Thomas Breen file photos
The Foxon Boulevard hotel might soon become a homeless shelter.
The Days Inn hotel on Foxon Boulevard will become New Haven’s first non-congregate homeless shelter to serve both individuals and families by this upcoming winter, if an Elicker administration proposal comes to fruition.
The city plans to purchase the Days Inn at 270 Foxon Blvd. — a two-story, 57-room hotel on a two-way, six-lane thoroughfare across the street from Walmart — for $6.9 million.
The proposed shelter would provide hotel-style rooms to unhoused individuals and families in need of a place to stay — an extension of the city’s pandemic-era practice of renting hotel rooms as expanded shelter space. It would offer more privacy and flexibility than the city’s existing homeless shelters — which, aside from a couple of shelters that serve families exclusively, offer communal sleeping arrangements.
Thomas Breen file photo
Mayor Elicker, at the July 7 announcement of a new shelter space in the Hill.
“In a congregate shelter, oftentimes people are required to leave in the morning and come back in the evening,” where it may be “hard to access sleep, privacy, your own space,” Mayor Justin Elicker said in a recent phone interview about this hotel-to-homeless shelter plan.
A non-congregate shelter, meanwhile, can accommodate a wider array of family setups while providing clients a safer and more dignified place to stay, Elicker said.
“A lot of the people that are unhoused are families that need to stay together… Maybe someone has pets — we’re exploring the possibility of having pets in the hotel,” said Elicker. “There may be a couple. Someone that’s trans that may not feel comfortable in a congregate setting,” he added. “A hotel is a much better environment to allow people to stabilize, maintain their dignity, and transition to permanent housing.”
According to the the mayor, the city hopes to reallocate $5 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, initially set aside for a new city land bank, towards the purchase of the hotel; the land bank’s funds would then be replenished by a $5 million grant the city has received from the state. An additional $1.9 million for the purchase would come from the city’s budgetary surplus.
The city’s proposal is slated to begin review by the Board of Alders in August — about nine months after the city’s effort to purchase the New Haven Village Suites hotel for the purpose of converting it into a shelter fell through. Elicker said his administration will submit a formal proposal to the alders for the hotel purchase and conversion on August 7.
If alders approve the sale, the city would issue a Request For Proposals (RFP) to find a nonprofit partner to run the shelter. Elicker said the city hopes to open the shelter by winter — a timeline made possible by the fact that very few, if any, renovations will be needed.
The plan arises amid a recent surge in advocacy from unhoused New Haveners and local homeless services providers calling for more rights for unsheltered residents, as well as an overhaul to the city’s shelter system. In February, four local nonprofit leaders urged the Board of Alders to reallocate ARPA funding toward the development of a non-congregate shelter. Earlier this summer, the city worked with Columbus House and Upon This Rock Ministries to open 50 new emergency shelter beds in the Hill.
Representatives of Wyndham, the company that runs the Days Inn, did not reply to requests for comment in time for this article.
A Days Inn employee behind the hotel’s front desk said on Monday that he had not heard about plans to convert the hotel to a homeless shelter. He said that on Monday afternoon, 8 of the Foxon Boulevard hotel’s 57 rooms were occupied; during peak occupancy on weekends, according to the employee, the hotel typically rents out about 30 rooms at a time.
At least one person staying at the hotel, who did not wish to be directly quoted, said he did not have a permanent place to live. He told the Independent that he supports the idea of transforming the inn into a shelter because of a sore need in the city for shelter space.
RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$7million of taxpayer money and then need to update/renovate
Removing a TAXPAYING property from the grand list
Somebody needs to lose their job for this lamebrained idea