NewHaven’s plans for homelessness grant now include non-congregate shelter

NEW HAVEN — The city this winter has operated short of about 100 homeless shelter beds, instead keeping people safe in overnight “warming centers” that they can’t sleep in as the Columbus House shelter operates at capacity and people without permanent homes live in a makeshift “Tent City” and other out-of-the-way spaces.

Some people experiencing homelessness sleep on benches and in other public spaces.

Homeless advocates and activists are hopeful, however, that a revamped city plan setting aside $1 million to build a new non-congregate shelter, using funds from a $4.85 million federal Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to address issues related to homelessness, will ease the situation.

The plan, which the Board of Alders amended and approved Tuesday night, originally was to use $4 million to build “deeply affordable” housing aimed at people without homes.

The amended version, put forth by Alder Alex Guzhnay, D-1, shifts $1 million toward the cost of a non-congregate shelter and creates an advisory board to help guide the efforts.

Guzhnay acted at the suggestion of Steve Werlin, executive director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, who suggested the $1 million shift on behalf of the Greater New Haven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness Feb. 15.

The advisory board would include both a member of the Regional Alliance to End Homeless and a member of U-ACT, the Unhoused Activists Community Team.

“The Greater New Haven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness is thrilled to see the city taking seriously the need for emergency services for unhoused individuals in the form of non-congregate shelter,” Werlin said in a statement on behalf of the Alliance.

“Although $1 million will not alone cover the needed costs, this is an important demonstration of the city’s role and responsibility, and we’re confident that other public and private funders will see the value of addressing this crisis through collaborative efforts,” Werlin said.

“We’re equally enthused that the city has chosen to appoint an advisory committee that includes a provider affiliated with the Alliance and a person with lived experience through U-ACT,” Werlin said. “Doing so is not only a logical bestpractice in the deployment of public funding; it is an acknowledgement of the wealth of expertise that exists in our community.”

Tyrell Jackson, a member of U-ACT who lives in the “Tent City” encampment along the West River off Ella T. Grass Boulevard, was pleased to see both the money approved and a U-ACT member on the new advisory committee.

“I think that there’s a lot of immediate needs that the homeless have and as long as they do things with the budget that put us in a position that’s better than it was, there’s only so much complaining” to do, said Jackson, who grewup in West Haven.

“Whatever they got from us that night” of the Board of Alders joint committee meeting “was enough to put us on ... I’m just hoping for the best,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to things working out. ... I’m really happy about the progress that’s being made. The quicker we get something done,” the quicker things will improve, Jackson said.

The city has been down shelter space since the closure of the Emergency Shelter Management Services shelter at 645 Grand Ave. during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the height of the pandemic, federal funds disbursed by the state paid to house otherwise-unhoused people in area hotels and motels. Columbus House and ESMS bothwere operating out of the New Haven Village Suites extended-stay hotel when ESMS shut down, said Margaret Middleton, CEO of Columbus House and vice chairwoman of the Allliance with Jennifer Paradis of the Beth-El Center in Milford.

Themoney that paid for the hotels ran out after last winter. This year’s decision to open the warming centers was seen as a stopgap measure to help keep people who might otherwise be on the street alive and safe during the coldest days of winter.

“We’re incredibly grateful to the city of New Haven and the Board of Alders” for making a commitment to help provide places to live for unhoused people, Middleton said.