Organizations work to reduce homelessness in New Haven

By Julia Perkins

Shelters and organizations in the New Haven region say their efforts to end homelessness are working, despite the poverty in the area.

There are many different reasons someone could become homeless. Mental illness, substance abuse, a tragedy such as a fire, or release from prison are all factors that contribute to homelessness, New Haven Emergency Shelter Management Services Executive Director Arnold Johnson said.

“There’s no one reason [for homelessness,]” he said. “I joke around all the time and say we’re all maybe two paychecks away from being homeless.

But poverty is often a big reason, said Alison Cunningham, the executive director of Columbus House in New Haven and Middletown. The cost of housing is high, she said, and a single adult could have to pay more than $1,000 a month for an apartment.

“Well if you’re disabled and on Social Security, you might get $703 a month, so do the math it doesn’t work,” she said.

New Haven was ranked No. 6 on a list of American cities with the greatest income inequality in a Brookings Institution study. About 24 percent of New Haven residents lived below the poverty level in 2013, as compared to 7.9 percent in the state, according to City-Data.com.

Yet, Connecticut recently announced it ended homelessness among veterans and has made it a goal to put a stop to chronic homelessness by the end of 2016. The number of homeless people in New Haven in 2015 has decreased by 9 percent since 2011, according to the Coalition to End Homelessness’ Point in Time count.

Liberty Community Services Executive Director John Bradley said this is because homelessness organizations in the state are getting more funding and collaborating more.

“Homelessness is a problem in the United States and Connecticut, but it is something we can do something about,” Bradley said. “New Haven, Connecticut and generally most parts of the country have seen a decrease in homelessness over the last couple years, which is not insignificant because we’re living in a time where housing prices are going up and income inequity is going up, but we’re still making progress on ending homelessness because we know what works.”

Bradley said one system that has been working is called the Coordinated Access Network (CAN).

This program was started in 2014 after President Barack Obama passed the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009. This legislation required organizations to work together so that no one is homeless for more than 30 days and people do not return to homelessness, according to the Coalition to End Homelessness.

Under CAN, the state is separated into eight regions, and organizations pool their resources to get people into housing as soon as possible.

“It used to work that anyone who qualified for permanent supportive housing would put their name on the application of each individual agency,” Bradley said. “So that if we had an opening we would serve them, but if we didn’t they would go on the wait list of another agency. So that’s all changed now so that we’re coordinated, and no matter where the person comes in, they get access to the resources of the entire community.”

Everything is streamlined now so that there is one universal housing list, Cunningham said. For example, if someone calls United Way’s hotline for the homeless, 211, he or she would then meet with a coordinator for an assessment, get a shelter bed and then be put on the list.

The Greater New Haven region has gotten better at reducing the amount of time between when one calls 211 to when the person has an assessment to determine his or her needs, according to data from the Coalition to End Homelessness. From January 2015 to June 2015, the average wait time for an appointment was 28 days. This decreased to 12 days from July 2015 to January 2016.

A CAN specialist then works with the different organizations to see who has available subsidies that meet that person’s needs.

“That’s a great thing because that means we put all of our housing in a big pot and say here it all is and let’s just make sure the person comes up on the list to the very next available unit,” Cunningham said. “It’s a different way of doing business, and it’s worked very well to move people off that list very quickly.”

Julia Perkins is a senior journalism major at Quinnipiac University and is editor-in-chief of The Quinnipiac Chronicle. She is writing about poverty and income inequality this spring. She can be reached at julia.perkins@quinnipiac.edu.

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New Haven’s biggest landlord tackles education: A Q&A with Emily Byrne

By Julia Perkins

Elm City Communities, formerly called the New Haven Housing Authority, is working to close the achievement gap in New Haven public schools through a program called “Elm City Believes.” Under this program, the housing authority works with city schools to provide educational services for students living in public housing. The initiative was highlighted in an Urban Institute report last year, and Elm City Communities Education Policy Director Emily Byrne said this idea has the potential to be a model for the rest of the country.

Infographic by Julia Perkins

Q: How did Elm City Believes first kick off?

