As the state’s cold weather shelters open for the season, homeless service providers are looking at different ways to address residents’ needs.
A training, held by the National Alliance, focused on how Connecticut providers can manage their expectations for clients.
There are about 650 nightly warming center beds in Connecticut, typically open from about December to April, according to Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Fox.
Diiv Sternman, with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, was one of two leading a training for homeless services providers from across Connecticut on how to temper personal views when handling housing crises.
“We need to treat every client with dignity and respect,” Sternman said. “Every person needs to feel that respect and needs to have their dignity at the center of their housing process. We should support clients in making decisions for themselves.”
One of the biggest roadblocks for Connecticut homeless service providers is truly believing in unhoused people’s abilities.
“When we're talking about believing in clients' capacity for success, this is not about putting on rose colored glasses and assuming that things are going to be easy,” Sternman said. “It's about recognizing that our clients are resilient and have made things work in the past.”
It's normal for shelter workers to, at times, feel judgemental, however it's important for workers to not let that judgement cloud their treatment of people seeking housing, Sternman said.
Sometimes what case workers believe is best isn’t what the client chooses to do, and providers need to respect unhoused residents’ autonomy, Sternman said.
The majority of Connecticut residents living in poverty aren’t sleeping outdoors, said Kay Moshier McDivitt, with the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“They may be doubled up, they may be living with other people, but they are not in the homeless system or on the streets,” Moshier McDivitt said. “We have to believe in the client's resiliency to make it without the subsidies, because your system, our system, doesn't have it.”
Across Connecticut, among residents living in poverty, 96% are renters, according to 2022 data provided by Moshier McDivitt. Residents are considered impoverished if they earn below 30% of the area’s median income.
