The Wallingford Community “Paying It Forward”
March 28, 2024
by Joe Pajor
Originally published in Wallingford Magazine | Issue #46 | Winter 2024
Some people’s paradigms of individuals experiencing homelessness are the panhandlers seen seeking money on streets and intersections. I, too, had such a paradigm until I joined the Columbus House Board of Directors in the mid-90s. Since then, my homeless paradigm has undergone a complete 180-degree shift. I now see human beings who are “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” This story is about how the Wallingford community came together in the mid-1980s to provide support and dignity to those human beings who find themselves experiencing homelessness and how Columbus House ensures that the legacy continues today.
Columbus House [CH], a New Haven-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has been providing solutions to homelessness, including Veterans without homes, since 1982. CH opened its first overnight shelter for adult men and women that year, occupying a vacated church convent on 200 Columbus Avenue in New Haven.
This past December, a CH organizational meeting was held at the Wallingford Emergency Shelter [WES] at 123 Quinnipiac Avenue to combine two decades-long distinct overnight homeless shelter programs. Both programs were created organically by individuals, communities, and ministries caring enough to establish programs for individuals who find themselves homeless.
Starting this January, the WES overnight shelter is being managed and operated as part of CH’s long-standing Abraham’s Tent [AT] program. Each program’s evolution shares many of the same traits: compassion, volunteerism, success, and enriching the lives of those involved. The story of how these two separate organic programs became one this year begins with each program’s origins.
Wallingford Emergency Shelter
A small group of Wallingford residents came together in the mid-1980s to establish the Wallingford Emergency Shelter [WES] as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This group was motivated by a vision of establishing a program to provide shelter and support for Wallingford area residents experiencing homelessness. Former Wallingford resident and then WES Board member Alden Noyes shared his memories of WES's beginnings. “WES was envisioned as an emergency shelter where those without a place to call home could stay overnight and keep warm during winter. It was as simple as that.”
As they sought proper approval for the new program, Alden shared his group encountered a common misperception and stigma regarding people experiencing homelessness; “We encountered a few times, a stigma, held by some, of who the homeless are. A few would challenge us with the perception that the homeless were alcoholics or drug users who were public nuisances who frequently debased private property.”
The WES Board, however, persevered and secured approval. The first WES shelter was run out of a local parish; then, it moved to a rented building on 95 North Cherry Street owned by DeBaise Heating and Air Conditioning. Those who volunteered soon realized people experiencing homelessness were people like them. Alden stated, “If you spent just one hour preparing and serving a meal to the homeless, you realized, if you possessed a homeless stigma paradigm, you were so far off base.”
As the word spread, many volunteered, and the startup operation worked well. Their vision became a reality as they succeeded in securing funds and rallying Wallingford community residents to come together to provide shelter and meals during the cold winters. There was no model for creating such a program, just the compassionate desire and will to do so.
One of the significant ongoing fundraising needs was to raise donations to cover the rent. The WES Board decided it was time to acquire a permanent shelter. While owning rather than renting economically made sense, a significant hurdle was the one-time capital funding needed to acquire a permanent shelter. Enough capital donations were secured, and in 1992, a former bank branch on 123 Quinnipiac Avenue was acquired.
There were still operating expenses such as utilities, insurance, and building upkeep. Funds secured were mostly larger donations from local companies, businesses, and banks. A small yearly Town of Wallingford grant was also obtained.
The goal was to create “a hot and a cot” shelter, providing a hot meal and a place to sleep. It was 100% volunteer run, with a few staying through the night to ensure clients' safety. The shelter was open from mid-November through mid-March from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. Initially, clients were allowed to stay as many days as they needed. Then, the Board implemented a 50-day limit to motivate people experiencing homelessness to find housing, whether permanent or what is known as transitional housing.
Wallingford resident Matt Cammarota, currently Chairman of the CH Board, was a WES Board member starting in 2008. He remembers transitioning from an altruistic volunteer to a front-line, hands-on caregiver; “When I joined in 2008, the first question posed to me was, what day would you like to be responsible for intake? I did not fully understand the commitment level until after I joined. The process was that a board member would be responsible for picking up leftover food from Choate, bringing it to the shelter, and opening the doors. From there, the intake process began, where we checked individuals in, collected/stored personal items, and did a brief security check. Volunteers from local churches served the meals and cleaned the kitchen. Once that was finished, the clients would relax for a while. Since we did not have staff, in addition to intake and kitchen, we had two overnight volunteers as well. They were there to ensure safety through the night, serve breakfast in the morning, and close the shelter by 8 a.m. From what I recall, there were only enough donations for a daytime executive director/case manager, Tom Thurber, who worked during the week to assist clients in connecting with other programs.”
