New Haven resident Roger Atlas fell behind on rent payments and is spending his first winter without a home, alongside his 17-year-old cat, Diggins.
Atlas and Diggins are staying at the Beth-El warming center in Milford. It’s one of the few shelters in the state that allows pets.
During the winter, warming centers across Connecticut provide relief to people experiencing homelessness. For the past few years, they’ve been funded by COVID-19 relief dollars, which are set to expire. Shelter organizers are worried about how they will keep their doors open.
Ever since Atlas became homeless seven months ago, a pet carrier pulls double duty.
The grey, water-resistant upper compartment has black mesh for Diggins to see through, while the stroller’s undercarriage contains many of the duo’s belongings, including the cat’s vaccination records.
“We go to the library, we go listen to music at places like that,” Atlas said. “I worry about him being cold and stuff like that.”
Atlas wore sunglasses as he swept the floor of the soup kitchen’s dining room at the Beth-El warming center, preparing for stackable cots to be brought in.
Beth-El’s shelter is first-come, first-serve and is open nightly from November to April.
Atlas, like several others staying there, hadn't heard of warming centers until they were looking for a place to stay.
During the winter, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness does a biweekly count of unhoused residents. On any given day last winter, more than 1,000 people were unable to find shelter.
The roughly 650 warming center beds statewide aren’t enough.
'It's the new norm'
Warming centers provide cots in a communal setting, often in church halls, community rooms or soup kitchens. Some serve hot or prepackaged meals, but all operate on a nightly basis, requiring clients to leave by morning.
The center has 20 beds, but regularly sees 30 to 40 people seeking shelter, said Beth-El’s Executive Director Jennifer Paradis.
“It is the new norm. This is unlike what we've seen in previous years,” Paradis said.
But there are still gaps in statewide coverage.
“We have large parts of Connecticut that have no warming center resources at all; like in our program, we're seeing folks from Madison and Guilford and Branford,” Paradis said.
'It's really hard not knowing'
In the Greater Hartford area, almost all of the warming centers popped up in the last few years. The increase was in response to a rise in homelessness and a focus on funding social services during the pandemic.
For the winter of 2023 into 2024, the state’s shelters received $5 million in COVID relief funding for cold weather services. This winter is the last year shelters will have access to the COVID funds, with about $4 million before the funding expires by next winter.
Funding for cold weather services can include one-time payments to prevent people from becoming homeless, as well as operating costs for shelters and warming centers.
Sarah Pavone, director of strategy for nonprofit homeless service provider Journey Home, fears a return to pre-pandemic funding levels.
“Before COVID, it wasn't normal for us to receive state funding for cold weather,” Pavone said. “This is something newer since COVID — the influx of cold weather dollars that we've received that are really vital for folks to keep our folks alive and it's really hard not knowing every single year.”
The central and capital regions, which encompass nearly a dozen communities, including Hartford, New Britain and Manchester, have about 250 beds.
An abysmal housing market is also to blame for an increase in homelessness, Pavone said. Despite the increase in warming center capacity, they’re routinely turning residents away.
“In the past three years, rent prices overall have increased 34%,” Pavone said. “Over the past three years, with that rent increase, our numbers have continuously increased.”
Homelessness expected to rise
The rate of homelessness in Connecticut has increased by more than 30% since 2021, according to the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH). The rate is expected to continue to rise as COVID-era programming and funding expire.
With COVID-19 relief dollars set to end, homeless service providers are looking for a funding guarantee from state lawmakers.
“Winter comes every year, but we have no guarantee of any funding,” said Sarah Fox, CCEH's chief executive officer. “We have a system of care. It needs to be funded like an emergency room to assist people in crisis and it needs to be something that's prioritized by the state.”
It’s the legislature’s job to remember the cold winter weather when lawmakers approve the state budget in late spring, according to Bob Duff, the Democratic State Senate majority leader.
“It's important to remember in the end of May and early June — when it's hot outside — these cold days, because when we experience that kind of cold weather, we know that these warming centers are important and we know that it's something that we need to fund in our state budget,” Duff said.
Paradis, with the Milford warming center, said the state needs to reframe the way it looks at seasonal shelters.
“There's this disconnect of, because we live in a four-season state, ‘Oh, we stand up extra beds during the winter time,’ but those are beds that are needed all year long,” Paradis said.
In other words, the same people lining up for a nightly cot in the winter are often still looking for a home come June.
