Weather puts focus on city's homeless

Maria Garriga
New Haven Register
12/04/2007

-NEW HAVEN — Perhaps Sunday's cold didn't kill Salvatore Forgione, but it didn't help. Police found Forgione, 50, dead in his wheelchair inside the bus shelter at Church and Chapel streets at 7:45 a.m., said city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga. The chief medical examiner's office reported the cause of death as cirrhosis of the liver and alcoholic cardiomyopathy, not exposure to the elements, Mayorga added.

Candles will burn for people who died homeless in Greater New Haven at an annual vigil held at 1 p.m. Dec. 21, the longest night of the year, in the second-floor atrium of City Hall, 165 Church St. Hill Health Center sponsors the vigil.

Last January, the city conducted its first "point in time" survey of homelessness, in which teams of volunteers scoured the city from 7 to 9 p.m. to count homeless people. The effort helps avoid double counting, which can occur when counts are done at different times and places, such as a homeless person who may be counted by different teams at a soup kitchen, a park bench and at an emergency shelter.

The count found 778 homeless people, including 137 with no shelter, 411 in emergency shelters and 230 in transitional housing. Many of the homeless in the count have mental illness, chronic substance abuse or are HIV positive. Some are victims of domestic violence.

The city has about 375 year-round beds for homeless people, 75 seasonal beds and 45 beds in overflow. "We are making progress, but the need goes up, there is concern the pipeline is getting bigger," said John Bradley, executive director of Liberty Life Haven, which operates several programs, including 90 beds of permanent supported housing. Bradley said that qualified candidates must wait six months to a year for one of those beds.