CT city allows church to be used as overflow shelter for homeless after declining first site

A Connecticut church was granted a permit by a city Wednesday to open an overflow homeless shelter amid contentious debate and soaring numbers of unhoused and homeless people in Connecticut.

The Torrington Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday granted Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington their request to utilize the building located at 220 Prospect St. as an emergency cold weather shelter. Another church — Northwest Hills Community — had submitted a permit but was denied due to its proximity to St John Paul the Great Academy.

Parents at the Catholic school previously protested having the shelter at the church, which had hosted one in previous years.

“Demand for services has increased exponentially over the last three years since the pandemic, so this is welcome news,” said Conrad Sienkewitz, a community advocate for the homeless. “I think we need to raise awareness about who the unsheltered are. People are scared for their children and scared of people who have no place to go. Most of the time, people who are unsheltered are just trying to get by and stay warm. We need to have some community conversations.”

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Sienkewtiz was one of the founding members of Operation Overflow in 2003 as a response to homeless sleeping overnight in the courtyard of Trinity Episcopal Church. The all-volunteer program welcomed homeless guests in the winter when the nearby FISH shelter would reach capacity at 35 beds. Trinity Episcopal Church, Northwest Hills Community Church, First United Methodist Church and Center Congregational Church all rotated being used as a cold weather shelter.

“When it became obvious that it would be contentious to have the shelter at Northwest Hills, we immediately put in our application for a permit,” said the Rev. Carrie Combs of Trinity Episcopal Church. “Our feelings were both unsurprised and disappointed, but it galvanized us as a congregation to do what is needed.”

The church plans to use its upper and lower parish halls to place dozens of cots. The downstairs of the church, which already hosts a soup kitchen, has already been cleared of tables and kitchen equipment to make way for an expected 40 guests through April.

Combs said that the church is still in discussion with the Torrington fire marshal over the maximum number of guests allowed. Each of the parish halls is approximately 2,500 square feet.

“We were in conversation since October about being a potential host site,” Combs said. “Northwest Hills was seen as a preferred site, and we were fully supportive of that application, but we did not know how controversial the process would be.”

The church said that it will not be able to use the 4,000 square-foot sanctuary because of the heavy pews that can’t be moved or relocated easily.

But despite the welcome news for homeless advocates in the city, the numbers paint a growing problem. According to Nancy Cannavo, president of The Gathering Place, there were 1,755 individual clients between September 2022 and September 2023 who came to the agency. Of those, only 48 people found housing, according to a previous Courant report.

“When Operation Overflow began 20 years ago, nobody anticipated we would have so many years of service. It really was a band-aid approach, but sometimes a band-aid is better than nothing. We would have around 18 people needing shelter when we first started. Today that number is much higher,” Sienkewtiz said.

Operation Overflow ceased in 2020 during the pandemic when volunteers left and churches closed down. Later on that year, a new program called Project Overflow began with state funding and permanent paid volunteers to stay the night with guests. The homeless residents check in around 8 p.m. and stay the night before leaving again early in the morning, just long enough to keep warm amid the bitter cold.

In 2020 and 2021, former United Way of Northwest Connecticut director Owen Quinn ran the overflow shelter at the old St. Mary School building on Forest Court. Last year, an overflow shelter ran at the Winsted Health Center, according to Sienkewtiz.

Out of $5 million in state funds allocated for homeless services this year, only $250,000 was given to Litchfield County to support services in the area. The state looks at the number of people who are homeless when allocating funds.

“Funding is becoming a real issue,” Sienkewtiz said. “It’s simply not enough when you consider the need. Shelters need to be kept heated and just the wear and tear that results from having a lot of people in close proximity, it’s often a lot money.”

Combs said that Trinity Episcopal Church plans on continuing to fill the need as an overflow shelter for several years to come if it remains needed. The permit allows the church to be a temporary cold weather shelter indefinitely.

“I hear people say we need to be looking at the causes of why people are unsheltered first. I definitely get that. But right now there are people sleeping outside,” Sienkewtiz said. “So we need to do something to get them warm. Starting tomorrow night, there will be an overflow shelter. I do hope though as the season goes on and it gets warmer, we start to look at more long term solutions.”

Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com.