Now There’s Room At The ​“Inn”

There’s a lot of shame in being homeless, and it’s hard to talk about, said Morgan Harrison. He knows firsthand: He’s overcoming homelessness and on his way to a degree and a job as a railway engineer.

Talking honestly with a counselor — the first step in a solution — can be difficult, too, if you’re crammed with maybe another person into a broom closet-sized office with storage shelves above you, walls so thin everybody hears, and a door that can’t open without banging into a washer and dryer.

That was the situation for private consultations at the ​“Inn,” the day drop-in center at Fellowship Place on Elm Street for people struggling with homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness.

That has all changed. The ​“Inn,” totally renovated with real private offices, with elevating art works, modern computers, and all the amenities, is now open for business as the Birgitta Johnson Memorial Building.

Seventy-five friends, board members, dignitaries, and clients, many marveling at the improvement over what they called ​“the broom closet,” gathered Wednesday morning for the ribbon-cutting of the renovated structure.

Fellowship Place Executive Director Mary Guerrera said the spiffy $850,000 renovation was made possible by private donations in honor of Johnson, a pioneer female banker in New Haven and longtime Fellowship Place board member, and a half-million-dollar gift from the Connecticut Non-Profit Grand Awards program through the state’s Office of Policy and Management.

In new consultation rooms and modernized social space or cafe, Fellowship Staff will meet, assess, and counsel from 25 to 35 people a day, as opposed to half that number before the renovation, Guerrera said.

“The members who come back and who used the [previous] inn can’t believe it,” said Nick Ragozzino, a recovery advisor.

“The old space was a small, windowless room. This is lighter. We have paintings on the wall; it adds a dimension. [The space] totally matters,” said Ragozzino, who in his two and a half years as a counselor has operated in both the before and after environment.

“Just because folks are homeless doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a nice place to go to,” said Bailey Orell, the group’s manager of homeless services.

Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting represents the completion of the third major renovation on the increasingly attractive Fellowship Place campus. It was preceded in 2009 with the Macdowell Building, where housing and career services are offered; and in 2012 by renovation of the Club House, a former vegetable market that has become the main social hub of Fellowship Place. The latter was also designed by the Johnson Building architect Eric Epstein.

Guerrera hailed Johnson, who died in 2013, as the master planner and capital campaign fundraiser who triggered the transformation of ​“the old tired campus to a state-of-the-art campus that people feel proud to come to.”

Such modernization is also critical to attracting capable and dedicated staff, Guerrera added.

The heart of Wednesday’s proceedings was not the physical plant but the stories told by Harrison and other clients in a brief panel discussion before the ribbon-cutting.

Harrison told his story — he first came only to do his laundry at Fellowship Place but has stayed and is now finishing community college — to great applause. His central point: Being treated humanely in an attractive environment — homeless people are accustomed to being shuttled about in unattractive environments — where he can talk about your problems has been critical for his recovery.

Then Ann Drazek (both she and Harrison preferred not to be photographed) described her journey. She has a master’s degree in speech pathology. At age 62, said she never expected to be homeless. Then illness landed her precisely there. Staffers at Fellowship Place, working out of the cramped old offices, and now the new, have helped her find permanent housing at Bella Vista.

“When I got my apartment, I was [also] given dishes [by Fellowship Place] to start my home,” she added.

Lesley Porter Ferguson confronted the triple hit of job loss, divorce, and illness all at once. That drove her to depression. She was at risk of becoming suicidal. She praised the staff of Fellowship Place for bringing her around so that within seven a half months ​“I got counseling support, two good jobs, Section 8 [housing], and I’m working to get my bachelor’s degree in psychology. All in all I can say they saved my life.”

“You are the true heroes,” Guerrera said to Ferguson, Drazek, and Harrison. ​“It is an honor to work with people like you.”

Next up, funding permitting, is to address three funky garages on the campus, so decrepit they are not being used even for storage. Guerrera said she would also like to raise money to begin to renovate some of the 27 apartments the group operates in buildings adjacent to the campus.

The Connecticut Non-Profit Grant Awards — a program designed for state not-for-profits to upgrade their physical spaces — has so far awarded 383 grants totaling $70 million, with another $30 million to be announced soon, said Valerie Clark, a fiscal administrative manager from that office.