Allan Appel Photo
How’s this for a Christmas present: 117 New Haveners will be home — not homeless — for the holidays.
Those 117 local people had been chronically homeless people. With the help of an unprecedented community campaign, they have have found their own apartments within the last six months. Another 89 have finished the paperwork and are in the pipeline to be housed soon.
Those 117 people were considered chronically homeless, defined as: “an individual is someone who has experienced homelessness for a year or longer, or who has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years and has a disability.”
With another push, “in 2015 New Haven will be able to say we have ended chronic homelessness,” said Columbus House Executive Director Alison Cunningham. Holiday gift-buyers can help by having their presents wrapped at 286 York St.
DeLauro, Murphy, Blumenthal.
That announcement drew emotional applause Wednesday morning at a gift-wrapping event to mark the successful completion of the “100-Day Challenge to End Homeless.” (Read previous stories detailing that effort here and here.)
The event was organized by the United Way of Greater New Haven at 286 York, a temporarily donated Yale-owned vacant storefront that IKEA has fitted out with furniture, the United Way with wrappers and ribbons.
If you bring your locally bought presents to the store, Egzon Mustafa (pictured) or a fellow worker will wrap a small, medium, or large item for you for $3, $5, and $8 respectively. The money goes toward the ending-homelessness campaign.
United Way’s Anna Navratil said about $800 has already been raised, with hundreds more expected through Dec. 24, the last day to partake of the wrappers (Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.).
The real gift at the event, which drew U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Sen. Chris Murphy, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and other officials, was not only the numbers, but what they represent: how a seemingly intractable problem, a moral blemish on the city, has been addressed.
Blumenthal in his remarks called the achievement “a revolutionary milestone, a model for the country that changes a mindset: it [chronic homelessness] is a condition that can be reversed.” He called it a prelude to other achievements that he wants to focus on, like specifically ending veterans’ homelessness. “It shows homelessness is not hopelessness,” he added.
DeLauro brought in presents to be wrapped for her grandchildren.
The successes celebrated Thursday are emerging from a statewide effort. Connecticut is one of five states, along with scores of other individual communities like San Diego, Chicago, and Nashville, that have signed on to a nationwide Zero: 2016 campaign to eradicate chronic homelessness, said Executive Director Lisa Tepper Bates of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness.
Stay Behind Closed Doors
Alison Cunningham of Columbus House, one of the campaign co-chairs (with Liberty Community Services Executive Director John Bradley), described the initial days of the effort: “Nadim [of Rapid Results Institute] said, ‘You executive directors, go to your offices and stay behind your doors. We’ll talk to your staff for two days.’”
When the directors were allowed to emerge, their case managers and other senior staffers, who know the details with an intimacy even the most involved director does not have, had outlined on blackboards all the ways to reduce paperwork, to promote efficiences, and prioritization.
“They were so enthusiastic, we said to them, ‘Tell us what you need, we’ll help break down barriers,” Cunningham reported.
Cunningham “checked the regs” or grant requirements to see if having a social security number in hand is necessary for housing. She wondered if it could wait until after a person is housed. It could, it turned out. Likewise for other regulations.
As to the extreme amount of paperwork required to be submitted, “We shredded that by yards,” she said.
Bradley also pointed out there is now an area-wide “universal wait list,” which eases entry into the system. He also credited over 100 volunteers, who early in the effort hit the streets for detailed assessments. These ranked people by vulnerability, instead of folks being lumped together. “That’s been a major change in how we do business,” he said.
One of the most remarkable features of the effort is its cost: $57,000, of which the United Way contributed $30,000, said Joshua Mamis, the group’s vice president of community engagement.
With another push, "in 2015 New Haven will be able to say we have ended chronic homelessness," said Columbus House Executive Director Alison Cunningham.
You can end chronic homelessness now if you do this. A Man By the name of Robert Haynes In 1979, brought a class action lawsuit against the city and state arguing that the New York State constitution provides homeless people with a right to shelter. That case, known as Callahan vs. Carey, was settled in 1981 when the city and state entered into a consent decree which established the right to shelter for homeless men. Through additional lawsuits, advocates were able to extend the right to shelter to homeless women and to homeless families with minor children. New York City and State have a legal obligation to provide shelter to homeless New Yorkers. Shelters must also meet minimum health and safety standards. Most cities in the United States have no right to shelter, and when shelter facilities are filled to capacity other localities can and do turn needy people away. So out of the lawsuit,They had to start a Department of Homeless Services.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/home/home.shtml
All you need are the yale law students to start it.