Emily Byrne: “Public housing authorities have been serving the nation and working class families for a long time, and their educational systems have been working to educate children for a long time. And one of the big challenges for housing authorities has been to solve poverty and one of the big challenges for education systems is to close the achievement gap. But it’s very rare for these institutions to come together and collaborate in any work. It makes complete sense, but it’s very rarely done. When I started at the New Haven Housing Authority, Elm City Communities, my position was actually one of the first in the country that was at the intersection of housing and education, and I think since my time, my being hired here, many more housing authorities across the country have roles similar to mine and are doing this work, which is really at the forefront of a movement to break down silos between housing and education.”

Q: What is that connection between the housing side and education side?

EB: “Both schools and public housing authorities are serving the lowest-income children.”

Q: Can you talk about what Elm City Believes does for students in New Haven?

EB: “The initiative is for youth in grades K-12 who call public housing home. The idea is for the public housing authority to serve both as a platform and a portal in that it would form partnerships with local schools or school districts as well as community-based organizations.”

Q: And in those partnerships, what happens?

EB: “The main goal of Elm City Believes is to close opportunity gaps for low- and no-income New Haven families in order to close the achievement gap …. stopping generational poverty.”

Q: How does that help to stop generational poverty?

EB: “Our theory of change is really around that our serving as a platform and portal and connecting students and families with the resources they need to be academically successful will increase their academic achievement, will increase high school graduation rates, increase post-secondary completion, and eventually that leads to employment attainment and then ultimately end generational poverty. So as a housing authority [Executive Director of Elm City Communities] Karen [DuBois-Walton] says this all the time, as a housing authority, we will always be in the business of housing, but we shouldn’t be in the business of housing the same generation of families.”

Q: Obviously the needs of the younger students are going to be different than the needs of maybe students who are in high school. So how do you go about making sure the students of different ages are getting the resources they need? How is the program different for someone who is in Kindergarten versus someone who is in high school?

EB: “The program is really retail in that the way we designed it is based around data sharing agreements and memorandum of understanding with either a school district or an individual school. Once those agreements are signed, it allows us to work with parents to sign consent forms so that we can see the needs that each child has. So within any one school, the needs of the children that are in that school that happen to be our residents could vary dramatically.

“You’re raising the point of younger kids versus older kids, and I think for us that’s illustrated the best within the ways the schools are structured. New Haven is a magnet school program. Several years ago they moved into a structure where the schools are K-8 and high school. So, for example, a Pre-K or K-8 school, particularly for the kids that are in second grade or lower or third grade or lower, we would be working with not just the kids, but with the parents, too. So, for example, let’s say you’ve got a second grader who is missing school on a regular basis. The reason for that child missing school on a regular basis is very different than if it were a 10^th grader missing school on a regular basis, most likely. Because for a 10^th grader, we would probably go directly to the student and say ‘why did you miss school,’ because they’re older, there’s a little bit more of a choice to attend or not attend school. We’re placing the onus most likely on the student. Whereas a second grader can’t walk to school by him or herself, the choice really isn’t hers or his … So then it’s a matter of asking the parents, what can we do to help you get your children to school with fidelity. Is it an issue with transportation? Is it an issue with walking on time because you’re working multiple jobs?”

Q: Can you talk about the impact the program has had on students in New Haven so far? Like, have students been getting better grades or going to school more often? Has there been an impact on graduation rates yet?

EB: “We’re only in our second full year, second full academic year, and I think it would be pretty early to make a determination on whether the program has been successful or not, but from early stage data points, students are doing better academically. Students are attending school more and families anecdotally are saying they feel more supported so this is all a good thing.”

Q: What have been some of the challenges you have faced in implementing and carrying out this program and how have you guys worked to overcome those challenges?

