New London Homeless Hospitality Center dedicates new help, respite areas
New London — Plans were already set for Friday’s dedication of the newly completed renovations at the New London Homeless Hospitality Center when tragedy struck.
Emergency medical personal early Friday morning responded to the 730 State Pier Road shelter to pronounce 40-year-old guest Jeanine Zack deceased. The pronouncement had come after unsuccessful attempts by staff to start CPR and administer Narcan, an opioid overdose-reversal drug.
Cathy Zall, the center’s executive director, addressed the death on Friday during her remarks before local and state officials, center workers and community partners, calling the death evidence of why the center needs to continue its work.
Zack was at the shelter on Thursday, eager to help out with hanging pictures and cleaning windows in the new help center in anticipation of Friday’s event, Zall said. “She knew she was welcomed here. We hold her in our hearts.”
Despite the death, Zall said it was only right to push forward and hold the scheduled dedication as a way to show that work with the region’s most vulnerable needs to continue. The people and organizations that help the cause should be recognized, she said.
An addition at the 40-bed facility is now home to a help center, a room that connects resources and volunteer staff to homeless individuals seeking jobs and housing. Bright and airy, it also contains computer work stations.
The second part of the $500,000 worth of renovations is the new Edward and Mary Lord Respite Center, an area in the basement that accommodates 10 beds sectioned off into one or two-bedroom rooms for people with disabilities, acute illnesses or in need of medication. It allows some privacy for those coming to the shelter from the hospital or an inpatient mental health treatment facility.
About 500 people a year visit the shelter, greeted by staff committed “to respect everybody that comes through those doors.”
The idea for the shelter started with mats on the floor of a church hall by the late Father Emmett Jarrett, who opened St. Francis House on Broad Street. It was an experiment by Jarrett and his wife, Anne Scheibner, to create an "intentional Christian community." Scheibner spoke at Friday’s event and called hospitality the bedrock of all religion and of civilization.
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