Mutual Aid Mission Catches Fire

Mariam Andino Pagán doesn’t earn enough money working at the Clarion Hotel to afford a place to sleep at night — but she did find clothing and supplies in the basement Wednesday, as a community rescue mission that began with a local fire expanded to more people in need.

The rescue mission is in response to a Feb. 14 fire that destroyed a 22-unit apartment complex on 42 Warner St. in Hamden. Donations from around the Northeast flooded the town’s Keefe Community Center to support over 60 tenants who were displaced from their homes. The damage to the building was so severe that the complex will have to be demolished, meaning residents lost all of their belongings, from beloved pets to family heirlooms to everyday essentials. (On Wednesday, Fire Marshal Brian Dolan reported that an inspection revealed that ​“the fire started in the pantry closet of Unit B12. Inside the small closet was a mini freezer. The mini freezer was plugged into an extension cord that was plugged into a wall outlet inside the closet. The mini freezer was the only item plugged into the outlet. No other sources of ignition were noted in the closet.)

People from around Connecticut — and neighboring states — were so affected by stories of those without homes to return to that the town is now overwhelmed with goods to give away. Through this Saturday, volunteers are distributing those items not just to burned out tenants, but to countless others facing homelessness this February.

Keefe Center Clerk AnnMarie Karavas reported that all of the Warner Street residents — the vast majority of whom are being put up at the Clarion Hotel for the next few weeks while they search for new apartments — came by Tuesday morning to find basics to keep themselves clothed, warm, and occupied for the foreseeable future. They had over 1,000 garbage bags of goods to choose from.

On Wednesday, Keefe leadership opened up the event to the general public, determining that there was enough for anyone in need to come by and fill up a bag or two.

The beneficiaries included workers from the Clarion itself.

Mariam Andino Pagán, who has been experiencing homelessness since she moved by herself from Puerto Rico to Connecticut seven months ago, took a break from scrubbing hotel suites Wednesday morning to browse the basement, where supplies are stored.

“I work here, but I don’t got nothing,” Pagán told the Independent.

“I didn’t have anything warm today,” Pagán said, picking out a fluffy down jacket to seal in heat not offered by her thin sweater. ​“God is good.”

Though tenants have been staying in the hotel, Pagán has been sleeping in parks around town at night while cleaning the Clarion during the day. Sometimes, she said, ​“Peoples that I’ve met in the park” let her into their homes to rest.

On Wednesday, she went back to work with a coat — and a coloring book and set of markers. ​“That’s for therapy,” she said. ​“I need therapy,” she continued, before collapsing into a volunteer’s arms for a hug and a cry.

“I left Puerto Rico,” she said, ​“because I was tired of the gunshots … and to find someone to take care of me.” She added that, at least this week, she felt she had found that sense of safety.

On the other side of the aisle, Lisa Albert of Wallingford was packing a sack of games for her 9‑year-old grandson and folding pairs of scrubs to give to her certified nurse assistant friend without a car or free-time to find fresh uniforms for work.

Albert is dependent on donations as well as a volunteer who distributes free goods to others without food, clothes or shelter.

The past year has been especially hard on Albert. On March 18, her mother passed away. She and her boyfriend have been able to continue living in her mom’s home, along with her grandson, who she has custody of, thanks to various Covid-19 programs that helped her pay her mother’s mortgage. 

She said she fears she will soon be ​“facing homelessness.” In July, she had to get hip replacement surgery and was written out of her job at a group home until January. However, in December she started up another job in an Amazon warehouse, running up and down stairs 12 hours a day on her new hip.

“Girl, I quit the gym,” she said. She also got Covid-19, she noted, for the first time three days into the job, despite being vaccinated and boosted.

She found out about the Hamden clothing drive on the Facebook page ​“Free Stuff CT.” She left with a garbage bag and shopping cart full of things for her family and friends, like a kitchen science kit for her grandson and a hoop tossing game for outdoor holidays.

Her grandson, she said, ​“is growing like a weed,” and her body has changed as well since the hip surgery. ​“We’ve been wearing whatever we’ve got,” she said — now, she hopes they will all have better fitting clothes.

Despite a year of incredible loss, Albert said she is still ​“blessed with a car,” the one thing that allows her to continue to do her own volunteer work, driving from Meriden to Hamden to Waterbury to give others in need access to goods she picks up at publicly advertised giveaways across the state.

“I’m a Christian,” she said. ​“It’s how I live — my kids have volunteered their whole life through Wallingford’s Congregational Church.” 

While many were visiting the Clarion for the first time Wednesday, some fire victims were still searching their temporary home for inspiration and resources to rebuild their lives after saying goodbye to their irreplaceables.

Kristina Cajigas, son Steven Valentin, and boyfriend Timothy Nevas were all back in the basement Wednesday after picking out t‑shirts, pants, socks, and toys for Cajigas’ 9‑year-old daughter the previous day.

“We’ve been waking up early each day,” Cajigas said, ​“to see what we can accomplish.”

On Wednesday morning, that meant picking out coats, stocking up on socks, and looking for right-sized shoes. They’re still looking for kitchen ware and mattresses for once they find a new place to live.

“We’ve got to start somewhere,” Cajigas stated. But looking through the piles of anonymous items, it was hard not to think of all the personal belongings that had gone up in flames.

Those included the sweaters of Cajigas’ late mother, which still ​“had her snots in the pockets,” and a brush with strands of her mothers hair still laced through the bristles.

Valentin, a 16-year-old rapper who attends Hillhouse High School, said he is mourning the loss in the fire of his DJ equipment, including a microphone he built himself and a laptop given to him by his grandfather, which had all of his latest beats and songs stored on its desktop. The fire destroyed all that.

Now, he said, he’ll have to make music using his phone or collaborating with other friends and contacts who have recording studios.

While his little sister plays with donated dolls, Valentin stays busy playing around with new lyrics and singing in the shower, as well as watching the new docuseries on Kanye West. The first episode of the Netflix trilogy concludes with Kanye breaking his jaw in a car crash, which leads him to write ​“Through The Wire,” the lead single from his debut album The College Dropout. He recorded that song with his jaw wired shut. It was nominated for a Grammy.

Valentin is similarly learning to find inspiration and determination in hard times. Below, watch him freestyle on Wednesday from the Clarion basement about his memory of the fire, recalling how he first saw the flames while looking outside his third floor window that night, telling his mother and sister, ​“Get out of the house! Get out!”

Listen to Valentin’s other music here and donate to his GoFundMe here.