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Date: 1/3/2018
ENFIELD, CT – With sub-freezing temperatures, a group of volunteers is readying a warming center to assist the community’s homeless population.
A training session for volunteers for the Enfield People for People Safe Harbor Warming Center for the Homeless will take place Jan. 4 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the site for the center, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at 383 Hazard Avenue.
Monica Wright, the director of the warming center, explained to Reminder publications the center will open on Jan. 15 and will continue through March 30. It is a grassroots effort that is supported by five churches in the town.
Wright was specific in not calling the center a shelter. The homeless can come in out of the cold on a nightly basis and enjoy snacks or a light meal. The warming center’s volunteers then can help arrange for their guest to seek more permanent shelter in Hartford.
The shelter, Wright, added, is supported through private donations and receives no funding from the state. Volunteers stay at the warming center over night.
While she could not provide a definitive number of the town’s homeless population, Wright explained there are three encampments in Enfield: one behind the Kohl’s department store, another begin Shop-Rite and a third along the Connecticut River.
While she may not know the number, Wright does pay close attention to the people who have used the warming shelter the past two years.
“The trend I’m seeing is more young people and more working people,” she said.
Many of the people who use the warming center are working, but cannot afford rents in Enfield, which, Wright added, has not enough affordable housing.
Contrary to popular belief, the homeless people she sees do not have many addiction issues, but rather “have to chose between eating and paying the rent.”
She noted last year one of the regular guests was a high school student, who attended school, but was homeless.
Wright said the fiscal crisis Connecticut is facing complicates the homeless issue with an adequate number of social services programs. Enfield, as a smaller community, lacks the resources such as Hartford.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said of the situation.
There are a number of ways to support the warming center. Wright recently posted on Facebook, “Looking for donations of used working Android chargers (micro USB) for our guests to charge their cell phones overnight. Their phones are for the most part their lifeline for communicating and their only point of contact.”
Cash donations are also accepted and can be sent to PO Box 165, Enfield CT. 06083.
To volunteer or to learn more about the warming center, contact Wright at mwright.eshwc@gmail.com.