Our Guiding Light
We are guided by the Spirit made manifest in the person of Dorothy Day, an advocate for the poor in the 1930's. For a quick synopsis of the life and values of this incredible woman, visit wikipedia.com and search Dorothy Day. Although Dorothy Day has passed from this life to the next, her spirit is embodied in the original founders who started the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury, CT back in 1982. The mission of DDHH is sublime in its simplicity. Provide food (soup kitchen) and shelter to the homeless in the spirit of faith, hope and charity. That spirit continues in everyone else who contributes to the Dorothy Day Hospitality House (DDHH), an all-volunteer organization, in Danbury, CT. We at Off The Streets are profoundly guided by the principles embodied within the fabric and being of DDHH. The model for Off The Streets is almost completely lifted from DDHH. As is DDHH, Off The Streets, is all-volunteer, takes no government funding, relies completely on the generosity of individuals, companies, foundations and places of worship for its funding. Off The Streets is a completely separate organization from Dorothy Day, but the links are extraordinarily connected.
MISSION STATEMENT
Ensure that all possible means are taken to provide lodging and support for persons who are on the streets and in emergency shelters of Danbury CT.
GOAL
Diminish the homeless population thereby decreasing the use of the homeless shelters through reaching out on a one-on-one basis with the Danbury overnight shelter guests attempting to place them in some form of housing, in a room they can call their own, temporary or permanent, within 30 days of their arrival at a shelter. Thus renewing a sense of hope, reinforcing self-worth, restoring dignity and a confidence in the future. This will be accomplished through triage. It is also the goal of Off The Streets to provide outreach and support to those placed in housing to ensure they retain their housing.
Why is there a need for Off The Streets?
The Emergency Shelters such as that at Dorothy Day on Spring Street, and the City Shelter on New Street are intended to keep a person out of the elements, provide them with encouragement, a place to sleep, and facilities for cleaning clothes and taking showers. They are, in short, a testimony to the belief that a human being has some inherent dignity; that the human being is not equipped to live on the city streets, vulnerable to the elements and vulnerable to those that might prey on them. Since they are Emergency Shelters, they are only open for sleeping from roughly 9 pm to 5:30 am. All guests are in a common room; at Dorothy Day, there is separation with partitions; each opening has twin size bed. At the City Shelter, guests sleep on cots in a large room. There is heat in the winter, but no air conditioning in the Summer; there is no TV. We at Off The Streets defy anyone to stay at the Shelter as a volunteer more than a few days at a time; It's rough on the volunteers. But we also believe that it's rougher on the guests. Picture this: The guests show up at the shelter about 9:00 pm. If there are too many at the door, a lottery takes place. If it's raining or snowing or whatever, you wait in the rain, or the snow. You may or may not get in. If you don't have Connecticut ID, the City Shelter (understandably) won't let you stay except under very unusual circumstances. If you show up after work and don't get there till 10:00 (for example), chances are you're not going to be able to stay. Anyone who has stayed as a guest or as a volunteer at the emergency shelters knows that it is difficult to get a decent sleep at night; there is no privacy. It's an open place; all your belongings and valuables are pretty much vulnerable, so keep an eye of them. If someone snores, fuggettaboutit, you're not going to get much rest. (One night at DDHH, three guests with the most unbelievable snoring volume, pretty much kept everyone awake all night. At 4 am it was so pathetic, it was laughable!)If someone's restless and paces the floor, or even gets up to use the rest room during the night, don't think you're going to sleep through it unless you're totally exhausted. Someone just might (but it almost never happens -still you can never be too sure) rummage through your stuff. The staff at Dorothy Day and the City use every form of encouragement for the guests to move on to a better place. In spite of all the encouragement and incentive to move on, guests often get into a cycle wherein they can't move on.
