Laura Glesby Photo
Christopher lines up for the 180 Center's final night as a warming center.
At 6:15 p.m. sharp on Tuesday, Christopher ambled over to the 180 Center on a crooked foot.
It was the last night that the last warming center in New Haven would offer shelter for the season, and Christopher didn’t know where he’d sleep on Wednesday.
“I haven’t got that far yet,” he said.
The 180 Center, a Christian ministry at 483 East St., was the last city-funded warming center to remain open this year — providing sleeping mats and warm food for 30 people each night.
The 180 Center’s warming center is closed today; other warming centers at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church and Upon This Rock Ministries shut down for the season in April.
The warming centers served as an alternative to traditional homeless shelters, which provide real beds, but often operate with more stringent rules. People are allowed to stay in warming centers while inebriated, for instance, and are not required to sleep at the same place every night.
Christopher said he had been sleeping at the 180 Center for about 14 months. “They’ve been great to me,” he said. “The staff is good.” (Every warming center client interviewed for this story asked to be identified by their first name or initials.)
As someone who got “caught in the cycle of drugs,” Christopher said, the warming center has been a lifeline. “I’d rather be there than out here.”
As evening arrived, he bent down to pick up forgotten trash outside the Rent-A-Center on the corner of East and Grand. He placed discarded cans and McDonald’s bags inside the laundry cart he wheeled around with him — “cleaning up other people’s mess,” he said with a sigh.
“When we’re at places, a bunch of us, some people leave a mess. Then, people call the cops,” Christopher explained. He had stayed behind to clean up in order to avoid that kind of conflict.
As Christopher cleaned up the Rent-A-Center parking lot, another 180 Center regular named John approached to inform him that it was nearly 6:15.
The line outside the 180 Center started each night 45 minutes before opening time at 7. Lining up on time was important, as the warming center typically had to turn people away.
“They do need more shelters,” said John. He said he had plenty of experience sleeping outside, including inside a makeshift shed made from wooden pallets. His best friend used to sleep in a car, and on cold or snowy nights, they’d sleep there together. That friend died two years ago, and since then, John has relied on the warming center for protection from bad weather.
He too did not know where he would sleep after Tuesday.
The warming center’s closure will send Christopher and John into a life of day-to-day uncertainty that some have been confronting all winter.
D.M. often did not even try to line up for a spot at a warming center. At the 180 Center, clients who stayed the previous night had priority, and D.M. often found himself turned away.
Some nights, he did get lucky enough to secure a spot. “It’s better in there than out here,” he said.
But often, he described, “you wait in that line forever. Next thing you know, they’re already filled.”
D.M. had been living in a mouse-ridden apartment on Bishop Street when he lost his restaurant job due to pandemic-related business hurdles, he said. “I got behind on my rent.” He said he relied on housing court extensions to remain housed until ultimately getting evicted about two years ago.
“I’m tapped into 211 and the Housing Authority,” D.M. said, waiting for housing to open up.
When he isn’t able to secure a warming center spot, D.M. tries to find refuge with friends. On harder nights, he said he looks for a quiet place in a public park to lay his head.
He had been planning to sleep at a friend’s place Tuesday night. He did not know that the 180 Center would be closing for the summer; the news caught him off guard. The lack of warming centers this summer will make his life “a little bit” harder, he said. But most of all, “I miss my own place.”
Asked about what options are available for unhoused people now that the city’s warming centers are closed, city spokesperson Lenny Speiller said that New Haven’s eight homeless shelters remain accessible via 211 and the Coordinated Access Network (CAN). He said there’s also currently a request for proposals out for a ninth shelter for adult men.
“The Office of Housing and Homelessness Services and partner organizations have been regularly engaging with individuals who have being staying at the city’s winter warming centers to offer and help connect individuals to services and supports, including more permanent housing options, medical care, and employment services, among others,” Speiller wrote. He said roughly 82 percent of people staying at those warming centers have “opted to accept and engage in services.”
Asked about a waiting list for the city’s shelters, Speiller said that, as of May 8, there were 184 individuals and 32 families on CAN’s “By Name List.” That list applies to all 19 towns covered by the CAN, and not just New Haven.
Speiller said that New Haven’s shelters currently have a capacity for 206 individuals and 38 families. “As of last week, they were at capacity, pending final admissions.”