has been a long voyage and I think God put me on this earth to help people and help myself and now he’s brought me to the reality of life.”
Following nearly a decade of decline, there was an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in Connecticut by about 13 percent from 2021 to 2022.
The city of Bridgeport has also been feeling the effects with its slight increase of unsheltered individuals recently.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates that data on homelessness be collected every year on one night in January as part of a nationwide count called the Point-in-Time count.
According to data published by the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness’ website, there were 239 unsheltered people in Bridgeport who were either in temporary housing or emergency shelter in 2021.
Rich says that it’s not just an issue of homelessness, but also the limited capacity of shelter beds.
“One of our biggest problems here is, yes there’s an increase in homelessness, but folks are getting stuck in the shelters,” he said. We’re not getting them out and now the average time in a shelter is almost up to a year, which is almost untenable.”
Weldy said she thought the network would be a great resource in housing unsheltered individuals in Bridgeport because it would make the process of finding apartments easier.
Martin recalled the toll being homeless took on his life, calling it ‘a cancer in the city.”
“We’ve got to start helping the homeless because it’s helping ourselves at the same time,” he said.