Let's examine that for a moment. Imagine yourself as a guest. You want to get a room in a rooming house. How much do you need to save up? Well, let's suppose that you can find a rooming house for, say, $400 a month. To move in, you've got to have the first months' rent, the last months' rent and a security deposit equal to one month's rent. That's $1,200.00. Now, let's assume you landed a job at a fast-food restaurant, and that you're lucky enough to get 40 hours a week at $8.00 an hour. That's $320.00 a week. Now after you take out Social Security and taxes you're down to $280.00 a week approx. You'd have to save every dime for an entire month. Now meanwhile, you've got to live on this, get back and forth to work by walking, by bus, by whatever, keep your cell phone alive (why? - as a homeless person, that cell-phone is your life-line), and food. But you might say, well there's a soup kitchen, and breakfast. Well if your hours don't coincide with the soup kitchen serving schedule, you're out of luck. Forget about late night snacks. And don't think you wouldn't be tempted to spend just one night or two a month in a motel, just so you could have a bit of privacy. If your friends know you've got some money, chances are they're going to want to borrow some from you. And you just might be inclined to give some away to someone less fortunate than you, just to make you feel good about yourself.
In spite of all the incentives the Emergency Shelters use to get the guests to move one, the Shelters have been at or near capacity for many years and during the winter months, the Deer Hill Congregational Church has provided emergency overflow shelter to, sometimes 20-25 guests a night. One of the goals of Off The Streets is to eliminate the need for the use of the Congregational Church because the homeless have been moved off the streets into intermediate triage housing. Anyone who's spent any time at all in a large room without privacy, without having the ability to work a night shift, without a room you can lock the door, without having to take most or all your belongings with you whereever you go when you leave the shelter, knows exactly what Emergency Shelter means.
Interact With Other Agencies
We at Off The Streets are in awe of the many agencies who work tirelessly, often behind the scenes, as advocates for the homeless. Within each agency, there are numerous individuals and groups who are doing everything they can to assist the homeless. Many of these agencies have long waiting lists or have specific requirements for people they want to help, but cannot help with housing immediately. Sometimes the agencies lose their funding sources and can't reach out immediately.
OFF THE STREETS recognizes these limitations that agencies have. Sometimes it justs takes time for the benefits to kick in. But when they do, the results can be terrific. What OFF THE STREETS hopes to achieve is to be a safety net, a triage, a transition from being on the streets or in an emergency shelter, to a room in a rooming house or other domicile until the established mainstream agencies can effect their objective of long-term housing. We at OFF THE STREETS are pleased to work with and already have worked wtih many of the agencies providing support to the homeless.
Recent News
We've taken more than 80 persons off the streets or out of the shelters or prevented them from being evicted to the streets of Danbury, CT. There are many others needing assistance. We don't turn anyone away. We know some homeless persons who claim they are perfectly happy on the streets - just a few. The older they get, and the colder it gets, their perspective may change. As a result, we encourage every homeless person to reach out. No one is banned or restricted from getting assistance. Our goal is to train enough volunteers that there is one-on-one assistance for every homeless person in Danbury.
How Can You Help
1. Donations
Contribute your money. It takes, on average, about $600.00 to get one homeless person off the streets of Danbury. This includes a security deposit and some household expenses. All contributions made to Off The Streets are tax-deductible; all contributions will assist a homeless person directly in getting off the streets. There are no paid staff in the Off The Streets organization. Everyone in the Off The Streets program is a volunteer, from the founder, to the Board of Directors, to all the individuals working directly with the homeless. There are no professional paid fundaisers. There are no overhead expenses such as building rentals, utilities. Please make your tax-deductible donation to
Off The Streets
P. O. Box 591
Bethel, CT 06801
2. Time.
Oftentimes a homeless individual or family needs immediate assistance; just a friendly face, a person who will listen, a kind of coach, mentor, almost family member. If you would like to volunteer to help a homeless person or family, please contact us at offthestreetsnow@gmail.com. We are ready to train volunteers who would be willing to provide just an ear to the homeless one-on-one. How urgent is the need? Right now, we could use 50 volunteers. Just 50 would do.
3. Landlords
We are looking for a few landlords willing to give a break to the homeless. We can pretty much assure you of near 100% occupancy rates, and we'll be working with you and the person coming off homelessness so that their rent is paid on-time and there are no other problems which go unresolved. Presently we have landlords who will take a month's security deposit and one month's rent (or even work out the details on a weekly basis). If you have a rental available for $400 a month including utilities, call us.