On Feb. 29, the joint Housing Committee approved legislation that would strengthen protections for renters facing eviction, prohibiting landlords from evicting their tenants without “just cause.” The bill, SB 143, would expand existing just cause protections, currently reserved for elderly and disabled tenants in buildings with five or more units, to almost all renters in the state. The fight for the bill has been spearheaded by Growing Together Connecticut, the Connecticut Tenants Union and Make the Road Connecticut, among other tenants’ rights and community organizations. 

“Many people within our urban communities [including] New Haven cannot even afford to rent, so they’re moving out of our city,” Rep. Juan Candelaria, the Deputy Speaker of the House who represents portions of Fair Haven and the Hill, told the News. “We need to control this.” 

Candelaria voiced his support for the bill, calling it “overdue.” He said that he sees SB 143 as a critical tool to address the affordable housing crisis and discriminatory housing practices in New Haven and around the state. In particular, Candelaria said he is concerned with protecting tenants from large “mega landlords” who often buy up rental properties from out-of-state. He told the News that he thinks evictions at the end of a lease without cause are far too frequent in Connecticut.

According to the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, landlords filed 2,224 no-cause eviction notices in 2023, around 11 percent of evictions statewide. In 2023, over 20,000 evictions were filed in the state, an approximately four percent increase from 2018. In New Haven alone, 1,769 evictions were filed in 2023, 240 without cause. 

Candelaria said that his office has received several messages from New Haven residents in support of the bill, which he committed to do, calling it “the right measure.”

Sen. Rob Sampson, ranking member of the Housing Committee and himself a landlord, raised several objections. He accused the Democratic caucus of discriminating against landlords, at one point equating the bill to racial and gender discrimination. 

“That’s all racism,” Sampson was quoted saying in the CT Mirror. “It’s been bad since the very first day that anyone judged anyone based on the color of their skin.” 

A related bill that would have capped annual rent increases at four percent plus inflation failed to pass the General Assembly last session after opposition from members of the Housing Committee. This session, the Senate Democratic caucus has added SB 143 to their list of legislative priorities

In conversation with the News, Candelaria pushed back on Sampson’s claims.

“If you’re going to increase rents, we’re not saying, ‘don’t increase them,’” he said. “Make sure those rents are fair and equitable so that we can manage the housing crisis in our cities. That’s all that we’re saying with this bill.” 

Tenant advocates support bill for low-income renters

Luke Melonakos-Harrison DIV ’23, Vice-President of CTU, also disagreed with Sampson’s claims, condemning the argument that landlords should face no regulation as ignoring the necessity of housing. He cited similar just cause legislation in several states and municipalities as evidence of its effectiveness and “positive impact” on housing stability and housing security.

“It’s a little bit hard to take seriously when you’re actually seeing what’s going on between tenants and landlords in real life and not in an abstract, theoretical debate,” he told the News.

Melonakos-Harrison did express concerns about the addition of a carve-out to the bill which exempts buildings with four units or less from the new regulations. The carve-out, he said, would reduce the bill’s effectiveness, confuse tenants about their eligibility, and play into the misconception that landlords of smaller buildings are less predatory. Instead, Melonakos-Harrison suggested, his organization might accept requirements based on the number of properties a landlord owns.

At the moment, CTU will continue advocating for the bill in Hartford.

“We’re focused on working with our members and our coalition partners across the state to reach out to their legislators and let them know how they feel about this bill and the importance of Just Cause,” Melonakos-Harrison said.

Teresa Quintana is the housing equity organizer for Make the Road Connecticut, an organization dedicated to providing legal assistance and support services for immigrant communities. 

Quintana said that immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented, are especially vulnerable to no-cause evictions.

“Many people in the undocumented community live that way because they trust,” she said. “They say, ‘Oh, they’re good landlords. We take care of the place,’ so they think [evictions are]  never going to happen… to them. And then it happens.”

According to Quintana, Make the Road Connecticut has collaborated with CTU and other organizations to encourage community members to testify in support of the bill.

She noted that immigrants are often reluctant to share their personal experiences with no-cause evictions, necessitating visits to their communities.

“When you’re going to tell [your] story, you’re going to feel that your soul is opening, because there’s a big, big scar,” she said, recalling her frequent words of encouragement to immigrants. “We’re going to expose how these people [are] taking advantage of you, your families.”

