Allan Appel Photo
Macklin and Hurse make their case.
The operator of a shelter in Phoenix, Arizona, came to Fair Haven and pitched a plan to convert the long-vacant Strong School into a shelter for homeless young people.
“We want your blessing to purchase this building,” said Kendall Hurse.
Instead of a blessing, he received skepticism and a cold shoulder.
Hurse and his business partner Bernard Macklin made their brief presentation before 40 people at the regular monthly meeting of the Fair Haven Management team this past Thursday night at the Blatchley Avenue substation.
Hurse, who said he operates a state-funded 79-bed shelter facility in Phoenix, has a Dixwell Avenue address on his business card
His pitch was blunt: “I don’t like rhetoric. We need to help our youth. We have a program that works. We need a place that works. We need to be realistic about what programs we put in the building.”
He then went on to describe plumbing, certified nurse’s aide, and phlebotomy job-training programs in place at his Arizona facility. “We are asking for three representatives of this community to be part of our effort. We ask nothing of the city but your building to use. We want you to be part of the final package and programs we present to the city.”
In the brief Q & A that followed, it became clear that, in the phrase of one member of the audience, the proposers had not done their homework.
“We already have two or three shelters in the area already,” said Fair Haven Alder Jose Crespo. “An additional facility is not what this community is looking for.”
“Yes, but it’s not a youth program,” replied Hurse, although it is not clear which shelters in Fair Haven he was referring to. “Also a teen pregnancy program. We’re not talking about giving them [just] a bed, but services and other youth and adults can take what’s offered in the building.”
Another questioner asked the age of the kids to whom he proposed to offer the services. Hurse replied, “Young adult, 18 to 25. But you decide what age. We ain’t going to make all the decisions.”
Chatham Square organizer Lee Cruz questioned Macklin and Hurse as to whether they knew about Youth Continuum already operating on Grand Avenue.
Hurse said he was aware of it. He said he had brought his pitch to City Hall, where Steve Fontana, deputy director of economic development, sent them to make their presentation to the management team.
Cruz pointed out that a lot of homeless kids make their way downtown, not to the Fair Haven area. Teacher David Weinberg queried the proposers whether their program had any focus on LGBT kids, who are making up an increasing part of the homeless teen population.
Alder Ernie Santiago questions would-be developers.
Hurse did not have a clear answer except to say, “We want them to be employable.”
Another speaker asked Hurse and Macklin to consider lowering the age of their target audience, which they said they could do.
Cruz said that what struck him was the utter lack of awareness of how involved a local organized group, of which he is a major mover, has been in proposing community and revenue-producing ideas for the Strong School.
The Fair Haven Management Team Chairman David Steinberg also pointed out that “until an RFP [request for proposals] is put out by the city” — and one has not been since a Meriden-based developer’s plan was turned down — “no support letter from members of the Fair Haven Management Team is possible.”
Cruz said the community-based conversation on the future of the Strong School, as part of the expanse on Grand Avenue running from Atwater Street to the Quinnipiac River, is being convened on April 22, location to be determined.
With a full agenda of other speakers at the management team meeting, the pair left with many questions still unanswered.
They said their next move is to go see if the city will sell them the building. If it won’t, “then we’ll look elsewhere,” Hurse added.
The management team says there are all these programs already in Fair Haven - and yet, Youth Services in City Hall has signed a lease worth almost a million dollars plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovation costs - with no idea on programmatic needs, support or plans. Amazing. Cancel it.