Freezing to death in a parking garage

Karen Batts (that’s her on the right of the photo), 52, of Portland, Ore., was evicted from subsidized housing for not paying her rent (she owed $338). She moved into a parking garage, where she froze to death on Saturday, becoming Portland’s fourth person who is homeless to die on the streets just this year. Ms. Batts …

They. Did it. And more.

The dedicated team that worked on the Greater Hartford 100-day challenge to reduce chronic homelessness moved heaven and earth and did some amazing things — but not just in Greater Hartford. There were similar efforts in Fairfield County, southeastern Connecticut and northeastern Connecticut. This in addition to the original effort in New Haven last year. …

Helping recently-housed people-who-were-homeless get housed

The 100-day challenge to end chronic homelessness in Greater Hartford is going great guns, but handing people a key is different from getting them settled. Sara Capen Salomons, my friend at Journey Home, is looking for people to help with household goods. Can you help? I wrote this for Mother Courant.

Hartford to begin a municipal id program

Joining cities like San Francisco, New York, and our own New Haven (see former Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.’s card over there?), Connecticut’s capital city is set to start their own municipal identification program in September. Yesterday, I spoke with Mayor Pedro Segarra about this for a story for WNPR that will run later this month. …

Working together overcomes hate

This is an interesting Relevant article about faith groups coming together to overcome a common challenge — say, ebola. What if we approached homelessness the same way? What if faith groups put aside their beefs and their gigantic egos (Lord, those egos) and their “we’ve already tried that” and their “we’re doing that already” to …

The 100-day challenge begins in Hartford

Some dedicated folks just spent the last two days writing goals in the 100-day challenge to reduce chronic homelessness in greater Hartford. The challenges are to the left. (If it helps? No. 3 has to do with the coordinated access system in Connecticut, which requires someone with a housing crisis to call 211. That gets …

From the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut: A prayer service at 1 p.m. today

This from our friends at the coalition: The Muslim Coalition of Connecticut together with the Islamic centers in the Greater Hartford area wish to express our profound sadness and deepest condolences to the families of Deah Barakat, age 23, his wife of one month Yusor Abu-Salha, age 21, and her sister Razan Abu Salha, age …