Melonakos-Harrison testified in support of the bill and helped organize members to do the same. He sees SB 143 as critical to preventing “gentrification” fueled by landlords evicting tenants to raise rents and preventing retaliatory eviction of “outspoken” tenants, especially tenant union supporters.

He said he is confident that the bill will help address the state’s affordable housing crisis by forcing landlords to negotiate with tenants, and limiting rent increases. SB 143 would provide tenants with “leverage” to negotiate a reasonable rent increase at the end of their lease, Melonakos-Harrison told the News.

“Lapse of time evictions are an easy tool for landlords who want to quell dissent, to kind of punish advocates and organizers and people who are even just requesting basic repairs,” Melonakos-Harrison said.

Landlords push back against proposed eviction protections

Rick Bush, a property manager and the treasurer of the Connecticut Coalition of Property Owners, testified in opposition to the bill at a public hearing on Feb. 20. 

Bush described lapse of time evictions as a “tool” for landlords, for example, if they need to remove a tenant to renovate their property.

“The idea that a tenant, once they take possession of a property, can stay in perpetuity is just completely ridiculous,” he told the News.

With the bill now moving on to the state assembly, Bush said he plans to keep lobbying against it and recruiting other members of the CCOPO to submit testimony in opposition.

CCOPO President John Souza is another landlord who testified against the bill.

Souza attributed tenants’ housing instability to the state affordable housing shortage, rather than lapse of time evictions. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that there is a shortage of over 89,000 affordable rental homes for extremely low-income renters in Connecticut.

“Until they build a lot more housing, it’s really just musical chairs for everybody,” he said.

Currently, lapse of time evictions require landlords to provide tenants with a minimum of three days between receiving their eviction notice and vacating the property. 

However, Souza pointed out that tenants can contest such evictions, prompting a court process that lasts a few months. Tenants can also petition the court for additional stay for up to six months, providing them with extra time to find new housing.   

“I’m disappointed in the small-mindedness and short-sightedness of the legislators in Connecticut,” Bush said. “[Disappointed] that they… would fail to provide adequate housing for their constituents and that their vote is going to have the unintended consequence of making [renting property] more difficult, more expensive and less attractive to tenants. It’s going to be a disaster.”

The bill passed the Housing Committee along partisan lines. Candelaria said that he is optimistic that the bill will pass the legislature this session, most likely without any Republican support, but declined to speculate on whether Governor Ned Lamont would sign the bill into law.

Five states currently have some form of just cause eviction legislation.

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The reintroduced legislation, Work Live Ride, aims to reduce urban sprawl by “building up local [and] state capacity for transit-oriented communities” with the long-term aims of increasing housing affordability, boosting economic growth and combating the climate crisis, according to Desegregate Connecticut. The bill died before a vote on the state House floor during the 2023 legislative session. However, SB998, one component of the larger Work Life Ride bill that codified the Office of Responsible Growth, passed. 

“Sprawl is unsustainable, it’s inequitable and it’s bad for all of us, and we’ve been doing it for 50 years in Connecticut and can’t do it anymore,” Desegregate Connecticut Director Pete Harrison told the News. “A post-sprawl future … means communities are safer, they’re greener, they’re more walkable, they’re more diverse, they’re more affordable.”

Desegregate Connecticut is a coalition of over 80 organizations that advocate for improved local and state land use policies in Connecticut. 

The coalition hopes to address Connecticut’s affordable housing and climate crises, which Harrison said are “converging.” The Connecticut Department of Housing reported in 2020 that 50 percent of renters and 30 percent of homeowners allocate over a third of their household income to housing costs. Harrison added that households spend a significant percentage of their income on transportation, which creates environmental costs. According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, 40 percent of the state’s emissions come from transportation.

“There really isn’t a way to fundamentally make housing cheaper for people if it relies on the old sprawl mentality of drive ‘til you qualify [for a mortgage],” he said. “That is not a way to build sustainable, equitable homes and communities.”

Work Live Ride was initially inspired by a 2021 Massachusetts law that requires over one hundred municipalities to create at least one zoning district dedicated to multi-family housing located near public transit. In 2022, Desegregate Connecticut proposed a similar law for Connecticut, which Harrison said went nowhere.

