In Hartford, a hotel-turned-shelter is revolutionizing the way nonprofits deliver services to individuals experiencing homelessness.
The McKinney’s new home at a freshly converted Days Inn stands in stark contrast to the shelter’s previous location in a 1930s firehouse on Huyshope Avenue.
Instead of laying in dozens of bunks in an open room, 80 men who call The McKinney home now stay in single and double rooms, each equipped with their own shower.
But, as any Community Renewal Team member will tell you, the shelter is so much more than just beds.
“This facility is the first of its kind in Connecticut. It is not just a place to stay. It is a sanctuary that embraces the values of privacy and dignity for our guests,” CRT President and CEO Lena Rodriguez said.
At The McKinney, residents have onsite access to licensed behavioral health services, an in-house medical clinic, case management, counseling, housing assistance, employment and GED training, a computer lab, cafeteria and an exercise room.
“This moment marks a significant milestone in our journey towards changing the way we provide services to unhoused individuals and how we can further our efforts towards social empowerment,” Rodriguez said. “We are giving folks the tools for them to be successful.”
Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said it never made sense to her why so many shelters only provided a place to sleep when the people they served needed so much more.
When it comes to solving homelessness, Mosquera Bruno said “We can’t have different results if we keep doing the same thing.” The McKinney is part of that change, offering “a holistic approach, not just a bed.”
Mosquera-Bruno said that when the COVID-19 pandemic forced shelters to reduce capacity and move clients into hotels and motels, “we learned … that in a hotel style with services, people were better off.”
“It really gave us an opportunity … to understand that this could potentially be a new model of service delivery,” CRT Senior Vice President Christopher McCluskey said.
McCluskey said that what sets The McKinney apart from other converted hotels “is the type of care” it offers through its “ever-evolving model.”
“We believe that we’re taking the most humane and dignified approach to addressing homelessness,” McCluskey said. “It’s really about integrating a holistic approach to care while individuals are moving towards obtaining permanent housing.”
“One individual program or agency is not going to solve homelessness,” McCluskey added. “This is really about a community response.”
In the McKinney computer lab, Greg Andrews completed paperwork for a new driver’s license and social security card and filled out an application for an eBike voucher through Connecticut’s Electric Bicycle Incentive Program.
Before moving to The McKinney on Sept. 18, Andrews was living in a park.
He explained that he had developed compartment syndrome in both his legs after an injury, a condition that disrupts the circulation of blood in muscles and nerves.
“They cut out half of my calves, so it’s been a progress of rebuilding my legs, and during that process, me and my dad spent all of our savings,” Andrews said. “Now it’s (about) getting everything back together.”
While living outside, Andrews said about 50% of his day was spent traveling to services.
“Just to do what I did today would’ve probably taken me two hours in travel to go to a library and the social security office, you know (and) then you go to a soup kitchen,” Andrews said. “That’s all been avoided, and today was the first day that it’s rained pretty good since I’ve been here, so I don’t have to go out in the rain, and I haven’t had that option for a while.”
After getting all of his documentation in order, Andrews said his plan is to “find an apartment and possibly even cook” at The McKinney.
“If you’re motivated enough, they give you the tools to do the job,” Andrews said. “You just got to be motivated enough to do it.”
Jose Vega, CRT’s program manager and the director of The McKinney, explained that by centralizing all of the services under one roof, residents are compelled to hold themselves accountable and reach their goals.
“That is the best part,” Vega said. “There are no excuses.”
Vega believes the McKinney framework will reinvent the way people think about homeless shelters.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a model for the state, I think it’s going to be a model for the entire nation,” Vega said.
Weeks before arriving at The McKinney, Peter Kouloganes had decided to give up.
“I had logically decided that it did not make any logical sense for me to continue until tomorrow,” Kouloganes said. “Now, I can’t even conceive of that thought anymore.”
For eight years, Kouloganes battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but after his cancer went into remission in 2014, Kouloganes said he soon found himself fighting an entirely different battle.
Years of lifesaving therapy came at hefty out-of-pocket costs, strapping Kouloganes with crippling medical debt. At the same time, Kouloganes discovered that he had grown dependent on the medication doctors prescribed to keep him comfortable through treatments.
“I was saddled all of a sudden with this addiction that I didn’t know I had,” Kouloganes said. “I had never used illicitly my entire life.”
“It went from getting my medication prescribed by a doctor to, ‘Well we can’t prescribe this anymore because it’s very strong and you don’t have cancer, so we can’t justify it.’ I ended up buying it online illicitly and then ultimately ended up buying it off the street illicitly. And within the snap of a finger, I found myself in a car because my addiction was more important to me than my shelter was,” Kouloganes added.
Kouloganes said he struggled on and off with substance abuse for years before going through a rehab program finally helped in 2020.
After years of living in his car, Kouloganes said he eventually found himself on the street.
“Out there is hard,” Kouloganes said.
“I used to hear about homelessness and drug addiction and people living on the streets or I’d see people living on the streets, but it never hit me until it was me,” Kouloganes added. “It is hard when your day consists of trying to figure out how am I going to keep myself safe and alive tonight … I never understood that until I was actually doing that.”
Kouloganes said he found respite at the Institute of Living, a mental health facility run by Hartford Healthcare. When Kouloganes’s stay came to an end, the staff suggested that he try living in a shelter.
Kouloganes said he almost declined the offer, thinking he would be safer outside on his own rather than in a shelter, where he imagined all the stereotypes and misconceptions about the people who take shelter there would prove true.
Despite these fears, Kouloganes decided to give shelter life a try. On Aug. 16 he arrived at The McKinney.
“I was humbly walking in the door, almost crawling in the door,” Kouloganes said.
“Four days after I walked in the door, I would’ve said, ‘I am so grateful for the three meals, I’m so grateful for the shower, for the bed, for the safety of this structure,’ all those basic things that at one time I literally just took for granted,” Kouloganes added.
“(But) what I gained here, besides those necessities that literally kept me alive, was the dignity and the restoration of hope that I received from Jose (the director), Mary my counselor (and) every staff member here that treated me with that level of dignity that I had lost,” Kouloganes said.
Kouloganes said even making eye contact, or exchanging a “hello” — anything to feel his existence acknowledged was “huge.”
“(Just hearing) ‘How are you doing today, sir?’ I can’t emphasize enough how powerful that is,” Kouloganes said. “I had to stop the first couple of times and think, ‘Is he really talking to me? Am I the sir? Or is this just somebody behind me?’”
For the first time in years, Kouloganes said he is setting goals for the future. Kouloganes said his primary focus is finding a job, getting his health care in order and securing permanent housing.
“As much as I love this place, I am looking forward to the point of leaving this place,” Kouloganes said.
Kouloganes said that The McKinney service model is the key to eventually crossing that threshold into long-term security and independence.
“If you can do everything in-house, everything from the shelter, the food, the health care, the job services, the job training, what could be better?” Kouloganes said.
“You are not sending people out temporarily, and then things go a little rough and then they come back again, and then they go out, and then they come back again,” Koulaganes added. “You are setting people up to walk out the door ready for the battle.”
