A Wooster Square church is looking to host free daily breakfasts for the transient and homeless — leading some neighbors to offer an amen, and others to object.
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Bradley at Thursday night’s neighborhood meeting.
That division emerged Thursday night as some 50 people showed up to hear John Bradley, head of Liberty Community Services, present a draft proposal of the breakfast program to the Downtown/Wooster Square Community Management meeting. The meeting took place at St. Paul & St. James Episcopal Church at Olive and Chapel.
Bradley outlined the parameters of the program: Liberty plans to lease the church’s basement area to serve breakfast to about 75 “food insecure” people between the hours of 8 and 11 on weekday mornings. He said the program would begin under a six-month agreement, in which either party could pull out within 30 days.
“Hopefully if we’re successful, there will be less public stress, because people are going to a place where they’re welcome rather than somewhere they’re unwelcome,” he said.
Rev. Alex Dyer, the church’s rector and a member of the city’s Food Policy Council, responded to myths surrounding the plan.
“First of all, this is not a done deal,” he said. “No money has been exchanged between me and Liberty Services.” Secondly, no plans exist for a shower program or homeless shelter at the church. The church is “struggling” financially, but Liberty’s lease money would not raise enough money to fill that financial gap, he said.
“We are doing this because we follow Jesus. I would be worried about a church that wouldn’t want to do that,” he said.
The cafe would also function as a community space during its hours of operation, to “bring people inside who are outside” during the winter, Bradley said. Aside from two paid staff members, the program would draw on the church’s community for a volunteer base.
The church already provides and hosts various services for the transient and homeless, including nine 12-step programs and the Loaves and Fishes food pantry.
Dyer (pictured above) said people “on the margins” would benefit from having a central site downtown to seek out free breakfast, instead of having to keep track of multiple locations around the city. “The challenge of other neighborhoods is public transportation…this is a place where people already know to come.”
Katie Trumpener has lived next to the church for 12 years. She said she is glad to have social service programs in the neighborhood. Homelessness is “not an abstraction” to her, she said, because she has a good friend without stable housing.
“I would like to know that she had a place to go [like this],” she said.
In response to safety concerns, Dyer said problems are far and few between at Saturday morning’s food pantry. If someone causes trouble, “I see them out and make sure they are headed down the road. [Bradley] will do the same,” he said.
Jennifer McTiernan, co-founder of Cityseed and a Wooster Square resident for more than a decade, said she was concerned that any “rowdy” individuals attending the program would be ejected from the church’s basement and would then “be walking around the neighborhood.”
Several people expressed concern about the proximity of the church to the Head Start program.
Elsie Chapman said the existing food pantry draws 400 people every Saturday morning, often forming a line out the door at 8 a.m., an hour before the start time.
A similar line of people waiting for the cafe to open on weekday mornings at the same time as Head Start children are walking to school could be dangerous, she said. “Something may happen.”
Bradley said he plans to contact the directors of Head Start to hear their potential concerns, but said, “You can’t assume that people are going to be criminals.” He said part of his job is connecting people who look “aimless” with services that may benefit them.
Many of the patrons will not be homeless, Dyer said. Because of the increasing gap between income and need, people who have homes but little disposable income may take advantage of the free breakfasts.
The conflation of homelessness and predatory behavior “troubled” Harlon Dalton (pictured), a member and former associate rector of the church. “People have always relied on children to avoid” having services for the homeless in their neighborhoods, he said. “I’m a member of the community, but we don’t get to decide what the parish does.”
“If we think about the community as being everyone who lives in this neighborhood, not just the affluent and more vocal among us,” this could serve a great need, Trumpener said, especially given the fact that the area has multiple public housing projects.
Despite Dyer’s assurance that the program would not go forward without community input, some said they were upset the notice had come so late to the management team. New Haven Urban Design League President Anstress Farwell (pictured) called for a “better process” in registering community feedback for the breakfast program, such as an advisory committee.
“I think it would be a big mistake if the next news we hear is that this is a done deal,” McTiernan said.
Bradley said that, in his opinion, the church and Liberty cannot be beholden to the community for decisions they make as private organizations. The next steps include speaking with neighborhood police and Head Start directors, as well as organizing a “followup community meeting,” which would hopefully lead to more agreement, he said.
Dyer said he ultimately would like the community to take ownership of and be engaged with the program.
Thanks for the article. I do want to correct because I don't believe I said "The neighborhood can't dictate" which sounds pretty confrontational and I didn't consider it a confrontational meeting. I did say the Church and Liberty couldn't be "beholden" to the neighborhood for a decision about something that is within the Church's scope to do. In any case, we all agreed that the concept that we are proposing wouldn't work without community support and we agreed to meet soon to continue the discussions.
John Bradley
[Aliyya: Thank you for this clarification. We changed the article to reflect your comment.]