Afterward, the coalition’s members visited local communities that already had zoning that encouraged high density around public transportation. Harrison said that despite these communities’ eagerness to zone around transit stations, obtaining state funding was a “cumbersome” process.

These perspectives prompted the coalition to come up with Work Live Ride in 2023, which not only creates guidelines for local zoning reform — similar to the 2022 bill — but also streamlines state funding of those reforms. 

“What stands out [about Work Live Ride] is the amount of time that has been spent listening to communities and understanding that even if it’s all transit-oriented development, it’s not going to look the same in every community that wants it,” State Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw told the News.

Work Live Ride is currently in front of the Planning and Development Committee, which Kavros DeGraw co-chairs.

Although Work Live Ride did not pass in 2022, Harrison said the passage of SB998 was a “very big, sneaky win.” The law formally established and funded the Office of Responsible Growth, which was initially created in 2006 to oversee local development and affordable housing plans, but lacked formal authority since it did not exist in the state statutes. 

Harrison said he thinks that the success of SB998 will be instrumental in Desegregate Connecticut’s efforts to pass Work Live Ride during the current legislative session since they will no longer need to advocate for state funding for the bill.

Other key differences between last year’s and the current bill include streamlined affordable housing developments — mainly through outreach to nonprofits and religious organizations — and additional environmental protections prompted by criticism from environmental groups, per Harrison.

Win Evarts is the executive director of The Arc of Connecticut, an organization that advocates for the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDDs. The Arc of Connecticut testified in support of last year’s Work Live Ride bill, and Evarts said they plan to support the bill again this year.

Evarts pointed out that many people with IDDs live in state-funded group homes because they cannot cover their housing costs. These group homes, he said, are rarely located near public transportation, limiting individuals with IDDs’ interaction with others. 

“Having affordable housing allows [people with IDDs] to live in a less restrictive way than the traditional home model,” he said. “Living in an integrated community is better than living in a group home that… doesn’t facilitate the making of friends.”

Work Live Ride has received substantial criticism. Much of its opposition last year came from CT 169 Strong, an organization that opposes “top-down” zoning legislation with the mission of achieving “true affordability, not just density,” according to its website. 

CT 169 Strong released a statement in February denouncing the 2024 Work Live Ride bill. The group said that the bill aims to provide developers with “hand-outs” and strip away local zoning control.

“This bill removes local control, limit[ing] funding resources to communities unless they relent to onerous state mandated guidelines, thus disincentivizing towns from affordable development,” the statement said. 

CT 169 Strong did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Harrison said that Work Live Ride has a “carrot incentive approach,” since towns can opt-in to the bill but are not required to adopt it. Yet the Desegregate Connecticut website notes that the communities that opt-in would be “prioritized for state funding and [would] come first in line.”

Kavros DeGraw said that some critics base their arguments on aspects of previous versions of the bill, rather than looking at the latest version. However, she also acknowledged that housing bills like Work Live Ride often struggle to be “all carrot and no stick.”

“If there is no stick to encourage people to build [affordable housing], the carrots are often not enough,” Kavros DeGraw said. “Expecting all of the carrot money to come from the state is probably unrealistic when you look at how many people are asking for state funds for really good reasons.”

Harrison pointed to the shorter, three-month legislative session this year, compared to the five-month session last year, as a potential obstacle for Work Live Ride.

However, he said he feels optimistic about the bill’s fate, stating that it is in a “very strong position.” 

“It’s a long project that’s going to take a while,” he said. “But getting the hard stuff passed is really where we get in five and 10 years and 20 years into a much, much better, more positive future.”

Desegregate Connecticut was formed in 2020. 

The post Work Live Ride bill aims to increase housing near transit, reduce sprawl appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Warming centers typically provide unhoused people with food and a place to spend the night during winter months, operating from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Tuesday’s extreme conditions prompted the city’s warming centers to adopt severe cold-weather protocols, during which they operated 24 hours a day instead of the usual 12. Tuesday’s weather also led several warming centers to accommodate people beyond capacity. This called into question the centers’ ability to accommodate everybody looking for shelter — a concern which prompted expansion and reform efforts that have been ongoing throughout the winter.

Warming centers respond to decreased temperatures

According to Program Manager Shellina Toure, Varick Memorial increased its capacity from 39 to 42 people in response to the severe cold weather. Upon this Rock underwent a similar response, opening its doors to over 60 people in response to the extreme conditions on Tuesday. 