EB: “I think one of the concerns that we had initially before launching Elm City Believes was whether or not parents and families would be receptive to the housing authority doing this kind of work. We are effectively their landlord. We’re the largest landlord in the City of New Haven, and housing authorities across the country don’t do this kind of work, right? They’re objective is to house people. We believe that housing authorities should do more. For us, I think we fundamentally believe that public housing the foundation from which the American Dream can survive for generations to come. That’s language that we use because it’s so connected. There’s good data on how connected it is to people succeeding in careers, people being self sufficient and so I think for us our big concern was to what extent are people going to be open to them. Fortunately, I think the response from a lot of our residents is ‘it’s about time.’ They were waiting for us to do something, which is a great thing, but it shows that there is a need and the need that is probably illustrative of the need nationally, but nationally they’re probably aren’t the kind of resources we have.”

Q: How does Elm City Communities get the resources to be able to have this program?

EB: “We are HUD designated Moving to Work agency. HUD is the Housing Department of Urban Development, and Moving to Work is a status given to 39 housing authorities throughout the country. It was started during Clinton administration and it doesn’t allow for more federal dollars into the housing authorities that have this status, what it does is it allows housing authorities to use their funds flexibly.

“The idea was that not all public housing authorities are the same, and that so the one-size-fits-all approach isn’t the best approach. Moving to work was created as a demonstration project to these 39 housing authorities to develop policies and programs in a manner that the agency felt best served the community and best served the needs of the residents they were housing.”

Q: What are your future goals for the program?

EB: “I think the vision is in New Haven that every child has equal opportunity to fulfill his or her dream. I think for us part of the reason why we launched Elm City Believes is because we think that’s a step toward that direction.

“I genuinely believe that housing-education partnerships and partnerships that fall in the intersection of issues is the future.”

Julia Perkins is a senior journalism major at Quinnipiac University and is editor-in-chief of The Quinnipiac Chronicle. She is writing about poverty and income inequality this spring. She can be reached at julia.perkins@quinnipiac.edu.

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Connecticut aims to end chronic homelessness

The state of Connecticut is on track to end chronic homelessness by the end of the calendar year, according to homeless shelter directors.

“That’s the next big push that we’re under now,” Executive Director of the shelter Columbus House Alison Cunningham said. “Every day looking at the numbers, seeing where the gaps are, where do we need the resources to make sure we’re getting people out very quickly and housed?”

Alison Cunningham, executive director of Columbus House

A person is considered chronically homeless if he or she lives with some sort of disability and has been consistently homeless for a year or has had multiple episodes of homelessness that equal 12 months, Cunningham said.

The state plans to eliminate chronic homelessness in a similar way to how the state ended homelessness among veterans: by having organizations and officials coordinate their efforts.

Connecticut became the second state to end homelessness among veterans, Gov. Dannel Malloy announced earlier last month, by developing ways for organizations across New Haven and the state to work together.

“This milestone is a major one – we have been a national leader on so many issues and today is yet another reflection,” Malloy said in a statement on Feb. 18. “We have a responsibility to take care of our veterans, to ensure that veterans have access to housing, quality health care, education, and career opportunities.  We’re proud to have achieved this ambitious goal.”

Cunningham said she is proud her organization’s role in this achievement.

“We’re really excited about that,” she said. “It’s going to make a huge difference in the lives of these folks.”

Columbus House in New Haven

But Cunningham said this does not mean veteran homelessness is eradicated forever.

“We’re not naïve enough to think that nobody will ever be homeless again, we know that it will happen,” she said. “But over the past two years, we’ve had massive restructuring of the systems that address the issue of homelessness, and there’s been a huge effort at coordinating our efforts in a way that makes a person’s homelessness a very brief amount of time.”

All of the homeless shelters and organizations in the state work together to make sure veterans find housing right away, Cunningham said. As soon as a veteran arrives at a shelter, Veterans Affairs is notified and the person is put in bridge housing, she said. Bridge housing is different from a shelter and is where people stay before they are put into permanent housing within 90 days.

“The system moves rapidly to get him into housing and along the way we’re beginning to address whatever issues there are,” she said. “But he’s going to be in housing, [have access to] the services attached and those services will continue to help the veteran deal with whatever it is, whether it’s income, security, employment, PTSD, mental health.”

John Bradley, the executive director of the homeless shelter Liberty Community Services in New Haven, said increased funding from the federal government, in particular the Department of Veterans Affairs also contributed to ending veteran homelessness.

