Emily Hays Photo
New friends Jose Osorio and Raymond Brown at Village Suites.
Jose Osorio and Raymond Brown have found a new friendship in the Covid-19 pandemic — and in the process, New Haven and Connectcicut might have found a new model for addressing homelessness.
The question now: When the pandemic ends, will it be possible to convert hotels into homeless shelters? Or longer-term supportive housing with on-site services?
Osorio and Brown have spent the year at the New Haven Village Suites on Long Wharf Drive, instead of at a Columbus House men’s emergency shelter. The switch happened for Covid-19 safety reasons: The city, with state help, put people in hotels rather than shelters to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
It was easier to do that in New Haven (and nationwide) because the pandemic eviscerated much of the usual business for hotels and motels.
“In a shelter, people are all bunched up. It’s a more depressing environment. I’ve never been arrested, but I can kind of tell what it would be like,” Osorio said. “Here, you feel protected and you feel free. It feels like you belong somewhere.”
California and other states are making the change permanent, taking advantage of the influx of federal Covid-19 relief dollars to convert hotels into homeless shelters. It has allowed them to expand one of the most successful models for addressing homelessness—permanent supportive housing—at triple the pace of a normal year.
New Haven’s Columbus House held a press conference Friday at Village Suites, joined by local and state officials. They said they are all interested in the hotel-to-shelter model. However, nothing is promised beyond the pandemic yet.
Long Wharf Roommates
Brown: Successfully transitioning to permanent housing.
Osorio and Brown did not know one another before becoming hotel roommates.
At the start of the pandemic last year, New Haven’s homeless services were scrambling under new social distancing procedures. People experiencing homelessness were getting turned away from shelters that had dramatically dropped capacity.
Then the city and state helped broker deals in early April to pay for rooms at hotels. The state paid for much of the cost upfront, until Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) aid kicked in.
Overnight, Columbus House staff moved shelter residents and accompanying services into the New Haven Village Suites. Osorio and Brown were anxious and unsure what to expect.
For many residents like Osorio and Brown, the stay has been lifesaving.
Some clients did catch Covid-19. But there was nothing like the superspreader nightmares imagined at the beginning of the pandemic. Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center provided weekly Covid-19 testing. No shelter client died from the disease.
In addition, Columbus House has moved 500 shelter clients into permanent housing this year.
Brown’s grandson, Jeremiah, motivates him to stay clean and get housed.
Raymond Brown plans to add to that number. He has a federal Section 8 rental voucher and is currently looking for an apartment.
Brown has never lived independently from roommates or girlfriends. He spent some time couch-surfing when under the spell of a drug addiction that he has since kicked.
In 2017, though, a blood infection temporarily paralyzed Brown. He lived in a nursing home for 18 months. Unable to work in auto repair like before, living with chronic pain, he became homeless roughly two years ago.
Now he is preparing to move into his own apartment near his daughter and grandchildren. He has yet to meet his 6‑month-old granddaughter, Raelyn. His daughter worries about him bringing Covid-19 from the hotel to her home.
“She doesn’t know how safe it is. We’re all pretty good. We all worry about getting Covid-19,” Brown said.
Still, he respects her wishes and doubles down on his efforts to find stable housing. When he has his own apartment, he plans to take care of his grandson and granddaughter on weekends. He also plans to relearn to move around without a walker. He said that doctors did not expect him to walk again at all, and yet here he is.
Osorio and Brown cook together in their en-suite kitchen.
Osorio is under 40, significantly younger than Brown. They cook together and help one another out. If one has a ride to buy groceries, they will pick up groceries for the other. Brown sometimes makes breakfast for Osorio. Brown’s favorite meals from this year are rice, beans, chicken and steak.
Osorio: Appreciates the shelter but feels happier in the hotel.
Osorio became homeless after the dissolution of his second marriage. He let himself go, he said. He has no family in Connecticut, so there was no one to catch him.
His hotel stay has prompted him to realize depression is at the root cause of his homelessness, he said. He’s meeting with a doctor about the mental illness soon, and he is looking for work as a security guard.
Uncertain Future
Columbus House CEO Margaret Middleton: We would love to buy this hotel.
Columbus House has explored purchasing the New Haven Village Suites. They don’t have a deal yet to make the sale reality.
“It’s a fantastic property that provides us a lot of flexibility. We would be thrilled to be able to buy it. It would mean the transformation of shelters in this community. It would be a total change in paradigm,” said Columbus House CEO Margaret Middleton.
The city and state are interested in such initiatives.
“We will support it if the opportunity arises,” said Connecticut Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno.
A Stamford nonprofit, Pacific House, is acquiring a hotel for this purpose, Mosquera-Bruno noted.
Otherwise, Columbus House has until September to stay in the New Haven Village Suites. President Joe Biden’s administration has extended aid for hotel-shelters until then and expanded FEMA’s contribution from 75 percent to 100 percent.