Funded in part by the NRWIB, a pilot program in Waterbury, CT is trying to move homeless people from survival to success, starting with clean, safe, subsidized housing for six months. Photographed and recorded by Jay Dunn for the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Read the Rep-Am's Sunday Focus article below.
Read the Rep-Am's Sunday Focus article at https://www.jaydunn.org/video
Second chances: Homeworks giving homeless pride, purpose
BY JAY DUNN REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN - April 16, 2022
WATERBURY – Rukiya Borges is a woman of her word. When she says she’s going to do something, she follows through. To the formerly homeless men listening to her at the monthly Homeworks group meeting, this means a lot.
“This is not just an 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for me. I’m here at 10 p.m. at night, I’m here at 1 a.m. in the morning,” Borges said. “I’m here for you guys because I really want you to succeed. I’m here on Saturdays. If you need a prescription picked up, I’ll pick it up. If you need extra toilet paper, I’ll pick it up. That’s what helps make this program successful. You have a person who really, really loves their job.”
Program participant Brian Miele suggested newcomers also keep their promises. Referring to transit passes that are part of their support, he said fondly, “Gotta keep the bus lady happy.”
Homeworks is a pilot program intended to move the homeless from survival to success, starting with clean, safe, subsidized housing for six months.
There are two phases, and currently the program is capped at 12 participants. During the first six months, clients receive professional help addressing physical, mental, or legal problems. Those in the program agree to attend job training and financial education workshops while continuing therapy they might need.
The second phase requires participants to pay rent directly to the landlord once they are employed.
As of April 7, five residents were in the first phase, with two more about to move in. In phase two, there were four residents. The numbers change often, as people join or drop out.
There are strict rules governing participation. Clients must sign a three-page agreement which outlines their responsibilities.
Among them are to complete job training and to build and maintain a savings balance to cover one month’s rent plus a security deposit. Participants acknowledge they can be kicked out for drug or alcohol abuse, or for violence against others in the program, staff, their landlord or animals.
The program is administered and funded in part by the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board with partners including the City of Waterbury and landlord Ralph Monti, who owns the housing. It is paid for by the investment board, supplemented by federal funding and local philanthropy.
The program in two years has received 35 referrals, 35 applicants, and taken in 26 participants. As of Dec. 31, 2021, 13 people either broke the rules or relapsed into behavior they agreed to avoid.
Homeworks follows a whole-person approach. Assistance “encompasses everything,” said Borges, from simple things like better meals to proper glasses, from getting a valid ID to finding transportation to medical appointments.
Borges holds a bachelor’s in social work and a master’s in counseling.
She is also the special program grants supervisor for Career Resources, Inc., a nonprofit that trains people to enter the workforce. She “totally fell in love with the whole idea of the purpose of the program.”
“Because it’s focused on the person,” she said. “Everyone has different stages. Everyone has different goals, everyone is working toward something different. And to me, you’re able to capture their progress. And everyone’s progress is not the same.”
Referrals come from staff at the Center for Human Development’s Hospitality Center at 690 East Main St.
The hospitality center is just that, a place where those with nowhere to go in the daytime can keep warm, take a shower, do their laundry, and find resources. During climate extremes like cold weather, the center becomes a state-mandated emergency shelter at night.
The center’s trained personnel screen homeless clients they think can succeed. Once a client is referred, Homeworks takes over with a second assessment, working from a tiny shared office next door.
The same building that houses the center at 690-694 East Main Street has Homeworks participants living on the third and fourth floors. There are two apartments on each floor. Each has three rooms, with a living room, kitchen, and shared bath, for a total of twelve rooms. Men and women are considered equally for the program.
Landlord Monti, who Catherine Awwad, president and CEO of the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board called an exceptional partner, charges $500 per occupied room and pays for all utilities.
Acts 4 Ministry, another partner, was instrumental in outfitting apartments with furniture and appliances.
The first year of Homeworks coincided with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The idea came from a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, where attendees learned about a Hawaii program called Rent to Work, Awwad said.
With the support of Mayor Neil M. O’Leary, Awwad and her team set their first-year budget in the months after that 2019 conference.
They obtained $40,000 in federal funding, $25,000 from local philanthropies for rent and designated $100,000 of Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board funds for staff, for a total of $165,000.
Homeworks began serving clients with one apartment in February 2020.
“We’re ready to start, then a month later everything shuts down because of COVID,” said Awwad. “So now we have three people living in an apartment, but training programs were closing, employers were laying everybody off. We got caught in this perfect storm. But we were able to get people into jobs directly related to the pandemic.”
Last year’s funding increased, as did the number of participants. In 2021, the program obtained $60,000 in federal support, $35,000 from philanthropies, and $100,000 from the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board for staff, for a total of $185,000.
Wayne Gordon, 61, has graduated to the second phase of the program, where he pays his own rent. He’s in his third year of working nights at Home Depot and came to the program already employed.
“My mom passed away last year,” said Gordon, as did one of his sisters. He also got COVID-19 and left where he was living so he wouldn’t infect anyone else. “I was homeless for seven months,” he said. “But luckily, I have a job.”
Because he works nights, and shelters ask people to leave during the day, for months Gordon had nowhere to sleep after work, walking the streets of Waterbury just to pass time until his next shift.
At the monthly meeting, Gordon listens with empathy to a 20-year-old candidate’s story of homelessness. “This brother, here, I feel you,” Gordon said. “At your age? I feel you. When you’re ready, you come to me. I’ll get you a job where I work.”
During the pandemic, William Smith became homeless after losing his job and then his apartment.
While living at St. Vincent DePaul's Shelter on Benedict Street, he secured an interview leading to a job with a major trucking company, which paid for his training.
After six months in the shelter, Homeworks accepted Smith to housing and helped him make that out-of-state training.
William Smith has now secured a Class 3 Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) and is working full-time. He still takes a night bus to New Haven, then walks a long way to start at 4 a.m.
But he is determined to get his own apartment by June this year.
Borges said this is why she loves the idea of Homeworks. Because success is different for every person, one step at a time, and stable housing can be the catalyst, she said.
“I’m all about helping people where they are,” she said. “Because we live in a big, big world and we tend to forget that we too, can fall short. We too, can be at a different place and need help. And this program offers that.”