Despite the significant Board and volunteer time commitment needed, the program easily found Wallingford residents to volunteer. However, the overnight shelter was not meeting the needs of families experiencing homelessness. It was an overnight shelter for individuals, not families. The WES Board then sought community funds to create family units in the same location.
The initial two-family unit was projected to cost $273,000. The goal was to secure these funds without any government funding. The then president of the WES Board, Stephanie Rubin Niezgorski, the daughter of the late community activist Martin Rubin, spearheaded the drive. The bulk of the funds raised were donated by Wayne Barneschi and other organizers of the annual “Trail of Terror” Halloween event. It was a great example of the Wallingford community pulling together to take care of its own. No governmental funds were used to build the family unit.
The project came in $60,000 under budget. At the Martin B. Rubin Family Center dedication ceremony in May 2012, Stephanie Rubin Niezgorski stated, “My father always taught us that family is essential, that standing up for others in need is important. I hope families will make many safe, warm memories here.”
The WES Family Emergency Center started as a 4-month transitional housing program providing shelter and meals while seeking to assist the family in permanent housing and financial stability. Every family was to meet weekly with the case manager as they identified and solved housing, education, childcare, transportation, employment, and financial self-sufficiency needs.
Due to the initial family center fundraising success, plans were developed to build another two-family housing unit next to the Rubin property. This time, the Ulbrich family, led by Chris Ulbrich, pledged to match dollar for dollar any donation received. The second family housing unit, the Fred Ulbrich Sr. Family Center, was funded, built, and dedicated in July 2015. Again, no governmental funding was used.
After these units became operational, the WES Board realized that to provide all the critical services to people experiencing homelessness, WES would have to provide solutions, not just shelter. The Board reached out to the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness [CCEH] for guidance, and in 2015, it connected WES with New Haven-based Columbus House [CH] to learn about best practices.
Following these interactions, it became clear to the WES Board that it could not provide the scope of services needed to offer a broad continuum of care programs to its clients. While significant work was being done in the overnight shelter, WES could not continue in its current format. The WES Board approached CH about assuming ownership and managing WES’s programs.
In July 2016, WES transferred its property assets (the shelter and two- multi-family housing centers) to CH, knowing that individuals and families without housing would continue to be well cared for and provided solutions to end their homelessness. Since then, CH has been responsible for all of the WES programs.
When the pandemic occurred, all Connecticut community individual shelters were shut down as the state, using federal pandemic funds, converted vacated motels to provide individual shelter services still managed by Columbus House and other state agencies. However, family shelters across the state, including the two WES family centers, continued operating during the pandemic.
Post-pandemic in 2023, it was decided to enhance the WES overnight shelter program by combining it with another successful CH program.
Columbus House’s Abraham’s Tent
Having covered WES’s origin and evolution, CH’s Abraham’s Tent [AT] origins explain how local ministries came together starting in 2009 and evolved to set the stage for both programs combining in 2024.
Columbus House opened its doors in 1982 to provide services to men and women at least 18 years old. Over the years, its goals broadened from providing food, shelter, and simple survival to understanding and working toward overcoming problems that cause people to become homeless. Columbus House has remained committed to fulfilling its mission: "To serve people experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk by providing life-saving outreach, shelter, and housing and fostering personal growth and independence. We advocate for and create affordable housing to end homelessness in our communities."
What started in 1982 as a vacated two-story church convent providing overnight shelter has grown into a multi-town $13 million-a-year operation. Today, CH manages a network of over 14 community-based housing and shelter programs in New Haven, Middletown, Wallingford, Hartford, and New London, some of which are for Veterans. Columbus House heavily depends on Federal, State, and City funding, representing 90% of CH’s yearly program funding; the remaining $1.3 million comes from community grants and individual donations.
In the late 90s, with the country mired in a recession, the city of New Haven could not provide funds to Columbus House to ensure the continued operation of a seasonal overflow shelter for people experiencing homelessness during the winter.
