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.

 

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.

Want to use this story in your publication? We welcome it.