Toure noted that although the warming centers always house more people in response to severe cold weather, there is often simply not enough space to accommodate everybody who stops by. However, the warming centers’ need to expand beyond capacity is not limited to extreme weather conditions. 

Delana Lawrence, the assistant director at Upon this Rock, explained that the center changed its location to 130 Orchard St. in order to accommodate more people than in previous winters, as its former Grand Avenue location only accommodated 30 people. When the new location opened on Dec. 1, it was equipped to accommodate 47 people, but that number has since expanded to 60 in response to increased demand.

“Cold or warm, we still hit our capacity every night,” Lawrence said. 

She added that the warming center plays an important role in addressing needs beyond just relief from cold weather. In addition to distributing hot meals every night, it serves as a “safe environment” that provides people with a peaceful night’s rest.

Toure explained how the need to continuously stay open remains a reality, especially in response to an increase in the number of people looking to the warming centers for food and shelter.

“We’ve definitely been seeing new people … people move on, they get housed or they go into shelter … they leave the warming center,” she said. “But then you see another wave of new people come through [the warming centers].” 

Ongoing efforts seek to address capacity constraints

Several of the city’s centers have engaged in private efforts to expand services. Toure stated that Varick has recently collaborated with nonprofits Bridges of Hope and fREshSTARTs to provide dinner at the center each night.

Teddy Natter, the supervisor at the 180 Center, explained that the Center is undergoing a second phase of expansion funded by private donations, rather than by the city. The construction entails 17 permanent beds, showers, laundry services and a commercial kitchen.

Natter explained that this addition will serve as “somewhere for people that aren’t looking to just crash — they’re looking to actually utilize the stepping stones to get employed and get housing, and get out of the situation that they’re in.” 

According to Natter, this construction project is roughly three-fourths of the way done, and will likely be finished at some point this year.

Community members highlight potential improvements for warming centers

Prior to Tuesday’s snowstorm, homelessness activist Roosevelt Watkins — who is homeless — raised several complaints regarding the city’s warming centers with The Unhoused Activists’ Community Team, or U-ACT, a New Haven homelessness advocacy group that was established in June 2022.

Watkin’s advocacy led U-ACT to file six demands with the city of New Haven, which involve extending warming center hours to 10 a.m. each day, providing guests with “comfortable places” to sleep, guaranteeing all guests a warm dinner, informing guests on how to file grievances if a center fails to follow the city’s policies, permitting transgender guests to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity and adding at least 50 spots at warming centers for the winter of 2024-25.

The first demand stems from Watkins’ main complaint: After the warming centers close at 7 a.m., people typically seek shelter in the city’s public libraries, which do not open until 10 a.m.  — leaving many people without shelter for a three-hour period.

According to Bromage, U-ACT’s second demand addresses a city policy that prohibits warming centers from providing guests with cots. Instead, the centers provide guests with chairs, blankets or yoga mats to sleep on.

“If our goal is to not have people freeze to death, that’s not a sufficient way to acknowledge the humanity of someone,” Bromage said. “We need to aim for a much higher standard of dignity and acknowledgement of people’s human rights.” 

Watkins pointed out that this city policy is meant to maximize warming centers’ capacities — adding cots to centers would limit the amount of guests they could accept.

According to Bromage, these sleeping conditions are especially harmful for elderly unhoused people, who make up an increasing percentage of the national unhoused population. Recent studies show that about 50 percent of unhoused single adults are over the age of 50. 

U-ACT hopes warming centers will both increase their capacity and provide guests with cots so that the centers do not “take away [spots] to accommodate for laying down,” according to Bromage.

However, since this demand has not been met, Watkins said that warming centers should prioritize meeting their current capacities over supplying cots to guests.

“I would rather be uncomfortable than [have people] out in the cold,” he said.

Bromage explained that some of the city’s warming centers pay for warm meals out of pocket or receive food through donations, rather than from city funding. This inspired U-ACT’s third demand to provide all of the center’s guests with a warm dinner. 

U-ACT’s fifth demand was prompted by Upon this Rock lacking accommodations for transgender guests who hope to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, according to Bromage. 

“It’s both a lack of acknowledgement of the legal requirements to make bathrooms available and lack of training for warming center staff,” Bromage wrote to the News.

