Homeless shelters across the state are relocating many of their residents to hotels, in some cases emptying facilities completely, to prevent outbreaks of COVID-19.
Connecticut’s regional homeless systems have been working for more than a week to reduce the density of shelters with congregate settings, efforts made mandatory by an executive order Gov. Ned Lamont issued Saturday evening. Richard Cho, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness and leader of that statewide effort, hopes shelters will be able to relocate 1,000 to 1,100 people into hotels in the coming days.
Lamont’s new order now requires homeless shelters to relocate enough residents to allow for social distancing, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines in shelters as spacing beds three feet apart.
Most shelters have already gone further than that.
As of Friday, New Haven County’s largest shelter provider, Columbus House, had already moved 20 people into permanent housing and 38 more into area hotels and other arrangements.
That organization plans to empty its shelters completely during the coronavirus crisis, meaning another 116 people still needed to be relocated as of Friday from two shelters in New Haven, a shelter in Wallingford and a warming center in Middletown, according to chief development director John Brooks.
“We’re still in the process so we’ll see how this works out, but for us it’s a safety issue and we’re going to try to get everybody out and into a safer situation,” Brooks said Monday.
Columbus House hasn’t seen any COVID-19 cases among clients so far, “thank God,” Brooks said.
Connecticut has committed to covering the costs of relocating and housing residents in hotels, and will seek reimbursement from the federal government at a rate of 75%, according to the governor’s office.
The city of Hartford does not plan to completely clear out its facilities, Mayor Luke Bronin said Monday. Area shelters have already moved about 75 individuals to hotels, including more than 50 elderly and immunocompromised people. That’s allowed shelters to space beds six to eight feet apart, exceeding the CDC’s recommendation, Bronin said.
“We’re continuing to work to move additional individuals from shelters to hotels,” he said. “The balance we’re trying to strike and what we’re trying to be very very conscious of is that many of those individuals who stay in our shelters have a significant need for staff support and there are risks associated with separating those individuals from the supports that they rely on on a daily basis.”
One person experiencing homelessness in Hartford has tested positive for COVID-19 and moved into the Willie Ware Community Center, one of two quarantine spaces for people experiencing homelessness in Hartford, Bronin announced Monday.
They are the first person to take one of the city’s 20 quarantine beds for the homeless, which are split between Willie Ware and the Governor’s Foot Guard armory on High Street. Twenty-three more beds may be coming to the armory next week, said Hartford city spokesperson Vasishth Srivastava.
Fairfield County’s shelter system is also relocating a large number of residents.
Local organizations and municipalities have been footing the bills as they waited Monday for the state to finalize hotel contracts, Cho said.
For most homeless service providers, this is just the latest escalating step being taken since the virus entered Connecticut, both to protect their homeless populations and public health at large.
The city of Hartford and Salvation Army plan to keep open indefinitely their seasonal, overnight warming center on Vine Street. Next week, it will become a 24-hour, traditional shelter for the group of about 40 people who have been staying their nightly, Bronin announced Monday.
The city of New London also started work on a plan of its own about two weeks ago, said Mayor Michael Passero, well before the state’s directive.
The city will be using a now-vacant nursing home on Viets Street for quarantine spaces for people who are experiencing homelessness or domestic violence. There are now 15 available rooms for those who test positive for COVID-19, are awaiting test results or have concerning symptoms.
After securing an agreement from the current owner of the property, the city rapidly cleaned the building, set it up with beds from Connecticut College and whipped together a staff with the help of the New London Homeless Hospitality Center.
Right now, the city of New London is footing the bill, which totals about $15,000 per month, including rent, food, staffing and on-site nurses.
Some shelters have implemented their own versions of sheltering-in-place, mandating that most residents stay inside all day. That’s brought significant staff costs to Columbus House, whose shelters used to close during the day, Brooks said.
At St. Vincent DePaul Mission, a 25-bed shelter in Bristol, residents must stay on the property or they can’t return. That’s been in place for one full week. Inside, the shelter has also segregated its three older residents from the rest of the residents, and spaced beds in congregate areas at least six feet apart, says co-interim director Don Palaia.
On Monday, Palaia said the shelter would work with the city of Bristol to decide whether to move additional residents to hotels, per Lamont’s recommendation.
Palaia and Tom Morrow, members of the board of directors for St. Vincent DePaul Mission, took over the shelter on an interim basis in February, just before COVID-19 descended on the U.S.
“Two, three days later, this hit and oh my God,” said Palaia, whose employer, the Arthur G. Russell Company, has allowed him to take a long, paid leave, while Morrow has come out of retirement. “It’s like telling you, ‘OK, we need an astronaut — and now you’re going to the moon!'”
Courant staff writer Emily Brindley contributed to this report.
Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.