Alison Cunningham, the then-CEO of Columbus House, knew that to address this crisis, she could call on the local faith community to help brainstorm ways to close the gap in winter shelter beds. After many meetings, these faith leaders and Columbus House staff designed a new program, Abraham’s Tent. This program would be modeled after a similar program in Virginia but with particulars that fit the needs of both Columbus House clients and the participating congregations. Local ministries in the greater New Haven region agreed to help provide overnight shelter for Columbus House residents at their places of worship. This would free space up in CH’s shelter to increase intake capacity.
This new Abraham’s Tent program would shuttle ten around twelve Columbus House clients to and from a local church or synagogue facility each for the 12-week program. Each ministry would provide meals, companionship, and space for cots for one week without onsite Columbus House support staff. Since this would be a seven-day-a-week, 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. program, each ministry would need approximately 75 parishioners during the week to share the load in providing meals, companionship, and overnight coverage.
To launch the first program in 2009, 15 ministries participated. Columbus House staff provided volunteers with training, helped them design their space for meals and cots, and maintained an on-call presence in case of questions or an emergency. Columbus House Board members and staff visited each congregation, ate with the clients and volunteers, and did what was needed to make AT a success. The first year was filled with uncertainty about whether the program would succeed.
Succeed it did! In year two of AT, Stephen Peterson, a current Wallingford resident, and a North Haven Congregational parishioner, offered to coordinate the myriad and necessary day-to-day and week-to-week administrative details. Although he was always a volunteer, he has assumed the role of AT chief organizing officer for the past 23 years. This meant ensuring each ministry was adequately prepared and trained for their week. In addition, Steve would always appear on the first night of each week so that the clients could see a familiar face as they were shuttled from one ministry location to another.
Each parish embraced the opportunity to participate. Volunteers found their efforts rewarding and started to look forward to getting to know the CH clients. Discussions led to connections, relationships, and empathy for where each client was in life. In the ensuing years, each ministry started to look forward to its assigned week, with plenty of volunteers connecting with the CH clients. The list of those ministries who volunteered at one point or another from 2009 until 2020 shows the depth and breadth of AT’s success.
Everything went smoothly until the March 2020 pandemic arrived, shutting Abraham’s Tent program down along with every other Connecticut community man’s and woman’s shelter programs. By April, CH moved all emergency shelter and warming center guests to motel rooms with pandemic funding from the federal government. CH had to adapt to a new housing model, which found its staff assigned to each motel where clients were placed. Despite the pandemic, the AT ministries supported motel clients by providing meals and groceries and organizing clothing drives.
The individual shelter landscape has undergone permanent changes due to the pandemic. A practical solution to seasonal individual overnight shelters now meant combining the AT with the WES overnight shelter programs.
Abrahams's Tent and the Wallingford Emergency Shelter Become One
In winter 2024, Abraham’s Tent would begin again with new accommodation in Wallingford. In mid-November, thirty dedicated AT volunteers packed the kitchen area in WES to begin planning a re-imagined AT program. Starting this past January, ten CH clients from the greater New Haven community are spending their nights at WES through March. But now, rather than the CH clients being shuttled to the various places of worship, the ministries and congregations are driving to the client’s permanent Wallingford shelter location. A different area ministry will provide meals and companionship each week. However, volunteers are no longer staying overnight as CH support staff are present overnight through the morning.
The WES Individual Shelter and Family Centers' yearly operating costs approach $200,000 annually. The town of Wallingford provides an annual grant of $30,000 to offset the Family Center's operational costs. The remainder of the funding relies on donations from Wallingford area businesses, residents, or other CH philanthropic sources. Local companies supporting WES and the Family Center include Fred Ulbrich Memorial Fund, Ulbrich Stainless Steel, Frontier Communications, Napier Foundation, Liberty, Ion, Webster, and Wells Fargo banks. Area residents are also restricting their CH donations to be used for WES only.
The People Who Find Themselves Homeless
I have been associated with CH for over 30 years. It is easily my most rewarding aspect of paying it forward. Until the pandemic, my wife, brother, cousin, and friends would prepare meals at WES about four times a winter. We got to know the WES clients.
I will leave you with this observation. Many clients are no different than you or me. Some have full-time jobs but don’t have enough income to secure a place to live. But all deserve the respect and dignity programs such as WES and CH’s AT provide. The clients are so expressive in their appreciation for the kindness bestowed on them.
Photo: Joe (center) with his wife Kathy (left) and friend Janet serving a meal at the Wallingford Emergency Shelter.
Abraham's Tent has been made possible through the years in part by a generous grant provided by the Smart Family Foundation of New York.