Ribbon Cut On Renovated Drop-In Center

Dolores Jeter watched the blue ribbon whirl apart to celebrate Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen’s new all-in-one drop-in center. 

She nearly teared up thinking back to her life 25 years ago, when she herself was homeless and had to zig-zag across the city each day in order to meet each of her needs. 

“Do you know how many times I had to cancel out on an appointment because I didn’t have the fare to get the bus? Or I was too tired to walk?” Jeter said.

“I’m breath-taken,” she said, taking in the prospect of medical care, social services, showers, laundry, freshly-made food, and a cafe-style gathering place for unhoused New Haveners to simply be — all located under one roof.

Jeter was one of about 100 staff members, volunteers, and supporters packed into DESK’s first floor on Monday morning for a ribbon cutting of the organization’s newly rebuilt home base at 266 State St., slated to open on Tuesday.

DESK bought the State Street building in 2020, having operated a soup kitchen out of Center Church on the Green’s 311 Temple St. location for decades. For two and a half years, the organization operated a drop-in center out of 266 State St.’s ground floor — offering coffee, snacks, harm reduction supplies, and connections to medical and housing resources. This past year, that drop-in center moved to the Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James at 57 Olive St. while the State Street hub underwent an extensive renovation.

As of Tuesday, DESK will move all of its services, including a soup kitchen, to the renovated building. 

The new homeless services hub is ​“a simple way to say to people: We respect you, it’s a time of need, and we’re there to help… without judgment and without stigma,” said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

The building’s basement now includes a walk-in freezer, a walk-in pantry, a washer-dryer, and an office where clients can connect with the regional Coordinated Access Network (CAN), a system that allots shelter beds among other resources.

The first floor will function similarly to DESK’s existing drop-in center, now styled after a cafe. ​“People can get a cup of coffee, get a bite to eat, charge their phones — all those things one would expect from a neighborhood cafe, including that sense of community,” said DESK Executive Director Steve Werlin.

The second floor now includes a full commercial kitchen with the capacity to produce 100,000 meals per year, Werlin said, alongside staff offices.

And the top floor will house Cornell Scott Hill Health Center’s Healthcare for the Homeless division, which includes street outreach services. It also features a wheelchair-accessible shower, an amenity highly requested by clients, according to Claudette Kidd.

Kidd works as a client engagement specialist and case manager at DESK, and typically goes across New Haven to connect with people who live outside to offer support and material resources. 

She said she’s especially excited about DESK’s new laundry machines. For someone living on the streets, it can be hard to protect their clothes from mildew after stormy weather. Laundry is often a priority for the people she works with, she said, because ​“their clothes are all they have.” 

After particularly rainy weekends, Kidd said, she’s taken clients’ clothes back with her and done laundry for them in her own home. Now, she’ll be able to use the machines in the DESK basement — and tell clients that those machines are theirs to use as well.

Carl Ferris, an activist with Unhoused Activists Community Team (U‑ACT) who has personal experience being homeless, praised DESK for having ​“open doors” to walk-ins who aren’t necessarily connected with other social services. ​“Some people don’t want to go to a shelter,” he said. 

Over the course of Monday’s event, Jeter stopped Werlin multiple times to tell him that he did a ​“great job well done,” and that she was ​“in awe.”

About three decades ago, Jeter spent five years without a place to live, she said. She recalled sleeping at a Columbus House shelter on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, then going to a Fellowship Place drop-in space to wash her clothes, then going to the Connecticut Mental Health Center in the Hill for appointments — back and forth and back and forth. She would often find herself exhausted by the end of the day.

“I can now tell everyone on the Green that it’s a one-stop shop for whatever assistance they may need,” Jeter said. ​“It’s like my prayers have been answered from 30 years ago.”

“God is never late,” Jeter added. Now that she has an apartment of her own, she wants to be a volunteer at DESK — and help bring alive a place she would have longed for all those years ago.