New London ― Sunday stayed just dry enough for the 16th Annual Walk to End Homelessness, a collaborative effort between the New London Homeless Hospitality Center and Connecticut College.

“People experiencing homelessness have to walk rain or shine and so we walk rain or shine,” said Cathy Zall, the executive director of the Homeless Hospitality Center.

Though the early portions of the event ― which included registration, information booths, and remarks from Zall and local officials ― was moved indoors to Harris Place on State Street, the 2.5-mile walk went on as scheduled with hundreds of participants.

Michael Moore, a former guest at the center, was one of the people to address the crowd.

The 61-year-old told some of his story of how he went from a career sous chef, and former volunteer at the homeless center, to homeless himself after his battle with heart disease and a 2018 heart attack left him unable to work for a period of time.

“My finances started to decline and the result was I was homeless,” Moore said.

He said the staff at the center welcomed him with open arms when he fell on hard times and continued to keep in contact with him as his condition forced him in and out of the hospital.

Even after he underwent a heart transplant last October, Moore said, the center was always there for him and offered him respite care.

Now, Moore is back to living on his own and was recently cleared to work again as he progresses through his cardiac rehabilitation.

He called the center a “necessary staple for the region.”

“They’re really good at what they do, but most of all they’re good at being human,” Moore said of the staff at the center.

The New London Homeless Hospitality Center was founded in 2006 and provides an emergency shelter and a bridge to permanent housing for adults experiencing homelessness in New London County, with a goal to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.

Recent data provided by the center shows that 62 different people were enrolled the center’s year-round shelter in March alone, some staying for a few nights, others for many weeks. About 35 people were staying at the shelter on a nightly basis.

In addition, the center offered a warming center to provide access to a warm place for people the center could not accommodate in the regular shelter. At its peak the warming center supported 38 people and closed at the end of March.

The shelter currently has a waiting list of 22 people in need as it is full. Those 22 people are all literally homeless, which means they are outdoors, in cars or moving from place to place nightly while they wait for a bed to open up. The shelter continues to stay in touch with those people.

The shelter recently added a Housing Resource Center at 727 Bank St., which helps people navigate through the barriers of staying home, including offering eviction and foreclosure technical assistance.

About 20 different groups and organizations were on hand prior to the walk to provide information about homelessness and how to help.

“Solving homelessness, and many of our other problems, is a community endeavor,” Zall said. “We have to work together.”

One of the groups with a table at the event was the Second Chance Tiny House Project. Led by Katherine Brown, who is also the center’s employment coordinator, the project aims for temporary housing for those re-entering the community after serving time. The project looks to provide affordable, environmentally sustainable, private homes, as well as support services, to allow residents to heal and obtain skills and job training.

Brown said the project already has a one-third-acre plot of land, which was donated by Tony Szramoski. He, like 69% of people facing homelessness, was left with nowhere to go after he served his prison sentence.

Brown said she sees people every day who struggle to stay housed and wanted to be part of the solution.

“This isn’t a criminal problem, it’s a poverty problem. So that’s what we’re trying to fix here,” Brown said.

Mohegan Sun was the event’s main sponsor while a number of donations were also provided to the center.

One large check of $10,000 was given to the center by John Russell, the founder of Homeward Bound Treasures, for the center to use in whatever way it sees fit.

Russell started his furniture store at 35 Golden St. 14 years ago. The store offers reused furniture at a reasonable price to allow those coming out of homelessness to affordably furnish their new homes. Russell said any money the store makes is given back to the center at the end of the year.

The 72-year-old, who first came to the city 53 years ago when serving with the Navy, said he’s been doing volunteer work for those experiencing homelessness since he retired 20 years ago. He was previously an engineer for General Electric before owning and operating Russell’s Ribs Restaurant, a barbecue place in Groton.

He said he first started helping those experiencing homelessness after two priests at a church service asked for volunteers at a local shelter. On his first night there, he saw a former college professor of his. The next night, he saw a former softball teammate.

“I was standing on the steps and I had an epiphany that this is what I should be doing,” Russell said about volunteering.

Russell said he even brings people in to his home to live with him and his dog.

“He’s an example of just do the thing you feel called to do,” Zall said of Russell.

Zall concluded that holding onto hope and overcoming the divisiveness of our nation are two things everyone needs to work on in order to keep “chipping away” at the homelessness problem our nation continues to face.

“We need to come together as a community,” Zall said. “We need to care about each other.”

Editor’s note: This version corrects the name of Russell’s Ribs restaurant

k.arnold@theday.com