TORRINGTON — Finding a way to shelter residents facing homelessness is a huge hurdle for the hundreds of agency members across Connecticut, but all are dedicated to finding ways to eradicate the problem for good.
During the last legislative session, homelessness service providers asked for $50 million for the homeless response system, in part to annualize the cold weather funding; but the bill to offer that money wasn’t approved through lawmakers’ budgeting process, according to ctmirror.org. Instead, $5 million was allocated, out of which Litchfield County is supposed to receive $251,000.
Until the state funding is released, towns in Connecticut such Torrington, New Britain, Waterbury and Bristol can't open a shelter. The cold weather shelter opening date is Nov. 15 and continues through April. That funding, from the Department of Housing, is marked for shelters but everyone's still waiting. Torrington has also been unable to find a building for the winter shelter.
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Deirdre DiCara, executive director of FISH of Northwest Connecticut shelter and pantry in Torrington, organized a forum at the Torrington Library, calling it a "call to action," on Friday, Nov. 10.
"We are leading a call to action to get the funding we need and to find ways to work together with our legislators and our governor," DiCara said.
The event's attendees included Matthew Brokman, a policy advisor from Gov. Lamont's office; Sarah Fox of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness; state representatives John Piscopo, R-Thomaston, Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, and Jay Case, R-Winsted; and other members of the Torrington community.
During the roundtable, Brokman said he would reach out to the state's Appropriations Committee, to find out why the much-needed funding isn't being released.
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Case helped lead the discussion, along with the Gathering Place/New Beginnings Director Nancy Cannavo, Fox, DiCara, Jessica Gueniat, Director of the Torrington Library, and Leo Ghio, project director with the Northwest Hills Council of Governments. Fox said she wanted to bring the state's many agencies together to create a Homelessness Response System that actually works, calling the methods of helping homeless now "a broken system."
Fox said she and her family have experienced homelessness themselves, which makes her even more in tune with the fear and instability of not having a place to sleep.
"We need a better alert system, because it's inhumane, that people are sleeping in their cars. It's inhumane, that seniors are living outside. I want every mom to feel that their kids are safe," she said. "We need a unified approach from state leaders and policy makers. Today is about having a discussion about this, and working it out together."
In Torrington, the process of finding a place to stay begins at an agency like the Gathering Place. There, they can get services, take a shower, do laundry and pick up mail. They are led through an application for housing, and sent to the Community Soup Kitchen at Trinity Lutheran Church for a meal, Cannavo said.
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But with a shortage of affordable housing, waiting lists, increased rents and other costs of living on the rise, people find it difficult to find a place to live. Housing is in short supply, and getting funding takes time.
Landlords often won't accept a person with a housing voucher from the state, said Katie Vaill, Winsted Social Services Director. "They can't get a place," she said.
Evictions are also a problem, because of the housing shortage, Cannavo said. She meets with older residents on fixed incomes, and when their rents increase, they can't pay.
"Between September 2022 and September 2023, the Gathering Place helped 1,075 people," she said. "All needed housing, and about 40 have been placed. Twenty of the people we've worked with now have housing vouchers, but they can't use them ... they're in tents in the woods. It's inhumane for people to be sleeping outside, as it gets colder and colder."
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"We have 93 unsheltered homeless in Torrington right now," Cannavo said.
Gueniat, who runs the library with a staff of part-time and full-time employees, said the building has become "a daytime shelter."
"People facing homelessness come daily to the library," she said. "I'm not a therapist, or a social worker; I'm a librarian. But what we do is, we can find answers here, and people come to us with many questions.
"The homeless know they are welcome here," she said. "They are generally respectful, and from November to April, we are very busy. Homelessness is still stigmatized as a public problem, but it's more than that. Now we see an increase of problems that include mental health and substance abuse, and that has made it very challenging for the library staff. They don't always feel safe.
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"But we often act as a daytime shelter, because otherwise these people would have nowhere to go," Gueniat said. "They come to us for help and we direct them. What we see a lot of times is when we're dealing with a resident, they're afraid. They're worried about what they're going to do when we close for the day."
"We need a shelter, where people can be helped," Gueniat said.
Tom Tibbats, a Marine Corps veteran, moved into the FISH shelter in October. "I was sleeping in my car, and in a tent," he said. "My family and kids are still up in this area, so I really wanted to be in Torrington. Since I moved into FISH, I've been adjusting and trying to find a job; I also want to try and give back, so I try to help out. I want to make this a short stay."
FISH houses a number of veterans, individuals and families; DiCara said there are eight children living at FISH right now. The clients at the FISH shelter have longer-term stays, and get assistance with employment and finding a place to live. Often several people will go in on an apartment together, making it affordable for them to move out.
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But FISH is small, and there are many more people facing homelessness than there are beds for them, anywhere, she said.
Christine Bishop, who visits homeless camps with supplies and support, became emotional as she spoke to the group. "It feels like Litchfield County doesn't care at all about these people," she said. "I love Litchfield County, and my family has deep roots here, but seeing the suffering has been horrible. They don't need sleeping bags or tents. They need to get out of the woods."
Ultimately, Fox said, ending homelessness is something with which everyone should be involved.
"We've been saying for a long time that we want to end homelessness, but there's so much more that's needed," she said. "However, Connecticut is a leader in the nation for what we've done, and we need to keep going. Cold weather shelter funding should be annualized, to make sure people aren't outside."
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Nov 16, 2023
By Emily M. Olson
Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.
She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.
She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.