Contributed Photo
High Street, amid the pandemic.
Paul Bass Photo
Edgewood Skate Park on Monday.
A potential agreement between the state and a West Haven-based Best Western hotel to house homeless individuals displaced from New Haven shelters during the current public health crisis is back on the table, as New Haven’s Covid-19 toll increased to 12 deaths and 361 confirmed infections.
Mayor Justin Elicker and top city officials gave those updates Tuesday afternoon during the mayor’s daily coronavirus-related press briefing held online via the Zoom tele-conferencing app.
Elicker said that, one day after that prospective state-hotel housing deal apparently fell through, both parties are now back in negotiations.
Zoom
Mayor Justin Elicker on Tuesday afternoon’s Zoom call.
“My understanding is that yesterday Best Western was off, and today Best Western is back on,” he said.
Elicker said he could not give any more definitive details as the potential agreement does not involve the city, but rather the state.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office confirmed that negotiations are under way and that details should be coming soon.
The Best Western of West Haven manager and representatives from the West Haven mayor’s office did not respond to email and voicemail requests for comment by the publication time of this article.
West Haven Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan confirmed that talks remain ongoing. He said that the city “clarified” to representatives of the state Office of Policy and Management and Department of Administrative Services the terms of a letter sent a day before by West Haven Police Chief Joseph Perno, which was understood to be requiring a payment of more than $4,000 a day to cover expenses for extra-duty police.
“That would be the rate that the city would have to reimbursed on if there was a significantly increased call” volume at the address following the move of homeless people there, Tiernan said. So first it would need to be established where more police presence is needed.
Top city officials said yesterday that the state had reached a deal with Best Western of West Haven to rent 90 rooms on behalf of homeless people starting Monday. That plan apparently fell through when Chief Perno wrote a letter requesting Best Western pony up for extra-duty cops. See more here and here. (Also see a longer explanation of the situation of West Haven’s position in this article written by Tiernan.)
Elicker said Tuesday afternoon that the state and municipalities throughout Connecticut have relocated roughly 800 homeless individuals from homeless shelters to hotel rooms throughout the state in an effort to mitigate the spread of the highly infectious respiratory disease.
The mayor did not have an update as to how many homeless individuals from New Haven shelters have been relocated as of Tuesday. He said that the goal that the city submitted to the state last week was to relocate roughly 300.
“It’s important to note that these are not just people that state that their residence is New Haven,” Elicker said about those 300. “There are many people that stay in New Haven homeless shelters” who say that they are from elsewhere.
“We’re trying to support a regional approach to addressing this problem,” Elicker said.
He added that the city is footing the bill for providing food to homeless individuals who have already been moved from local shelters to two New Haven hotels.
“Our expectation is that we will get some of the food cost reimbursed by the federal government.”
Other updates included:
• Elicker and city Health Director Maritza Bond (pictured) said that the number of New Haveners who have died from Covid-19 is now 12, and the number who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus is now 361. Those positive cases include four city police officers and seven city firefighters. Bond said that the local fatalities range from 42 to 93 years old.
• Bond and Elicker said that the planned isolation shelter at Career High School for homeless individuals who have tested positive for Covid-19 but do not require hospitalization has sufficient staff in place and that the city is just waiting to identify eligible individuals who need to be admitted.
Elicker said the site will have a maximum of 50 beds as well as several city police officers and Medical Reserve Corps volunteers such as nurses and other medically trained individuals on-site. He said the isolation shelter staffers will also have access to off-site doctors who will be on call 24 – 7 in case Medical Reserve Corps volunteers need support. “Everyone’s on standby and ready to go,” said Bond.
• Elicker said that city lawyers and Yale University lawyers are currently in negotiations around the university potentially providing space for coronavirus-positive locals to stay, if needed. He referenced Yale’s offer in late March to open up 300 beds for local first responders.
The mayor also said that city police and firefighters who do not have Covid-19 but need a place to stay during the crisis to protect themselves and their families have continued to move into dorm rooms at the University of New Haven. He said the number of city police officers and firefighters now at UNH is 14.
• New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Iline Tracey (pictured) said that every city public school high school student will have access to a laptop thanks to the Partnership for Connecticut’s donation of 60,000 Dell laptops to Connecticut school systems, with a focus on supporting the state’s 33 Alliance school districts.
Tracey said that NHPS is still trying to figure out how best to ensure that New Haven high schoolers who do not have Internet access at home are able to use these new devices to complete their homework and attending online classes.
“It’s great to have laptops, but if they do not have the ability to access the Internet, it’s going to be difficult,” she said. She also referenced a city initiative to set up free wi-fi in Newhallville as part of a broader “Digital Inclusion” plan designed to ensure that lower-income New Haveners have Internet access.
• Bond and Elicker said that, according to city health inspector inspections on Monday, local grocery stores are complying with the governor’s latest social distancing and “Safe Stores” mandates for retailers allowed to stay open during the pandemic. Elicker said that the city has received complaints about local barber shops and nail salons remaining open. He urged residents to call the city Health Department if this is the case.