Everyone needs safe place to call home

By Ruth Melville

Rural homelessness may not be as visible as urban homelessness, but that does not make it less real or less painful. A 2011 point-in-time count suggests that on any given night over 150 people in the Northwest Corner are homeless, and the percentage of those who are chronically homeless is substantially higher than the state average (30 percent to 10 percent).

The Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut (CFNWCT), along with several other local and regional nonprofit organizations, including the city of Torrington and its former mayor Ryan Bingham, has drawn up a new 10-year plan for ending homelessness in our area. According to CFNWCT president Guy Rovezzi, the plan’s objective is that “every resident in our Northwest corner should have a safe and affordable home.”

Norfolk resident Julie Scharnberg was initially hired by Rovezzi to coordinate the work of various subcommittees, and she ended up writing the final report. The 60-page publication presents data on the current situation in the Northwest Corner and a concise summary of the latest thinking on ending homelessness. It also includes compelling first-person stories of men and women who have been homeless but are now, with help, rebuilding their lives.

“What surprised me most,” Scharnberg says, “was that a significant number of homeless Northwest Corner residents share common characteristics, and the solution for that group is so obvious–more permanent supportive housing developed throughout the region.”

The CFNWCT’s report is part of a larger nationwide initiative that began in 2010 when the federal government launched Opening Doors, the nation’s first strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. Connecticut has developed its own extension, Opening Doors–CT. It aims to end chronic and veterans’ homelessness in five years and to end homelessness among families, youth and children within 10 years.

Following on these efforts, The Plan to End Homelessness in Northwest Connecticut found that the high cost of living in our area makes it crucial to increase the supply of affordable housing. The Foundation for Norfolk Living is tackling this issue head-on by purchasing two houses in town and converting them into affordable apartments.

The lack of well-paying jobs is a tougher issue for individual towns to solve. In October 2012 the unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in the state, 6.0 percent in Norfolk, and a startlingly high 9.1 percent in Torrington (the highest among the communities listed in the Plan). Increasing access to education and improving public transportation are two of the strategies the Plan recommends.

Although health care, mental health support, substance abuse counseling and rental subsidies are available locally, they are scattered and hard to access. Nancy Cannavo, of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital and one of the leaders behind the Plan, hopes to provide such public services in a “one-stop” drop-in center.

Copies of The Plan to End Homelessness in Northwest Connecticut are available from the Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut’s Web site, www.cfnwct.org, or from its offices at 32 City Hall Avenue, Torrington, CT 06790.