New Haven Independent

Douglas Parker (pictured) showed up on Thursday because he and his 73-year-old mother desperately need heat. Unfortunately, he showed up as federal agents were conducting a surprise raid that shut down the antipoverty agency on Whalley Avenue.

Parker was told to come back Monday.

He did. And he said he waited only five minutes to see someone on staff to arrange for the fuel to be delivered the same day.

Another woman leaving CAA around the same time Monday (she asked not to be named) said she waited only eight minutes for her appointment to receive emergency heat.

That may not sound like a big deal. Unless you were at CAA not just last Thursday, when it closed for the raid; but the following day, when clients waited three or four hours and were threatening an insurrection. Click here to read about that day and about why the feds were raiding CAA.

CAA Executive Director Amos Smith said Monday that workers from the Waterbury version of CAA came to the Whalley Avenue office Saturday to help the staff work through a backlog, and got the agency back on track.

The raid wasn’t the only reason waiting times had been long to apply for emergency fuel, Smith said. He also had decided not to call back six or seven veteran seasonal workers who had processed emergency fuel applications in past winters. Smith said those workers had a “sense of entitlement” that led them not to provide good customer service. So CAA has brought on replacements this winter and has been in the process of training them, he said.