Alder Marchand: "This facility will support people on their journeys towards being housed.”
The Board of Alders signed off on a new $3.5 million contract with a local nonprofit that will oversee the crisis bed program at a Foxon Boulevard hotel that is slated to be converted into a homeless shelter before winter hits.
During Monday night’s latest meeting of the full Board of Alders in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, local legislators voted unanimously to sign a two-and-a-half year contract with Continuum of Care, a statewide organization serving individuals dealing with mental illness and housing instability.
The newly approved contract charges Continuum of Care with running a non-congregate shelter out of the former Days Inn hotel at 270 Foxon Blvd.
That contract promises a total of $3.5 million to Continuum to operate the 57-room ex-hotel site from Dec. 1 of this year through June 30, 2026. The Board of Alders also voted on Monday to fund that contract in part with $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars.
The contract vote took place less than two weeks after the full Board of Alders signed off on the Elicker administration’s plan to purchase Days Inn for $6.9 million and convert it into a non-congregate shelter.
Thomas Breen file photos
The Days Inn at 270 Foxon.
“We are experiencing a housing crisis in New Haven and Connecticut, and this facility will support people on their journeys towards being housed,” stated Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand, who introduced and spoke out in favor of the project during Monday’s meeting.
“Continuum will staff the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with on-site personnel, residential support, a housing coordinator, and various levels of in-home case management services. Mental health clinicians will be on hand to provide assessments, counseling and connections to mental health and/or substance abuse resources,” Marchand enumerated. Read here for more detail about Continuum’s plans for the emergency housing program, which will not be open to people under the age of 18, which will allow for pets on site, and which will not allow for drug use on site.
Marchand continued: “The suite of programs offered will follow an integrated and holistic approach to help clients become self sufficient and policies and resources will be in place to maintain a safe and healthy environment for everyone involved.” Plus, “Continuum of Care has a strong track record of high level service to residents in need.” Read about Continuum of Care’s other local involvement, such as their role in running the city’s non-cop crisis support team, here.
Lastly, Marchand noted the importance of using ARPA to pay for the shelter: “People experiencing homelessness deserve to be part of the economic and social recovery that ARPA funds are intended to support.”
With that, the full board voted “yes” to the contract and to $2 million to move up to 112 people off the streets and into this converted hotel starting in less than two months.
Two questions:
-How much tax revenue will now be lost to the City?
-What happens when ARPA funding is over?