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 …

Imagine. A functional end to homelessness in Hartford. Glory!

A common-sense approach to ending homelessness

Check out what Journey Home is doing: Offering an aerospace job training program to people who are or have been homeless. And it’s working.

Check this out:

Sal Pina (remember him?) was homeless for 20-some years, and then he got an apartment back in May. And yesterday, a nice guy named Ken made good on a promise he made when Sal’s story ran in the Courant, and he took his fellow Mets fan to a game. So this is what my friend …

Journey Home’s doing it again

Given the success of their August Dinner in the Park, where Journey Home partnered with area restaurants to feed roughly 200 hungry people, the non-profit organization is doing it again. And they could use your help. Along with Max Downtown in Hartford, Arugula Bistro in West Hartford, and Starbucks Coffee, Journey Home wants to send some people …

This is Shorty

Efforts continue in Connecticut to house people who have been chronically homeless. Shorty on the left slept under bridges for 14+ years. Shorty on the right slept, for the first time last night, in an apartment of his own. See him holding the key? You can read more about Shorty on Journey Home’s Facebook page. …

Look what they did in Hartford’s Bushnell Park on Sunday

My friend Sara Capen Salomons and Journey Home, with the help of some awesome restaurants, fed some 200 people — men, women and children — in Hartford’s historic park.

Free dinner for those in need in Bushnell Park on Aug. 30

Journey Home and Arugula Bistro in West Hartford, Salute Restaurant in Hartford, Whole Foods Market West Hartford, and Starbucks Coffee are providing free meals to people in need in Hartford’s Bushnell Park, starting at 5 p.m. Here’s where you come in: Donate $25 (or more!) to  Journey Home to buy a meal for someone, and …

So how’d the 100-day challenge go statewide?

Watch this video and catch yourself up. In short? It. Was. Awesome. That picture is of Sal Pinna, recently housed through the 100-day effort after 20 years of homelessness, most of those spent in Hartford. He’s hugging Sara Capen Sal0mons, of Journey Home, whom I am proud to call my friend. That’s Sal’s apartment, the …

I’ve never understood cynicism

On Sunday, I wrote a column for Mother Courant about the need for providing household goods for people who have been homeless, but now are being housed through Greater Hartford’s 100-day challenge. The response has been, in a word, incredible. Sara Capen Salomons is the contact person for Journey Home, the lead agency in the …