Two Yalies to advise city on homeless grievances

Two Yale students were recently appointed to the New Haven Homeless Advisory Commission, an arm of New Haven government designed to oversee and improve the city's initiative to assist homeless people. Ward One Alder Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, and Anika Singh, BR '01, Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project secretary, will serve with 13 other committee members.

Though voted into law in July 1989, the Commission had no members and had not met until Alderwoman Rita Krevit, at the behest of the YHHAP, introduced a bill to streamline the committee from its initial membership of 35 to only 15 people. "The streamlining made it a lot easier to get the Commission into action because it was easier to find enough qualified people to serve on it," Amanda Bell, DC '00, YHHAP political action coordinator, said.

YHHAP was vital in galvanizing the Commission into a functioning body. Singh remarked, "The Commission had been around for a while, but no one had taken the time to do anything about putting the Commission in place and getting it to work. YHHAP is one of the few student organizations that actually has a say in influencing city affairs."

The city has already sent out letters of appointment to the prospective members and meetings should start soon, Singh confimed. "Once the Commission is up and running, we will be meeting periodically to act as both a grievance board for the homeless and as an instigator for change within the city's government," she stated. "There are definitely some issues that I will be raising, such as the small amount of residential substance abuse services available for homeless men and the lack of shelter services for homeless women."

Bell looks foward to the prospect of the Commission's efforts prompting the winter overflow shelter to open ahead of schedule this year. "Right now, the shelter is opened on a set date in December, regardless of the temperature outside. We are hoping that we can get the city to open it up earlier, in response to the temperature," she said.

"This is a move in the right direction since we've been in a time of real stagnation in city homeless policy," Gonzalez explained. "The next obstacle is determining how to give the board power in order to really enact things and ameliorate the homeless situation in New Haven." Singh expected the Commission to positively affect city policy. "The Commission will give us a more formalized voice in influencing how things go in New Haven."

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