Bromage and Watkins emphasized that this issue largely affects transgender women, since cisgender female guests who have experienced male violence often feel uncomfortable sharing the bathroom with transgender women. They mentioned potential solutions, such as implementing gender neutral bathrooms and improving training for Upon this Rock’s staff members.

Brother Barry, one of the deacons at Upon This Rock Ministries who did not provide his last name, denied U-ACT’s allegations.

“We don’t do that. We treat everybody equally,” he said. “We cater to all people.”

The other two shelters have not experienced this issue: Watkins said that Varick’s staff has accommodated transgender guests, while Bromage added that 180 Center has single-occupancy bathrooms. 

U-ACT shared its demands at a Feb. 9 City Hall meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the city’s warming centers and the United Way of Connecticut, another nonprofit organization. 

The warming centers were most receptive to the first demand, especially since 180 Center already provides religious programming during the day, according to Bromage. However, like Watkins, the centers’ representatives noted that their limited capacity makes it difficult to address the second demand.

Bromage told the News that U-ACT plans to continue advocating for its demands to be met.

“It will certainly be a lot of pushing on getting funding… to get more people [in the centers], but in a way where they’re laying down [and] they’re not putting their health at risk every night,” he said.

Varick Memorial AME Zion Church is located at 242 Dixwell Ave.

Correction, Feb. 27: This article has been updated with the correct spelling of Shellina Toure’s last name and with a clarification of U-ACT’s third demand.

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The fREsh-taurant, which had its launch event last Friday, repurposes excess dining hall food from Southern Connecticut State University, the University of New Haven and Yale — delivered through the University’s partnership with New Haven food recovery nonprofit Haven’s Harvest — and serves it restaurant-style to Newhallville residents who are experiencing food insecurity. After the fREshSTARTs organizers were told that they couldn’t serve the food they had prepared for Monday night, they donated it to a homeless shelter and a warming center.

“I have been reaching out to everyone I know who knows anyone with the ability to rectify [this], and I believe we will expeditiously have a solution,” Harvin wrote to the News. “We will be serving our people within the next few days… in a manner that is dignified and legal.”

The process of obtaining a food service license can take between “a few days to a week or two,” depending on the necessary departments’ availability, according to the city health department’s Health Director Maritza Bond.

Food service operators must fill out an application for the license through CitySquared, the Health Department’s online portal. This notifies other City departments to conduct “inspections and approvals” of the restaurant or nonprofit. Afterward, the Health Department assigns each food service operator a sanitarian to assist them with the licensing steps, which include “reviewing” their floor plan and kitchen equipment.

“We appreciate all fREsh-taurant is doing to offer hot meals to people in need in the community, and we look forward to supporting them in their food service license application process,” Bond wrote to the News. 

Prior to receiving the Health Department’s notice, the fREsh-taurant held a launch event last Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church. 

At this first event, fREsh-taurant volunteers greeted diners at the door with socks, underwear, T-shirts, diapers and baby wipes, encouraging them to take any supplies they need. Diners then had the choice to be served their dinner or grab their meal to-go.

Those who opted to dine-in had limited time to finish their meal in order to “regulate flows when it starts to get packed,” per Harvin. Each table had a 20 minute timer set by the server once the diner sat down.

“You treat them like they have the most expensive bill at a restaurant you’ve ever seen,” Harvin said, recalling his advice to the volunteers prior to the event. “When someone spends their money, you’re going to respect them, right? So, their currency is the oxygen in their lungs … You’ve got to treat people with dignity, you’ve got to treat them with honor.”

At last Friday’s event, there was a turnout of about a dozen diners, according to fREshSTARTs Vice President Adam Rawlings. 

UNH’s Campus Executive Chef Peter Marrello, who brought 50 pounds of excess dining hall food to the event and led volunteers in reheating and preparing the food, said he had expected a greater number of diners because of Harvin’s strong presence in Newhallville.

“[Harvin] has a very powerful speaking voice,” Marrello said. “People seem to listen when he talks.” 

Despite the attendance being lower than Rawlings had hoped, he said it was a “really good opening night” and that he expects turnout to increase once the fREsh-taurant secures a food service license.

Stephanie Harvin — the mother of Marcus Harvin and a member of the fREshSTARTs board — noted that eligible Connecticut residents receive their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, which were formerly known as food stamps, during the first three days of each month. Since the fREsh-taurant launch event was held on Feb. 2, she said she anticipates that more community members will attend in the coming weeks.

