Monday night’s Zoom community management team gathering.
Early next week an “open-air resource center” — otherwise known as a tent — is scheduled to pop up in Blake Field opposite the East Rock Community Magnet School, not far from homeless encampments in the woods near the Willow Street I‑91 off-ramps.
Its purpose: To offer medical treatment, food, and, potentially, testing for Covid-19 symptomatic people and to serve as a triage point for those homeless folks who decline to come into one of the city’s sheltered environments.
Those details emerged Monday night during the regular monthly meeting of the East Rock Community Management Team, which attracted 32 participants via the Zoom teleconferencing app.
ERCMT Chair David Budries hosted. The presentation was made by the city’s Community Services Administrator Dr. Mehul Dalal.
Dalal said his staff worked out the plan in recent weeks with neighborhood Alders Anna Festa, Charles Decker, and Steve Winter. The plan Monday night was received with an expression of gratitude and an offer to volunteer.
Dalal described how the pop-up resource and triage site will work in the context of the general city and state mandate during the pandemic to move hundreds of homeless people from the dangerously crowded shelters into hotel rooms.
“The city had to shut down critical institutions for the homeless,” Dalal explained, “and we know that New Haven is [still] a draw for people from all over. Since we need to ID anyone entering the community if we’re going to get control [of the pandemic], we stood up respite facilities at Career High” for Covid-19 symptomatic homeless people. For those not wanting shelter, the idea here was to set up a tent for services, near where the hardcore homeless often live.
Dalal described the tent as “an open-air drop-in resource center, near the encampments.”
It will be staffed by existing teams who engage the homeless from groups like Columbus House, the Connecticut Mental Health Center, and Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center.
Services would include treatment and other “wrap-around” services.
Update: Dalal said during a Tuesday afternoon press briefing that the site might offer testing services for Covid-19 symptomatic people. He said the testing would be provided by one of the city’s community health partners, but that that piece is not yet definite.
Two days a week showers are to be made available for those who wanted to clean up. The showers would be at the nearby East Rock Community Magnet School, one person at a time, and access, supervision, and cleaning will be provided by staff or volunteers working with the Board of Education.
Those details are still to be worked out, Dalal said, with the input of the Board of Education.
The tent’s proposed hours of operation are 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“It will not overlap with food distribution [at the school], which ends at noon,” he added.
Alder Decker described the plan as a thoughtful one that makes sure “those who can’t shelter at home stay as safe as possible.”
John Martin, community activist and founder of the Bradley Street Bike Coop wrote, through the app’s chat function: “Thank you for taking care of some of our most vulnerable.”
When another participant, Lorena Mitchell, asked if volunteers might be needed, Dalal provided the group with contact info for the pop-up resource center’s coordinator, Sam Greenberg, at.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Ed On Board
The Board of Education also discussed the tent and locker room proposal on Monday night, at its own regular meeting.
Mayor Justin Elicker emphasized that the set-up would be separate in both time and space from East Rock School’s distribution of prepared meals to families, which happens on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
The East Rock School’s showers would be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and both programs would be in the afternoon. The available bathrooms would be separate from the ones the food distributors use and sanitize at the end of each day.
Board member Darnell Goldson asked whether those experiencing homelessness would be able to use laundry services, so they would not have to step back into dirty clothes after their showers. City Chief Administrative Officer Scott Jackson responded that the city has just aimed to provide clean undergarments so far.
Board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur voiced her support for the plan and asked how to refer a homeless 18 year-old she knows to the city’s housing options. The answer: call 211 or drop in at the East Rock site.