Citing rising numbers of homeless combined with increased housing costs, state lawmakers and nonprofits serving unhoused individuals and families called for $20 million per year to better serve, shelter and house more than 1,000 unsheltered individuals in Connecticut as the Northeast enters the harsh winter months.
“We get winter every year,” said Sen. Saud Anwar, D-Windsor. “The fact that we have to have these conferences every year is a failure, it’s a moral failure.”
Rep. Jay Case, R-Torrington, says that the Northwest Corner of Connecticut sees many people sleeping in the woods in tents who are sometimes located by nonprofits using drones. Case began his remarks by thanking the governor for “finally” releasing $5 million the General Assembly designated for cold weather sheltering, which he said came three months too late.
“We needed to have that money earlier because now we are searching for shelter space to put people. We don’t have the shelter space,” Case said, adding that Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone used $40,000 to house some homeless people in a hotel, and that the state was late in sending $256,000 to the city to build a new shelter, meaning they couldn’t purchase the property to do it yet. “Now we’re at square one looking at buildings, looking at places.”
Dierdre DiCara, executive director of Fish NWCT in Torrington said a mother gave birth in their 35-bed homeless shelter last week. “I’m so thankful that that mom made it under our roof,” DiCara said, adding they are currently housing five families, including 10 children.
Sarah Fox, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness says that $300 million is needed to fully address homelessness, but is asking for $20 million in ongoing “stable, consistent funding.”
“We’re here today because we’re seeing more than 1,000 individuals who are unhoused today. We’re seeing a crisis, we’re seeing a national crisis, an affordable housing crisis and in our streets a rising tide of homelessness caused by an affordable housing crisis,” Fox said. “Lives are at risk.”
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation and rapidly rising housing costs, including rental costs, the nation and Connecticut have seen an increase in those experiencing homelessness over the last two years following years of decline, but there remains lack of available shelter beds and services. Advocates say they are seeing increasing numbers of children and the elderly experiencing homelessness.
Amanda Gordon of Mercy Housing and Shelter in Hartford said they always plan for the winter months but are restrained because they never know what kind of funding they will receive.
“I have been doing this work for about 13 years… but not one of those years have we ever felt prepared for the cold weather season,” Gordon said. “It’s not because we don’t try and don’t meet up in April to plan for next year’s cold weather, it’s because we don’t know what resources are coming, what funding is coming, what places will be available to us. So, we’re always left scrambling which means people are left out on the street.”
Some lawmakers pointed out that Connecticut has lately been hailed as turning around its past budgetary problems, experiencing revenue surpluses and a full rainy day fund, as well as being one of the wealthiest states in the nation, but is not doing enough for those homeless and left out in the cold.
“To me, it just doesn’t make sense to say we have a rainy day fund when the folks in our state who are living outside are literally being rained on,” said Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford. “We have to take immediate steps to address the winter ahead of us.”
According to the latest Point in Time Count survey conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Connecticut had 3,015 experiencing homelessness, a three percent increase from the previous year.
“Simply put, if we do not have the resources to meet the needs, people will continue to die outside, and none of us should be okay with that,” said Melanie Alvarez of Friendship Service Center in New Britain. “We look forward to unifying with our state leaders to end this crisis.”
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