Shelter Sought From Cold-Weather Emergency

Keith Petrulis walked out of the frigid winter rain and into a State Street drop-in center to pick up his regular daily cup of hot coffee, cream and sugar — and to stand alongside fellow unhoused New Haveners and local homelessness service providers in advocating for more, permanent state aid for shelter from the cold.

Petrulis, 35, was one of a few dozen people on Friday to gather at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen’s (DESK) 266 State St. drop-in center for that press conference.

Organized by the Greater New Haven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness and emceed by DESK Executive Director Steve Werlin, the presser’s attendees called on state government to make a permanent part of Connecticut’s budget the $5 million recently allocated for cold-weather emergency services.

“We are looking to make homelessness rare, brief and one-time,” Werlin said. And while the long-term answer to homelessness can and must be more affordable housing, he continued, ​“we cannot forget about the immediate and acute need that’s posed by the frigid temperatures outside. … Here in New England, winter makes every night a life or death gamble. We cannot afford not to find an indoor refuge for anyone and everyone who needs a place to get in out of the cold.”

One of those very New Haveners currently surviving without a home and with the help of warming centers like DESK is Petrulis.

A member of a DESK-based advocacy organization called the Unhoused Activist Community Team (U‑ACT), Petrulis has been homeless ​“since the pandemic.” An out-of-work cook and security guard, he said he regularly comes to the State Street drop-in center to drink coffee and tea and get out of the cold.

“I was here last night,” he said about 266 State St., which starting in early November has been open as an overnight warming shelter with the capacity for up to 40 people to sleep there per night. There are ​“definitely some good people here,” he said about DESK.

“I try to work, but it’s hard for me to keep a job,” he added. Asked about the number one thing that would make his life a little easier right now, he said, ​“If I was able to have a steady place to stay.”

At the mic during Friday’s press conference, Petrulis said he and a group of fellow homeless New Haveners sometimes feel like ​“cattle” in the way that they have to move from shelter to shelter, service provider to service provider just to find a place to sleep or take a shower. ​“It’s not easy being out there, especially during times like this.”

Arthur Taylor, 70, is also currently homeless and is also a member of U‑ACT.

“It’s been a joke trying to get housing,” he said with frustration, even for a low-income senior like himself. Born and raised in New Haven, he said he spent decades working with special-needs people in Georgia and Florida before returning to his home state. He recently spent a year living in an apartment on Ann Street in the Hill but, he said, when his landlord told him he had to leave, he did just that without putting up much of a fight because of what he described as a toxic living environment. He’s now staying at a winter warming shelter at the Varick AME Church on Dixwell Avenue.

“The housing here for me, it’s like trying to get through all these barriers” he said. He said he’s trying to find some subsidized apartment, ideally through the housing authority, but ​“they keep telling me it’s a process.” He said he joined U‑ACT in part because of the organizing and advocacy he remembered being a part of at Hillhouse High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ​“We were the movement school,” he said with a smile. That penchant for speaking out and trying to make the world a bit better for some of those most in need has stuck with him.

J’Quan Towns, 29, who now works at DESK, reflected on how being homeless as a child helped inspire them to get a job working with those going through similar experiences today.

Towns recalled four or five years living out of homeless shelters and at friends’ places with their mom. Now Towns is happy to to be able to provide a warm cup of coffee and a place to get out of the cold for those still living out on the street.

“It taught me things not to do,” Towns said when thinking back to their time without a home. In particular, they said, ​“going through that struggle” really reinforced that ​“I’ve got to work.” Even if the job isn’t the best, they said, holding down a job with a steady income is their top priority.

During the press conference itself, State Rep. Robyn Porter and Mayor Justin Elicker and Christian Community Action Executive Director Bonita Grubbs spoke about just how important it is that the state continue to invest in housing along with emergency shelter services during the colder months.

“We need to make sure we’re increasing that amount,” Porter said. “$5 million is not enough.”

Porter said she sees people in New Haven and Hamden trying to find heating vents next to buildings in order to stay warm at night. ​“No one should have to live under these conditions,” she said. She urged advocates and people currently without housing to testify during public hearings before the state legislature this coming session to make sure that lawmakers hear directly from the people closest to this problem about how to address it.

“If we’re not lifting from the bottom, then what are we doing?” she asked.

The Independent asked during the press conference about the current status of 211, a phone line run by the United Way of Connecticut for people experiencing homelessness that recently cut back its hours.

Werlin said that this $5 million in emergency winter help is not directly related to 211. A representative from the United Way of Greater New Haven, Kelly Fitzgerald, then noted that, when the governor enacts a severe cold weather emergency, the state Department of Housing and the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services do make sure that the 211 housing line is open 24 – 7.

That led to several currently homeless New Haveners in the room, including Petrulis and Tent City resident and representative Tyrell Jackson, expressing their frustrations with how that emergency housing hotline currently operates.

“People spend hours on the phone,” Petrulis said, and all too often don’t get the help they need.

Jackson said at Tent City he sometimes hears from individuals and couples who are referred by 211 to the Ella T. Grasso Boulevard encampment. ​“They don’t have any clothing. They don’t have any tent. I’ve had to scramble around five or six different times, reach out to DESK” to try to get those new Tent City residents the bare essentials needed to live outdoors.

The frustration that he and others have with 211, he said, is not only that ​“the process is long and drawn out,” but the people on the other end of the line ​“are not on the ground” and don’t necessarily understand exactly what Connecticut’s homeless population is going through right now and what exactly they need to survive.

See below for more recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter this winter.

• Homelessness Advocates Brace For​“Tidal Wave”
• Breakfast Delivery Warms Up​“Tent City”
• Warming Centers Open, While City Looks To Long-Term Homeless Fixes
• ​“Human Rights Zone” Grows In Hill Backyard
• Homeless Hotel Plan Scrapped. What’s Next?
• Election Day Rally Casts Ballot For Housing