Deep Freeze Sends DESK, Keefe Into Action

Gloria came to New Haven’s drop-in center Thursday not just to stay warm during the day — but to remain overnight rather than sleep outdoors as usual, as preparations kicked into gear to keep unsheltered residents safe during an expected week-long deep freeze.

Gov. Ned Lamont has extended the state’s cold weather emergency declaration as temperatures are expected drop as low as 7 – 10 degrees through next week. The cold streak has resulted in various winter aid efforts for the homeless and others seeking warmth in New Haven and Hamden. 

New Haven Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal said the city is partnering with several organizations and service providers to open their doors to residents in need of crisis supports including warmth, meals, showers, and laundry.

​“They are low barrier and no questions are asked,” Dalal said. 

A key partner is the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) Drop-In and Resource Center at 266 State St., which is generally a daytime drop-in spot for people like Gloria who have nowhere else to keep warm. It is serving as an overnight warming center during the deep freeze.

While a coffee cup kept her hands warm, Gloria, who is 44, said during a smoke break outside the center Thursday that she ​“thanks God for a miracle” that thanks to the expanded hours, she wouldn’t be sleeping outside under two jackets and two blankets as on other nights.

The city also recently contracted with BHCare for a ​“warming center” at the New Haven Inn for dozens of homeless New Haveners, not just during the deep freeze. The overnight winter aid program is part of the city’s annual seasonal expansion for the winter months and not linked to the governor’s cold weather declaration, Dalal said. It also does not have a walk-in option as do some other warming centers around town. 

DESK is included in a total of eight ​“navigation hubs” the city is helping to fund to work together on connecting those who are homeless with on-site resources, treatment, food, and wellness support.

The hubs were introduced at the start of the year, funded by American Rescue Plan dollars, Dalal said. After seeing the high demand for such resources, the city has continued to contract the providers into the colder months to maintain what Dalal called a ​“no freeze policy.” 

Since this past April the DESK Drop-in and Resource Center has been offering year-around daily homeless resources.

Due to this month’s cold temperatures the city contracted DESK to extend its daily services to include overnight shelter for residents. 

Overnight services are determined each week based on weather forecasts expecting ​“inclement weather.” DESK Executive Director Steve Werlin said. When the overnight option becomes available, residents may stay in the center overnight until 7 a.m. The center opens daily at 1:30 p.m. The center had a maximum capacity of 25.

Werlin said based on current weather forecast the center plans to offer overnight space to help residents keep warm until at least next week. 

The center is ​“not zoned to be a shelter” and does not offer beds or cots, Werlin added. 

Around 10 p.m the center turns down the lights to give residents a warm overnight space and resting spot. 

“There’s a reason that a drop-in center that’s made for providing connections to resources is needed for an overnight warming center. We need more shelter beds in this city,” he said.

Starting in December the DESK drop-in center has been delivering about 40 dinners from its Temple Street site for residents daily. 

Stanley Densmor (pictured) picked up a pair of new winter gloves Thursday from outreach coordinator Christy Stang, then hopped onto the drop-in center’s computer to search up apartments for rent. 

Densmor began getting help from DESK a year ago with daily meals from its Temple Street site. 

Over the years Densmor has shifted in and out of experiencing homelessness. 

He currently visits the drop-in center to catch up with friends, pick up socks, razors, and dinner, and use the computer to search for permanent housing. 

Raised in Norwalk, Densmor came to New Haven 18 years ago to enter a drug rehab program. 

“It’s been rough,” he said. ​“Sometimes I just have to stay to myself and be alone.” 

Densmor is looking for work as a mechanic. He also recently applied to Amazon, using the center’s computer. 

Densmor has given up his overnight spot at the center several times this month to help his friends sleep indoors while he stayed at a friend’s home. 

To avoid turning those in need away, DESK works closely with Hamden’s Keefe Community Center which offers daily overnight warming shelter. 

While many visit the Keefe Center to get out of the cold, they are also offered daily resources like wifi, a restroom, first aid, harm reduction supplies, a computer, landline phones, and lockers to keep their personal belongings stored.

Staff on site can help residents search for jobs, apply for vital documents like an ID or birth certificate, and sign up for mail services at the center. Local providers also come in weekly including the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center.

Staff can also refer residents for appointments to shower and do laundry at Liberty Community Services nearby. 

While sipping on a hot cup of tea Zion, 20, ​“killed time” with a game of cards at the DESK center. ​“This is currently the only safe place I have to come and just hang out,” he said. 

Recently Zion has been visiting the center daily to warm up, lounge, and get dinner. 

Since the start of the pandemic, Zion said, he’s been able to get free meals from different places throughout the city but hardly ever a place to eat those meals with a roof over his head. 

Zion, who went to Common Ground High School, is working on enrolling in Job Corps. ​“I’ve been through a lot and this is an opportunity to go back and try again,” he said. 

Zion did not plan to spend the night at the center Thursday. He arranged to stay with his best friend since seventh grade. He said he would likely return in the future. 

On Thursday DESK staff member Aisha Nieves and intern Abby Karabeinikoff greeted residents into the center with a ​“Hi, how are you?” 

Residents then picked up two snack tickets and took a seat in the center’s warmth. The rumbling of a coffee machine, movies being watched on cellphones, and conversations filled the room. 

Karabeinikoff and Nieves answered residents’ questions while keeping watch on the bathroom. Staff check in on residents using the bathroom every three minutes for safety. 

Nieves recommended residents check in to the center by 4 p.m to get an overnight spot; the spots are given on a first-come, first-served basis. 

