Melinda Tuhus Photo
Jerry Norfleet was enjoying dinner in a homeless shelter that’s not normally a shelter. The clergy people around him were there not to to preach, but to serve dinner and schmooze with their guests.
Norfleet (pictured above) has been homeless for awhile. He usually stays at the Columbus House shelter on Ella Grasso Boulevard. But for 12 weeks from January through March, he’s part of a dozen-strong contingent taking part in a unique ecumenical project called Abraham’s Tent.
The project has enlisted houses of worship to open their doors to homeless people in the coldest months and help New Haven house them in tough economic times.
The churches and (one) synagogue are taking turns, one week at a time, serving as temporary shelters. This week the Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James in Wooster Square took a turn. That’s where Norfleet was having dinner before settling down for sleep Monday night.
As the men chowed down on chicken pot pie, greens and macaroni salad, with chocolate walnut brownies for dessert, Norfleet spoke of how he ended up there. He said he’d had a job and a home, but drugs brought him down. Now he’s back on the wagon, attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
Asked how he was chosen to participate in this project, he responded jovially, “Because I’m a good guy!”
Columbus House Executive Director Alison Cunningham agreed. (She’s pictured on the right with Michael Ross, a volunteer with the agency.) She said last summer, when she saw the shelter was full even on warm nights, she worried about the upcoming winter. Although the overflow shelter on Cedar Street holds 100 men and is open from November through April, she feared that the additional facility wouldn’t meet the need. So she contacted Interfaith Cooperative Ministries, an urban-suburban coalition of 41 churches, synagogues and mosques. Organizers recruited 19 congregations to create Abraham’s Tent — 12 to host for a week each, and five additional to partner with hosts and provide food and volunteers. Staff at Columbus House chose residents they’ve had a chance to get to know and thought would be able to handle the changes involved.
Sitting at two round tables Monday night, the men and some of the volunteers made quick work of dinner. Norfleet said he loves being part of the merry-go-round of rotating shelters and rotating volunteers. “It’s different scenery, and the people I travel with are really good people,” he said. “We all get along together.”
Cunningham said all the sites try to stick to the rules and schedule of Columbus House itself. That means the guys can take smoke breaks after dinner and before bed. Lights out is around 10:30 p.m., and wake up is at 5:30 a.m., with breakfast at 6:30 and then out the door for the day.
Nina S. Gomez (pictured cleaning up after dinner) made the brownies for Monday’s meal. Helping the homeless has always been a passion of hers, even before she joined St. Paul and St. James. She said she was happy to welcome the men into the church.
Senior Rector Barbara Cheney (pictured with assistant rector Harlon Dalton) was proud of her flock’s response. She said between the two churches, 50 volunteers have come forward to cook, clean up, visit with the guests after dinner or participate in activities such as Fooz Ball, board games and movie watching. (“Ricochet,” an early Denzel Washington flick, was on Monday night.)
While most of the congregations set up cots in one big space, here the men got small rooms for two, or even private rooms, because the space had previously been occupied by a Yale-affiliated counseling program. “It was easy to switch out the desks and chairs and put in cots,” Cheney said.
The program’s been a blessing, Cunningham said. “We’ve had over a hundred guys at the overflow shelter every night since this started, ironically enough, so without this we would be turning people away. So it’s a lifesaver for the guys that are on the streets.” And it’s not just the clients who have benefited, she added. “I think it’s had an extraordinary impact on the congregations for them to embody their ministry to the poor and homeless and disenfranchised in a very direct, concrete way. It’s one thing for them to send a dozen volunteers to Columbus House, but it’s another thing to open up their doors, and to say, ‘We’ll bring folks in’ and to really sit and listen, and have time to know who our folks are. It’s a way different experience than serving a meal across the food line at Columbus House.”
She said she thinks the clients, the staff and the members of the participating congregations are all getting a tremendous amount from the project.
“It’s about filling the gap that the government can’t do — or won’t do. It makes people really aware of the need in this community: a lack of housing, a lack of employment. And all these things are now made real through the folks they’re sitting down and having dinner with.”
Asked what will happen when Abraham’s Tent folds up at the end of March, Cunningham looked pained. At this point there are no plans to continue it, she said; yet she sees no end in sight to the needs of the homeless in New Haven.