“[The Department of Veterans Affairs] really kind of looked at what worked, made sure it was funding what worked and made sure that it increased the funding so that no veteran was homeless,” Bradley said. “And then the agencies and the communities were the ones who were responsible for the implementation of that.”

The state is receiving national praise for its work to end homelessness for veterans. First Lady Michelle Obama thanked Malloy for Connecticut’s work in a letter.

“As we discussed at the President’s State of the Union Address, I want to thank you and the people of Connecticut for your determined efforts on behalf of our military families,” Obama wrote. “I am so proud of your state’s commitment and resolve to reach this milestone, and I am grateful for all you have done for America’s heroes.”

However, Bradley said he sees an end to homelessness for all people in sight.

“I think the kind of promising thing about homelessness is that easily we have the ability to end it,” he said. “I do believe we have the tools. We need more funding and more coordination, but it’s definitely a problem that I think we can make significant improvement in.”

Julia Perkins is a senior journalism major at Quinnipiac University and is editor-in-chief of The Quinnipiac Chronicle. She is writing about poverty and income inequality this spring. She can be reached at julia.perkins@quinnipiac.edu.

 

New position will tackle New Haven’s ‘food deserts’

By Melissa Barclay

When was the last time you went to the grocery store? How long did it take you? What was your mode of transportation?

Residents of New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood can’t easily walk or take public transportation to a grocery store.

For many Americans, a trip to the grocery store is a leisurely task. But for others living in areas designated as “food deserts,” access to healthy food is limited. Instead of having access to nutritious food, residents are surrounded by fast food joints that are cheap and convenient but unhealthy.

Some sections in New Haven have been designated as food deserts by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Based on the CARE 2015 health survey, hunger rates within the city’s six lowest-income neighborhoods soar up to 40 percent. In addition to that, 7 out of 10 residents are considered overweight or obese due to the lack of nutritious food in their diet.

To try and address this issue, the New Haven Food Policy Council has created a new position – food system director – which will be responsible for coordinating events raising awareness about the issue.

According to the job posting for the position, the food director will be responsible for creating and implanting strategies that will decrease the lack of access to healthy food within New Haven and serve as a liaison between the city and the New Haven Food Policy Council.

The position has yet to be filled.

Resident Joanne Ndiaye and her family have struggled without convenient access to a local supermarket.

“[I’m] no stranger to the task of trying to keep a balanced, healthy meal on the table,” she said.

Ndiaye has been a resident of the Hill section of New Haven for the last 10 years.  She is also a single mother of five children, and a beneficiary of the SNAP program.

SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It is a government program providing food stamps to families who qualify.

“Like so many other families, we depend on SNAP benefits and food pantries to make ends meet from month to month,” Ndiaye said.  “There were times we were left to eat foods that were not balanced and healthy.”

Public transportation is an issue in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood. city buses do not travel directly to the supermarkets, and some residents have to transfer to another bus to get there and back.

In order to get to the nearest grocery store, Save-A-Lot in Hamden, most residents have to travel about a mile and a half. But fast-food joints, such as Chinese food restaurants, are located within walking distance in the neighborhood.

Melissa Barclay is a senior journalism student at Quinnipiac University. She is writing about food deserts this spring. She can be reached at melissa.barclay@quinnipiac.edu.

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Abba’s Storehouse serves families in need

By Julia Perkins

Tucked in the middle of Wilbur Cross Commons Business Park in Hamden is Abba’s Storehouse.

Mercedes Sherman (left) and Cecilia Lewandowski (right) look over the list of food they ordered for the day on Sherman’s phone. (Julia Perkins photo)

The food bank, affiliated with Faith Healing and Deliverance Ministries, is open every third Saturday of the month from 9 to 11 a.m. About 55 to 70 families pass through the pantry between those hours. Most of the families are from New Haven, but about 30 to 40 percent are from Hamden, according to Mercedes Sherman, a New Haven resident who attends services at Faith Healing and Deliverance Ministries, which runs the pantry, and has volunteered there for years.

