Two Programs Shelter Homeless with Help from Hartford Foundation

January 2010

With low temperatures a regular part of the weather forecast, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving has awarded grants totaling more than $134,000 to enable two programs to provide shelter for the homeless in Hartford.

Cots lined up at a former Lafayette Street church, now a "no freeze" shelter. [Photo: Teresa Wierbicki, Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corporation]

Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corporation is operating, through March, for the City of Hartford, a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. “no freeze” shelter for 40 men at a former Lafayette Street church owned by the State of Connecticut.

The Salvation Army is operating, through April, a shelter with 23 beds that is open 24 hours a day for single women and families at its Marshall House facility.

“We are pleased to work with the State of Connecticut and the City of Hartford on the Lafayette Street project and with The Salvation Army’s Marshall House to provide people with shelter from the cold during the winter months,” said Linda J. Kelly, president of the Hartford Foundation. 

The shelter funding includes support from the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund, The Morningstar Fund and the Lee and Margot Alllison Fund at the Hartford Foundation.

Overall, nearly $26 million in grants were awarded in 2009 by the Hartford Foundation to a broad range of nonprofit organizations in Greater Hartford, including $2 million at year’s end to agencies struggling to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless while coping with declining income from private and government sources due to the recession.

Other year-end grants included:

• $1.2 million to 11 Hartford, Enfield and regional agencies to replace lost or reduced private, municipal or state aid. These grants cover program and overhead costs at nonprofits providing services such as healthcare, food, fuel and housing. For example, Operation Fuel received $200,000. The year-end awards are in addition to grants approved earlier to 13 agencies coping with budget shortfalls, for a total of $2.2 million awarded last year. 
• $584,000 to three Hartford agencies – the Salvation Army, My Sisters’ Place, and Immaculate Conception – largely to implement strategies to prevent homelessness. While providing emergency housing, the agencies also provide rent subsidies, counseling and case management services to obtain and keep individuals and families in permanent housing.
• $300,000 to 53 social service agencies for programs in Hartford, Avon, East Hartford, Enfield, Manchester, Newington, Rocky Hill, Simsbury, Vernon, Wethersfield and Windsor. The agencies provide emergency assistance with food, housing and fuel; access to healthcare; and employment services to low- and moderate-income people. Funding was provided through a collaboration of the Hartford Foundation with Bank of America.

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for the 29-town Greater Hartford region, dedicated to improving the quality of life for area residents for the past 85 years.  The Foundation receives gifts from thousands of generous individuals and families, and last year, awarded grants of more than $25 million to a broad range of area nonprofit organizations.  For more information about the Hartford Foundation, visit www.hfpg.org or call 860-548-1888.