Volunteers try to count homeless

Angela Carter
New Haven Register
01/31/2007

-NEW HAVEN — After nearly two hours of searching for homeless people on the New Haven Green and several downtown streets, a team of volunteers found a woman sitting alone on the steps at 31 Whitney Ave.
She wanted to be called only by "Denise" and said she has been homeless "off and on" for about 20 years. Denise has had bouts of depression.

"Sometimes you cry. Sometimes you get angry. Sometimes I’m so weak I can’t even move," she said as she removed her glasses and wiped away tears.

Denise was one among a population of thousands of unsheltered homeless, living on the streets of cities and towns around the state. For the first time ever, social service agencies and homeless advocates conducted a "Point in Time" count Tuesday during a consistent time frame from 7 to 9 p.m. to avoid duplication.

"In the past, different areas have done it different ways at different times and that makes it hard to get a consistent count," said Allison Ponce, a clinical psychologist with Connecticut Mental Health Center who led the team that encountered Denise. Also searching downtown streets with Ponce were her husband, Tom Bontly, and Westville Alderman Thomas Lehtonen, D-27.

The counting included a voluntary survey seeking demographic information, family circumstances, previous housing arrangements, income and entitlement program participation, and types of services needed.

Homeless individuals and families living in shelters and supportive housing programs also were surveyed.

Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Reaching Home campaign coordinated the statewide count.

Volunteers with bright yellow buttons on their chests offered hats and gloves to homeless people they met and asked if they wanted to be brought to a shelter.

Dressed in jeans, white sneakers, a black coat and hat, Denise said she would find someplace to go on her own. "I walk around a while. At times I’ve slept in abandoned buildings. I know when to get out of the cold. I’ll find someplace."

Worse than being homeless, she said, is her loneliness. Denise said others fear people who live on the street or who have mental illness. "Don’t judge a person by the way they look. I’m a good person. If I can help someone, with what little bit I have, I’ll pass it along," she said.

More than 70 volunteers gathered at Liberty Safe Haven on State Street for last-minute training and instruction before fanning out across the city.

Final numbers were not available on deadline and organizers said it will take some time to gather and analyze each municipality’s data.

In the Valley, about a dozen volunteers gathered Tuesday in Birmingham Group Health Services’ office in Ansonia to get their marching orders.

Two teams hit the streets, led by Birmingham Group Health Services’ housing support specialist Jill Hrozienchik and John Trovarelli, case manager at Area Congregations Together’s Spooner House homeless shelter in Derby.

The mission was to find homeless people in Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton, and to offer assistance. but no one was found.

Ron Boucher, Meals on Wheels program coordinator at Training, Education and Manpower in Derby, said he volunteered because he wants to help others. "I just want to give back," he said.

A third team interviewed Spooner House residents, using a printed questionnaire.