Home » » Homelessness » What one suburban town does to help the homeless and needy

What one suburban town does to help the homeless and needy

© Bea Sheftel

Manchester, Connecticut is a suburban city 12 miles outside of the state capital, Hartford. When we moved here in 1968, it was a quiet community of white and blue collar workers. The founding Cheney family mansions were still in existence though not owned by the family any more. The museum was the Lutz Junion Museum. Manchester was called The City of Village Charm.

The largest majority of homes were Cape Cod style though there were larger split levels in some sections, and older mansions built by the original founders.

There was an active downtown area with many interesting stores, and a Parkade with larger stores. The population was 25,000. I was teaching first grade. The only "poor" children were the black kids bused in from Hartford. A social worker told me there were 50 families on welfare, mostly elderly or disabled. There was no such thing as homelessness in our town.

In 2002 the popular is 50,000. The town has grown and taken over the once farm lands. Those are now densely covered with a sprawling covered mall and strip malls.

The Cape Cod home is no longer favored by new builders who erect split levels in a cluster pattern to use of less land with more houses. We have two low-income housing projects that are build as town houses and we have hud housing. The separation of wealthy and middle class now includes a large group of poor people. These are the chronically unemployed or underunemployed who live in cheap apartments in the downtown area, or in subsidized housing.

We have thousands on welfare and hundreds who are homeless.

Despite the influx of people with severe financial handicaps, the town is still nice. We have six free pools, numerous parks, bike and walking paths through the countryside, and a responsible and human town government.

It was a coalition of churches that brought the need to help the homeless before the town directors.Many of those homeless were former residents, or the adult children of residents. They came back to find the cost of housing had risen beyond their means. At first, they were housed in church basements or put up in motels.

The town joined with the newly formed Manchester Area Council of Churches to help the needy. This is the important point of this article. The churches didn't have the financial means themselves to prove what was needed. They required the promise of a yearly donation from the town. I'm proud to say that donation has increased over the years.

The copyright of the article What one suburban town does to help the homeless and needy in Homelessness is owned by Bea Sheftel. Permission to republish What one suburban town does to help the homeless and needy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.