Remember last year’s Easter weekend?

That was a text from my sister-by-choice (mine, maybe not hers) Sara Capen Salomons this morning. A little, I texted back, but I didn’t, not really. I mean, it was Easter this time last year, right? Chocolate bunnies, kids’ baskets? But then she reminded me, Sara who has more soul than I ever will. This time …

So right about now, Sal’s interviewing for a job

At 9 a.m., Sal Pinna has a job interview in Hartford, and he’s nervous but excited. This is another step toward Sal’s independence. Let’s send powerful Batman thoughts his way, OK?

Sal Pinna, who was housed this year after years of homelessness, is still housed.

I wrote this for WNPR.

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 …

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. …

If you’ve nothing better to do…

…there’s a wrap-up of the 100-day challenge to greatly reduce chronic homelessness in the state on WNPR‘s “Where We Live” at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Better yet, the story will include Sal Pinna, who is making his radio debut. If you’ll remember, Sal [pictured at a recent performance at Charter Oak Cultural Center] was recently …

Connecticut homelessness is down 10 percent

We know this because the annual Point-In-Time count says so. Taken earlier this year, the PIT numbers  just got crunched, and they are — in a lame word —  encouraging. I’ve been hanging around policy types for too long to use words like “awesome” or “fabulous,” though those are the words that seem a better …

Sal Pinna is going to perform at an upcoming graduation

This is a long name, but here goes: Charter Oak Cultural Center’s Beat of the Street Center for Creative Learning is having their graduation on Thursday, and Sal Pinna, who recently got housed after 20 years of homelessness, is going to perform. The keynote and the benediction are being given by two of Hartford’s titans …

So someone offered to take Sal to a Mets game

Sal Pinna was homeless for 20 years, and then, through the efforts of advocates in Greater Hartford’s 100-day challenge to end chronic homelessness, he was housed in late April. I wrote about him for Sunday’s Courant and I’ve been reporting his story for WNPR for a few months now (the latest installment will air this …

Sal gets his normal life

That’s what he called it, Sal Pinna, a man who’d been homeless for 20 years. He called the life the rest of us live a normal life, which meant — for him — a kitchen and a television and a door he could lock behind him. Oh, and a television not ruled by other shelter …