All of Norwalk’s 73 Emergency shelter beds taken during winter cold blast: “Don’t have enough”

News release from The Hour:

With a statewide severe cold weather protocol in effect, the executive director of the city’s emergency shelter said homeless service groups across Connecticut need resources, especially during the winter.

Michele Conderino, CEO at Open Doors, a Norwalk nonprofit that runs the city’s emergency shelter and provides wraparound services, said the state does not provide recurring or ongoing funding for cold weather emergency services. That can overburden local social service groups and prevent unsheltered homeless people from escaping the bitter cold, she said.

“We don’t have enough beds,” Conderino said Wednesday, the day before Gov. Ned Lamont’s initial severe cold weather protocol was set to expire. That morning, Lamont’s office announced the protocol would be extended to noon Friday due to the arctic weather.

Connecticut and much of the eastern U.S. are facing frigid temperatures from an arctic outbreak. With winds gusts of up to 23 mph forecast for Friday, the wind chill will make it feel like it is between 15 and 25 degrees, , according to the National Weather Service’s forecast.

Open Doors has 55 beds year-round at its emergency shelter and provides an additional eight in the shelter’s common areas and another 10 between five hotel rooms from Dec.1 to March 31 each year in anticipation of increased need during cold weather months, Conderino said. But during this cold snap, all 73 of those beds are occupied, she said.

Community members can claim a bed at Open Doors on a first-come-first-served nightly basis, but the shelter won’t turn away anyone in need of shelter. If there are no beds, Conderino said some people will sleep in available chairs.

“The waitlist to get into these beds is incredibly long, so there’s a lot of people who are outside (and unsheltered) right now because they have no option to come in,” Conderino said, later noting that Norwalk’s waitlist had 29 individuals on it Thursday afternoon.

With no state-level recurring funding for extra emergency shelter in the case of inevitable cold weather, she said, “The homeless service system is really struggling to support the need that’s presented.”

With the frigid temperatures and high winds, the city has also opened warming centers, per the governor’s guidance, for community members to get respite from the cold.

“These centers are open to all residents, including our unhoused community members,” Norwalk digital content administrator Skylar Eagle said in an email. “Please do not wait until it’s too late – prolonged exposure to cold weather can lead to serious health risks, including hypothermia and frostbite.”

Norwalk’s warming shelters are located at the city’s Main Library at 1 Belden Ave.; at the South Norwalk Library at 10 Washington St.; and in the Norwalk Police Department‘s Community Room at 1 Monroe St., which is open 24/7, Eagle said.

Norwalk encourages those in need of overnight shelter to contact the city’s Community Resource Hub at 203-854-7999 or to call 211.

Full article at https://www.thehour.com/news/article/norwalk-cold-front-warming-center-open-doors-20025035.php