“There are a lot of people who go without food and who are struggling, even with state assistance to meet their needs — their needs for their entire family — especially the ones with a lot of children,” Sherman said. “That’s why you’ll see us be generous with someone who has a lot of family because we know the amount they get in food stamps doesn’t come close to what their needs are.”

When a woman with seven sons comes to get food, the volunteers jump to help her.

“Did she get sauce?” Cecelia Lewandowski, who runs the food pantry, asks one of the other volunteers.

Lewandowski starts digging through boxes of food behind the six tables set up around the room. Each table is filled with non-perishable items such as corn flakes, pasta, canned salmon, and one-pound bags of rice, as well as vegetables and bread. The storehouse keeps meat in the freezer, too, to give out to each shopper.

“Do you guys eat cranberries?” she asks.

“Craisins,” the woman responds.

“Okay, Craisins, all right.”

“Don’t forget your beans, honey. I’m still working on it,” another volunteer says as she packs food into one of the woman’s bags.

Lewandowski stepped up to run the food bank about six years ago after Faith Healing and Deliverance Ministries moved into one of the buildings in Wilbur Cross Commons Business Park. Its senior pastor, Sandra Jefferson, made it part of the church’s mission to offer a food bank to residents after the move.

 “It’s important because at any point in time it could be you on the other side, so you want to be able to help anybody in any way that you can,” Lewandowski said.

The food bank is run by volunteers. On Saturday, Feb. 20, three church members (besides Lewandowski) and five Quinnipiac University students from the Marketing Society were there handing out food.

It was the first time freshman marketing major Janelle Herbert volunteered at the food bank.

“The most satisfying part is just seeing all the people and being able to know that you made a difference in their lives,” she said. “And to help people who are less fortunate than you and who really need this. … I’ve met so many people. Most people are so friendly when they come in. They’re all so polite. It’s really great working with them and for them.”

Every Friday, Sherman goes to the Connecticut Food Bank in Wallingford to stock up on non-perishable items for the next time the pantry is open. Most weeks she gets about 300 to 400 pounds of food. However, on the Friday before the bank is open she gets nearly 1,000 pounds because she needs to buy perishable foods such as bread and potatoes. While produce is free at the Connecticut Food Bank, everything else costs a few pennies per pound. The storehouse pays for the food through donations and a grant from ShopRite, Sherman said.

Sherman and Lewandowski check out the food they have left at the end of the morning. (Julia Perkins photo)

Abba’s Storehouse is not the only place in Hamden that offers a food pantry. St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen, the Ministry of Helps Foundation, Love Center Deliverance Food Pantry, God’s Miracle Unlimited Outreach Ministry, St. Rita’s Food Pantry and Keefe Community Center all provide food pantries. Many of these pantries are open on different days, that way those in need can get food more often, Sherman said.

Still, Sherman said Abba’s Storehouse is one of the more popular ones.

“I’ve been told by a lot of the people who come here that they prefer coming to this food pantry because we do have meat,” she said. “Other food pantries don’t have meat, but then I realize that a lot of the churches and the organizations that do this, they don’t have a place to store it. And we’re very fortunate that we have freezers.”

Sherman has gotten to know some of the people who come to the storehouse every month.

“The same people come all the time and you get to know who only takes exactly what they need or who takes everything whether it’s what they need or not,” she said with a laugh.

Lewandowski said people start to line up to get food at 7 a.m.—two hours before the pantry opens.

“Because it’s first come, first serve,” she said. “Once we run out, we run out.”

But Abba’s has never run out of food completely. Even if there is no more meat or potatoes left, for example, the storehouse still will have something to give to a latecomer. While shoppers are supposed to show their ID when they come for food, if they forget, Lewandowski said she would never let anyone go home empty-handed.

“We don’t turn anybody away, especially when it comes to food and it’s the wintertime,” she said. “No, that doesn’t work. We don’t turn you away.”

Julia Perkins is a senior journalism major at Quinnipiac University and is editor-in-chief of The Quinnipiac Chronicle. She is writing about poverty and income inequality this spring. She can be reached at julia.perkins@quinnipiac.edu.

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