Because of the lower than expected turnout, fREshSTARTs had some extra food at the end of their first event which they donated to a nearby warming center. Nonetheless, Harvin emphasized his sense of accomplishment regarding the event.

“If I helped one person along the way, my life wasn’t in vain,” Harvin said. “One person fed is a success. One person coming to help out is a success.”

In addition to diners and volunteers, representatives of clean energy company Avangrid, which recently partnered with fREshSTARTs, had a table set up at the event to teach community members how to lower their utility bills.

Other attendees included the Yale Prison Education Initiative Founding Director Zelda Roland ’08 GRD ’16, Ward 19 Alder Kimberly Edwards and Stephen Cremin-Endes, the director of community building and organizing at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven. Currently, fREshSTARTs is only partnered with Avangrid, however, Harvin said he hopes to form collaborations with other local businesses in the future and expects “more people to want to join forces with us after this [event].”

Harvin, Rawlings and the fREshSTARTs organizers began planning the fREsh-taurant’s launch event three weeks prior as soon as they solidified Feb. 2 as the date.

During the weeks leading up to the event, fREshSTARTs secured partnerships with UNH, SCSU and Haven’s Harvest, who will assist in food delivery. 

Though the organization had been permitted to hold its launch event at Pitts Chapel, Harvin also had to request approval to host the fREsh-taurant at that location on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m. On Jan. 26, Harvin, who is a member of the church, presented his plan at Pitts Chapel’s semiannual meeting and received their formal approval to host the fREsh-taurant there once they’ve obtained their food service license.

The nonprofit has raised about $3,000 through grassroots fundraising, mainly from donations from members of Pitts Chapel, according to Harvin. Most of the funds were spent on stockpiling supplies for the launch event: both the essential ones which are offered to diners at the door and decorative items such as centerpieces, colorful tablecloths and electric candles, which add to the fREsh-taurant’s restaurant atmosphere.

Leading up to their event, organizers at fREshSTARTs also tried to attract volunteers by reaching out to the Newhallville community. Over two dozen volunteers worked at Friday’s event.

“Right away, I wanted to get on board because I wanted to volunteer to help those that are less fortunate than I am,” Elder Rachel Richardson, a member of the church and volunteer at Friday’s event, said. “This is what the Bible tells us anyway: we are to feed those that are in misfortune.”

As a server at the event, Richardson planned on having one-on-one conversations with the diners and letting them know about Pitts Chapel’s resources, such as spiritual counseling services.

Harvin has many long term goals for the fREsh-taurant’s future, such as ultimately securing their own space. Despite the challenges that the nonprofit has faced so far, he is confident that it will be able to accomplish these goals.

“The hardest thing was getting out of prison,” Harvin, who is formerly incarcerated, said. “We got the hard part out of the way: that was those bars that were in front of us, that was those chains that were on our wrists [and] on our ankles. Now, it’s going to be smooth sailing, because I’m just literally putting it all in the provider’s hands.” 

Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church is located at 64 Brewster St.

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On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Harvin led the “YOU Have a Dream” event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church, which introduced Newhallville fREshSTARTs to the neighborhood. The nonprofit is an “all-encompassing mechanism for the whole person” that will include an innovative food pantry, debate and arts education for youth and a financial literacy course for adults, according to Harvin, its founder and president.

“When I was in prison, I had several visions of what Newhallville could be if I offered my hands and heaven offered help,” Harvin, who is a licensed minister, said at the event. “While in my bed in that cell, in my head, I witnessed Bassett [St.] and Dixwell [Ave.] serving as beacons of Black business, akin to the boulevard we’ve given the moniker Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma.”

Harvin received a 14-year sentence in 2016 but was released in May 2022. While in prison, he befriended Babatunde Akinjobi, who was released after 22 years of incarceration in August 2023 and is now the director of community engagement for fREshSTARTs.

Akinjobi and Harvin quickly connected over their shared spirituality and their love for their communities, prompting them to begin brainstorming ideas for a food pantry. 

“Who’s this big-headed dude?” Akinjobi said at Monday’s event, recalling his thoughts the first time he met Harvin. “Every time I saw him, he had a book. But then I noticed that he had a Bible, too.”

During his years in prison, Harvin described feeling like an “anxious dog scratching at the door,” wanting to leave and begin his work on the food pantry. 