The duo also suggested residents call the center at (475)-227‑3009 beforehand to check if there is space. 

Nieves was hired recently due to the need for more staff for the center’s extended hours. She said the job ​“touches home,” for her as she is learning to understand the struggles of a family member facing similar challenges to those of the center’s visitors. 

“I never really got why he did what he did, but being here helps me to approach things in a more fragile way,” she said. 

On To Keefe

After spending the day at DESK, huddling inside public spaces, or walking the streets, roughly eight people without shelter found their way over to Hamden’s Keefe Community Center Thursday evening as temperatures dropped.

Keefe is Hamden’s only overnight warming station. It operates seven nights a week through Feb. 28. The space opened on Jan. 11.

Typically, Hamden partners annually with Columbus House to offer those experiencing homelessness a warm place to sleep in the coldest winter months. When that plan fell through this year, Y’Isiah Lopes, the town’s community services coordinator, stepped in.

Lopes said that Columbus House informed the town four days before a church-based warming station was scheduled to launch that they were cutting back on services due to Covid-19 outbreaks among staff and clients.

“We couldn’t just drop it; we can’t just not have anything for our homeless guests,” Lopes thought at the time. He didn’t know that less than a week later the governor would declare a cold weather emergency. Instead he told Hamden’s administration, ​“I think I can put something together.”

He reached out to friends and friends of friends looking for volunteers to help run the station, partnered with Community Soup Kitchen to secure pre-packaged dinners, and set up tables and a projector.

Each night, five or six helpers guide temperature checks, hand out clean masks, and take down peoples’ names in order to place them on Keefe’s list of individuals looking for housing support. 

Two or three volunteers work from 7 p.m. to midnight, microwaving meals and letting individuals in and out of the building. Another crew comes on at midnight and stays till 7 a.m. Everyone is woken up before 7 so that the gym can be prepped for the day’s events, like vaccination site pop-ups or Covid test distributions.

“We make sure the floors are mopped and we give it that Pine Sol,” Lopes said. The Keefe Center doesn’t have beds; instead, the homeless are given blankets that they layer on the hardwood before lying down. Most are asleep by 8 or 9 p.m. Others get off work early in the morning and, according to Lopes, are still welcomed in.

Lopes said that 10 to 15 people typically pass through overnight.

On Thursday, Keith Petrulis ate chicken and rice for the third night in a row while a line of men lay on their bellies a few feet away.

“At least you get to sprawl,” he said, observing that night’s collective of roommates. ​“At DESK, you have to sleep in a chair.” Access to a full floor, he suggested, is treated as a luxury.

Taking a bite out of his drumstick, he noted: ​“I’ve had the same meal for the past three nights. It’s kind of redundant at this point.”

The Matrix played on the projector. ​“At least it’s not the news,” Petrulis said. ​“That’s just the same stories over and over.”

Petrulis has been homeless since the start of the pandemic. He said he suffered a ​“crucial loss” eight months back that significantly impacted his mental health and led him to leave an apartment he was sharing with some friends.

“I started living in hotels,” he said, ​“but that got expensive. There was no win. I couldn’t save, but I wanted to get out of that situation.”

Petrulis works four days of the week, but said he struggles to ​“work when I want to because I can’t get rest when I want it.” He wishes he could work 60 hours a week, he said, but it’s rare to get even a few hours of good sleep to keep himself going. 

Before the Keefe Center opened its warming station, Petrulis said most nights involved ​“finding some cardboard and bags and setting up on the street.”

When he gets paid, Petrulis books a room at a Milford motel. ​“I’m tired of New Haven people,” he said. 

He knows New Haven Inn is currently housing the homeless, but he asserted: ​“I’m not going.”

“I’ve been there. It’s not gonna help me better myself,” he said, describing rampant drug use in the building and citing his own struggles with addictive substances.

Others said they are waiting for a call to access a free hotel room, but the ​“random screening process” isn’t picking them.

Dwayne Sims, who declined to have his photo taken, said ​“I’m hoping I get that call.”

After losing his mother in early October, the 57-year-old has been without a place to stay. ​“I’m still messed about it,” he said of his mom’s passing, gripping a locket with her ashes that hung over his heart.

Without a formal job, Sims is living on a little under $1,000 a month that he receives thanks to supplemental security income and a few other forms of state support. 

Last month, he spent most of that money on a bed in New Haven’s The Regal Inn. ​“I was happy as a motherfucker,” he remembered with a big smile. ​“I had a TV, a microwave. They always gave me the same room — 117. They know me very well.”

“I needed that break,” he said. Sims said he suffers from severe lupus and requires medical care. 

Living at a hotel, he realized, is unsustainable. In the future, he plans to spend two or three nights in a hotel room for a total of roughly $180. His ultimate dream is to return to college and focus on a career in product design. 

Meanwhile, he’s focused on staying warm, and alive. ​“I was sleeping a lot of places,” Sims said, before he found the Keefe Center. He’s had the cops called on him and been threatened by individuals holding guns, he said.

He said he intends to stay at the Keefe Center at night while it remains open, walking through Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven throughout the day while reselling products he purchases online.

After that, he said, he might move south to Virginia or Texas. ​“There’s nothing here for me no more,” he stated, and the price of living is too high in Connecticut. 

Sims took a bite of chicken as he mulled over the options. ​“No flavor,” he reviewed, dumping a packet of salt onto the meat. 

“But,” he added, ​“I might eat the bone.”