Nora Grace-Flood file photo
City Director of Community Resilience Carlos Sosa-Lombardo (right), with Continuum's John Labieniec: “Our goal is to help as many unhoused community members as possible in advance of a harsh winter season.”
Case management, healthcare, meals and 112 crisis beds took a step closer to replacing the typical hotel rooms of the Days Inn on Foxon Boulevard — as alders moved ahead a proposed $3.5 million contract with a local homelessness services nonprofit that will oversee the conversion of that hotel into non-congregate shelter space.
During Tuesday night’s latest meeting of the Board of Alders Finance Committee in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, the committee alders fast-tracked a proposed contract for $3.5 million with Continuum of Care, a statewide organization serving individuals dealing with mental illness and housing instability.
That proposed contract charges Continuum of Care with staffing holistic programming that will be offered when the emergency housing opens at 270 Foxon Blvd. this winter.
Around five staff are expected to stay on site at any given time. Those staff will include peer counselors, licensed social workers and case managers. A nurse and housing coordinator, who will act as a liaison between clients and local landlords to help find apartments for those in need, will also visit the shelter on a daily basis.
“Our goal is to help as many unhoused community members as possible in advance of a harsh winter season,” said Carlos Sosa-Lombardo, the director of the city’s community resilience department, during Tuesday night’s Finance Committee meeting.
Continuum of Care, he wrote in a letter to the board, “comes highly recommended for their compassionate approach and commitment to helping the most vulnerable among us. They will operate a shelter with a focus on a housing-first policy, recognizing that stable housing is the foundation upon which individuals and families can regain their footing.”
The committee’s advancing of the Continuum of Care contract came a week after the full Board of Alders signed off on the Elicker administration’s plan to purchase the 57-room Days Inn hotel for $6.9 million and convert it into a non-congregate shelter.
Thomas Breen file photos
The Days Inn on Foxon Boulevard slated to become shelter beds.
Sosa-Lombardo said that his team selected Continuum of Care, the same organization contracted to run New Haven’s non-cop crisis response team known as COMPASS, over two other groups that answered a request for a proposal put out by the Elicker administration to find professionals to run a homeless shelter inside the 57-room hotel the city has won aldermanic approval to purchase.
The Elicker administration has now requested that the Board of Alders authorize a two-and-a-half year contract with Continuum of Care for $3.5 million, of which $2 million will be paid with federal American Rescue Plan funding.
That contract would start on Dec. 1 of this year and end on June 30, 2026.
Given that the proposed start-date for that contract is less than two months away, committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand moved to skip a vote on the matter Tuesday night, a procedural move allowing the full Board of Alders to take the matter up for discussion and an expedited final vote at its next meeting.
Yes To Pets. No To Drug Use. 18+ Only
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Finance Chair Adam Marchand Wednesday: Fast-track the contract.
Tuesday’s hearing offered an opportunity for representatives of Continuum of Care to publicly describe some of the details behind how they plan to manage what will be the city’s first hotel-based shelter.
The building itself contains 57 rooms, but it is expected to house up to 112 individuals for periods of 65 to 100 days at a time. In addition to private rooms and a chance to stay off the streets, Continuum of Care will offer case management, job training, primary healthcare and mental health services in addition to meals, clothing and other basic needs on scene.
Credit and rental history will not be considered when determining who is eligible for a free room. City homelessness coordinator Velma George stated that individuals with a history of domestic violence and “people who pose a risk to themselves or others” will not be granted rooms in the building, nor will anyone who is caught using drugs on the premises. While family members will have the chance to find rooms together at the shelter, including couples, no one under 18 will be housed on site. Pets, on the other hand, will be permitted.
Continuum of Care’s John Labieniec said that his organization’s goal is not only to work with the city to get as many people as possible off the streets prior to winter’s onset, but also to ensure that everyone who comes through emergency housing is ultimately connected to safe housing upon leaving the shelter.
“Discharge starts on day one,” he said, by ensuring that those best suited to the non-congregate shelter setting are selected to live there and pointed to the appropriate services.
While the coordinated access network will refer individuals in need to the shelter on a first-come, first-served basis, Labieniec said his team will also screen potential clients to make sure they would be better served by the non-congregate shelter rather than another program. For example, individuals with active substance abuse issues or clear psychiatric symptoms may not be ready to live independently at the hotel, but would benefit from one of Continuum of Care’s supportive residential programs, which focus on communal living and intensive treatment services.
Jim Farrales, the executive vice president for Continuum of Care, told alders on Tuesday that it will be key to “place people well so we don’t have chaos in a place where people are trying to recover.”
In addition to office space that will allow for private counseling and a kitchen to produce regular meals for residents, the remaining rooms will be divided into “four quads,” such that residents will be roomed in clusters according to their level of need. Some clients may require hourly visits from social workers or staff while others may get by with a daily check-in, Labieniec said. So, those selected for maximum supervision will be housed in the same “quad” while those who can live more independently will be located in a separate area of the building.
As for security, Continuum of Care representatives noted that 25 cameras are already located around the hotel. Those cameras will stay in place to monitor the hallways and outside of the building.
While the organization continues to work out plans for the day-to-day operations at the shelter, city staff added that their teams are “playing with the marketing” of the upcoming site.
“We have seen over time how shelters have been stigmatized,” Sosa-Lombardo said. “We want to do something different from the start,” he added, like referring to the hotel as an “emergency housing program” rather than a “shelter.”
In place of the “Days Inn,” he said the city is contemplating calling the program “Haven to Home.”
“It’s a little creepy,” offered Westville/Amity Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow as feedback, who heard the suggested title as “heaven to home.”
“It almost sounds like a funeral parlor,” he said.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa further worried about the financial details of the deal. Hadn’t the Board of Alders already approved millions to go towards the project, she inquired, including for operations at the shelter?
Sosa-Lombardo said that while the city has accepted $4.3 million in a state grant of which $1.5 million will cover a full year of operations at the shelter and $2.8 million will be used to rehabilitate the Foxon Boulevard building, $2 million more in ARPA funding is needed to bridge the second year of operations included in the contract with Continuum.
Despite the name debate and financial confusion, Marchand opted to push the contract forward with the understanding that the city will have to move swiftly to open the shelter before winter sets in.
The board should vote during their next meeting, he said, “so the contract can be finalized quickly and momentum can be maintained. I for one think it’s a good idea – we’re trying to move really fast.”
There must be an election coming soon, suddenly the Board of Alders can fast track votes. Why can't they conduct all business in a timely manner?