Upon his release, he continued his studies at the University of New Haven — which he had begun in 2021 through the joint UNH Prison Education Program and Yale Prison Education Initiative — and was awarded UNH’s President’s Public Service Fellowship. The fellowship provided Harvin with an internship at Neighborhood Housing Services, or NHS, in New Haven during the summer of 2023.

Food distribution features partnership with local college

Adam Rawlings, the community engagement specialist at NHS and the vice president of fREshSTARTs, met Harvin during his internship and began working with him to set his plans in motion. 

“Food can be a tool for building community,” Rawlings told the News. “It’s not only something that an individual needs to have energy to go about their day. It is something that can be an invitation to larger conversations around, ‘what else can we help you with? What’s happened to you where you might need some extra resources?’”

Rawlings’ main responsibilities include coordinating food collection and distribution, as well as organizing volunteers for fREshSTARTs’ youth and adult programming.

He is also focused on finding grants and funding opportunities for the nonprofit, particularly through his work with NHS. In October, Harvin and Rawlings attended the NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute and received a $4,000 grant to use as seed funding for the food pantry, allowing them to purchase two freezers and pay for an electrician to set them up. 

When asked by the News how he plans to fund several ambitious projects, Harvin said that they were still seeking funding sources through a number of avenues, including individual donors and nonprofits. 

“Hopefully the money starts pouring in,” Harvin told the News. “I believe that provision follows vision, so I believe that those proceeds to make the visions a reality are going to be here soon.”

Derek Faulkner, a university assistant at Southern Connecticut State University’s office of sustainability, reached out to Harvin in December after reading a New Haven Independent article about fREshSTARTs. SCSU is the first university to partner with the nonprofit.

The University’s Food Recovery Network chapter, managed by SCSU junior Chris Kowalski, plans to deliver roughly 80 pounds of excess dining hall food to Pitts Chapel every Monday between 3 and 4 p.m. 

Bishop Darrell L. McClam, the pastor at Pitts Chapel, agreed to host fREshSTARTs’ food pantry at the church, citing a link between food insecurity and faith.

“We can’t even bring people to Christ until we deal with their physical situation,” McClam told the News. “Even He knew that He had to handle their physical body first before He [could] even deal with their mind and in the spirit and soul.” 

Starting on Feb. 2, SCSU’s excess food will be served from 5 to 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Pitts Chapel’s fellowship hall. 

Dubbed the fREshstaurant, this service aims to provide food with “dignity,” rather than adopting a traditional soup kitchen model.

“Soup kitchen has a negative connotation that you’re going to walk down pretty much a human conveyor belt, and people are going to take a silver ladle and slap stuff on a tray,” Harvin told the News. “I know how it is to eat undignified. I was in prison for six years. You get passed food through the same trap [that] you get passed a toilet brush that has been used on the toilet next door. We’re not doing that for people.”

Plans include debate team, financial literacy class, community garden

At Monday’s event, the National Prison Debate League’s Assistant Director Brittany LaMarr introduced the FRESH Debate Program, which will be rolled out in early February. 

The 12-week course will teach students in grades 5-12 oratory skills and allow them to discuss policies that directly impact their community, according to LaMarr.

“We shouldn’t have to go to prison to be able to be given the skills and the tools that you need to be successful in life,” LaMarr, who is also formerly incarcerated, said.

Moreover, the program’s students will receive a stipend that is placed in a college savings account, per LaMarr.

Credit Repair and Money Management, a financial literacy class for adults taught by KeyBank’s Branch Manager Dwayne Hicks, will also begin in February. All courses will be taught in Pitts Chapel’s basement and in NHS’s learning lab, according to Harvin.

McClam said that he was inspired to host fREshSTARTs’ various courses at his church because he grew up with a learning disability.

“[I’ve gone] from a kid who is reading on a third grade level and graduating from high school, to achieve the things that I have done, the places that I have seen, the things that I have started,” he told the News. “Any time I can [spend] to help our community, I have to make our church available.”

In the next few months, Harvin aims to launch fREsh Farm, which will teach farming to neighborhood youth and adults. NHS will provide fREshSTARTs with plots of land for this program, according to Harvin, and Faulkner hopes it could also be held in SCSU’s community garden.

