Dear Friends,
Several weeks into the arrival of the pandemic in Connecticut, I want to take a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished together in such a short period of time. If you have been following national news, you may have read about COVID-19 outbreaks and a rising number of COVID-related fatalities in homeless shelters across the country. So far, it appears that the steps we have taken in Connecticut have prevented this tragedy, and we remain hopeful that our coalition's hard work has enabled us to prevent outbreaks among our homeless population and in turn, our state’s population as a whole.
And while I, for one, am resting somewhat easier now that shelter residents have a safe place to socially distance, we still have challenges ahead. While the number of known COVID-19 cases among our homeless population remain small, we must ensure that we can provide access to care for these individuals. In addition, while COVID-19 testing still remains limited, we still do not know how many asymptomatic cases are present and so we must continue to implement our social distancing measures.
Meanwhile, the Governor’s order (and FEMA approval) that enables homeless shelter residents to remain in hotels is currently authorized through June 1st. We hope that that the timeline of the hoteling will match the overall Stay Safe, Stay Home orders for the general public, but we also know that the shelter decompression in hotels was never intended to last forever.
We know that while shelters save lives and meet basic needs, shelters have never been the solution to homelessness. The solution has always been permanent housing. Likewise, hotels are helping protect people from COVID-19 spread, but this pandemic only made more clear that the safest place for anyone is a stable home. Now more than ever, we as a coalition need to double-down on our efforts to house as many people as possible so that we can return as few people as possible back to congregate shelters.
At CCEH, we continue to make available the funds that we administer from the state, the federal government, and non-government sources like be homeful to divert and rapidly exit people from shelters. This includes some additional funds that we have received from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Bank of America, Lincoln Financial Foundation, and others to support our state’s COVID-19 efforts. We continue to speak with our partners including the Department of Housing, the Partnership for Strong Communities, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, HUD, CONN-NAHRO and others about ways that we can increase available housing for people experiencing homelessness.
We are still looking to hear about additional vacancies in the rental market, including private and subsidized apartments. If you know of any housing vacancies or want to help clients in your area locate housing, please visit our emergency housing form. We are actively seeking units for our clients and are grateful to the many realtors and property owners who have reached out to help. Faith communities interested in helping may also use the form to share their interest in helping. We can use all the help we can get!
As all this is happening, we are also focused on keeping clients and staff remaining in shelters safe. I encourage you to check our resource guide on a regular basis for updates on resources, protocols, and guides that may be helpful to you.
Wishing you safety and thank you for your service.
Yours,
Richard Cho
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