Forum Takes Aim At Putting An End
To Homelessness
Regional groups join forces to
develop a plan of action
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 “Every
person we are trying to help is a
phenomenal person. They lose
themselves. They think they don't
deserve to have shelter.”
LeeAnn Gomes, social work
supervisor for Norwich Human
Services
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By
KENTON ROBINSON
Day Staff Columnist, Enterprise
Reporter/Columnist
Published on 10/26/2005
Groton — George Durr used to live in what he calls
“the real world, the world the average American takes for
granted.”
It is a world in which one wakes up and gets the morning
paper, has breakfast, sits back and relaxes a bit before
going off to work.
Durr used to live in that world until he got skin cancer,
until he started drinking, until he lost his family, until
he lost his home.
On Tuesday Durr and two other men who have known what it
is to be homeless addressed a forum sponsored by the
Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, the Partnership
to End Homelessness, the Mystic Chamber of Commerce and the
Partnership for Strong Communities.
The forum's purpose: to take the first steps toward
developing a plan to bring homelessness to an end.
“Just as people came together to save the sub base, we
need to end homelessness in southeastern Connecticut,” said
Michael Rosenkrantz, executive director for the Alliance for
Living, who emceed.
Social workers, shelter operators, clerics, politicians
and representatives of charities from New London to Norwich
to Westerly came to a conference room at the Groton Inn and
Suites to present their views on how to approach the
problem.
Statistics collected by the state Department of Social
Services show that New London-area shelters took in 412
single persons, 188 parents and 324 children, a total of 924
people between October 2003 and September 2004.
Homeless advocates say those numbers are growing and,
particularly with the skyrocketing costs of gas and heating
oil this winter, can be expected to grow even further.
“We are going to see a lot of people choosing between
paying their rent and paying for heat,” said Stephanie
Guess, director of housing supports for Sound Community
Services.
“There's already more people on the streets this year
than last year,” said the Rev. Emmett Jarrett of the Saint
Francis House in New London.
Thanking St. James Episcopal Church for agreeing to
provide a temporary shelter for the coming winter, Jarrett
noted that “this is the sixth year of the temporary
emergency shelter in New London, so I would say it's become
fairly permanent.”
Jarrett and other speakers stressed that many homeless
persons are not homeless because they have a mental illness
or substance-abuse problem, but because of a simple lack of
affordable housing.
Most of the single-bedroom apartments available in New
London go for $700 a month, Jarrett said, which puts them
out of reach of many working people.
“They are homeless because they don't have enough money
for housing,” he said.
Participants in the forum agreed that there is a need for
supportive housing throughout the region.
“What we need is community support for funding for what
we really need: permanent supportive housing,” said Jean
Berry, executive director of the WARM shelter in Westerly.
“I refer to my residents as the voiceless, and I believe it
is my job to give their voice back.”
LeeAnn Gomes, social work supervisor for Norwich Human
Services, agreed.
“Every person we are trying to help is a phenomenal
person,” she said. “They lose themselves. They think they
don't deserve to have shelter.”
But, she said, her agency is making efforts to provide
that shelter.
“Last year we got 25 percent of the people we serve into
permanent housing, so we're going from let's just keep
people warm and dry to getting people into supportive
housing,” Gomes said.
Kate Kelly, the Reaching Home campaign coordinator for
the Partnership for Strong Communities, told the forum that
the partnership is about to embark on a campaign to develop
10,000 new units of supportive housing throughout the state.
While the partnership won “a great victory” when 500 new
units were funded by the state legislature in the past
session, “the partnership is now looking ahead to the next
session where we will advocate for another 1,000 units,”
Kelly said.
John O'Brien, the New England regional coordinator for
the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, gave the forum
an outline of what is needed to put together a 10-year plan
to eradicate homelessness.
He pointed out that Bridgeport and Hartford are two
Connecticut cities that have completed such plans, “and they
are very good plans.”
Danbury, New Britain, New Haven, Norwalk and Stamford are
also in various stages of putting together plans of their
own.
For such plans to be successful, O'Brien said, “you have
to have the political will.”
Also needed, he said, is the cooperation of the churches,
charities and chambers of commerce.
Community leaders need to be aware of the immense cost of
homelessness to their communities, he said.
O'Brien cited a study done in San Diego by the University
of Southern California, which followed 15 homeless people
for 18 months. The cost of services for those people to the
community — medical care, in particular — came to $3
million, he said.
“They found they could have put them up in penthouse
apartments on the ocean with servants for less,” O'Brien
said.
But Durr, who said he had lived in a garage, a tent and
under a bridge, stressed that, for a homeless person, the
meanest apartment feels like a penthouse.
With the help of Gomes, Durr and a roommate moved into an
apartment last spring.
“It wasn't until April of this year that I honestly could
have a home, a real home,” Durr said. “It's a feeling of the
real world again.” 
© The Day Publishing Co., 2005
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