Another future project is the Make Shop, a space where fifth- to eighth-grade students can “exercise their creativity.” Akinjobi will lead the Make Shop.

“A lot of times, these kids are running around with empty hands,” he told the News. “We figured if we put tools in them, they’ll start to explore, as opposed to getting into mischief with whatever else they can pick up.” 

Akinjobi noted that when he was younger, he rejected the guidance of adults in his life because they didn’t have any shared experiences.

But he thinks that he’ll be able to help Newhallville’s youth because of his shared background.

“Where you think you’re going, I’ve been,” he told the News. “I’m going to invest in all of this: myself, time, whatever is necessary to make sure that … somebody cares enough about you to see you become [something] more … You don’t have to be a basketball player, you don’t have to be a rapper, you don’t have to be the neighborhood drug dealer.”

Once the guest speakers’ portion of Monday’s event concluded, Harvin invited attendees to head downstairs to Pitts Chapel’s fellowship hall to discuss the proposed programming over pizza. 

Afterwards, fREshSTARTs’ leaders distributed flip charts, on which attendees were encouraged to jot down anything that they and their community needed to become the “best version” of themselves. Harvin promised that these charts would serve as the inspiration for fREshSTARTs’ future Oasis Center, a building he hopes to construct in the future to host the aforementioned programs and services.

“When we secure the funds to get this project done, to get this building built … I’m going to take that paper, I’m going to give it to an architect and I’m going to say, ‘make this happen,’” he said.

Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church is located at 64 Brewster St.

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On Thursday, Nov. 23, the University’s Council of Heads of College will host a Thanksgiving buffet at the Omni Hotel from noon to 2 p.m. The event will provide food and community for students staying on campus over the November recess, most of whom are international students. As of Nov. 15, 450 students have registered to attend.

Apart from this event, Yale has not scheduled any official programming for international students during the break. 

“It is undoubtedly a bit isolating having a campus of 6,000 plus undergrads [and] all of them suddenly going down to a couple hundred left scattered across the campus,” Lucas Ogawa ’27, an international student from Hong Kong, told the News.

Some international students plan to travel during the November recess. Ogawa hasn’t finalized his plans for the break, but he hopes to meet up with friends from high school in New York City or Boston. 

Though some of Ogawa’s friends from Connecticut and nearby states invited him to stay with their families for Thanksgiving, he decided not to take them up on their offers.

“Even though it’s their invitation, you still feel like you’re intruding on a personal family occasion, and it’s a bit weird,” he said.

Kamal Mahamud ’27, who is from Nairobi, Kenya, will visit New York for four days with another international student.

Mahamud will stay in New Haven for the rest of the break. On the day of Thanksgiving, he said he plans to share a typical turkey dinner with a friend from Connecticut and her family, rather than attending Yale’s event.

“I’m just excited to experience it for the first time,” Mahamud said. “Expressing gratitude for the year, for your friends, family and blessings that we have. Tasting amazing food [and] cutting the turkey, seeing that in real life.”

Other international students plan to visit family in the U.S. One such student is Alicia Shen ’26 — originally from Hong Kong — who will visit her sister in New York City. 

Shen said that even if she had stayed on campus during the break, she doubts she would have attended Yale’s Thanksgiving lunch.

“I just don’t feel the need to celebrate it because I have no relation to this festival,” she said. “[Thanksgiving break] feels to me just like fall break did.”

Sukriti Ojha ’27, who is from Lucknow, India, will spend the break visiting her uncle and cousins in Danville, California. 

Ojha stayed on campus during fall break, so this will be her first time away from Yale since first-year move-in day, which was on Aug. 20.

“Every place that I go here is to study, to do some kind of work. Even if it’s extracurricular activities, [I’m] always in the mood of, ‘you need to do more work,’ so I don’t think I can relax here anymore,” she told the News. “I need to be someplace else if I really want to unwind.”

Some international students will return to their home countries.

Ben Weiss ’27 will spend the break in his hometown of London, England. In addition to spending time with his family, he plans to travel to other parts of the United Kingdom to visit his friends from high school. 

Weiss chose not to return to England during the October recess, which was five days long, but said the nine-day November recess was “just long enough that it’s worth [him] going back.”

However, none of the other four students the News spoke to considered returning home for the break. They cited expensive plane tickets and lengthy travel time as the main reasons for this decision.

“I don’t live in Delhi where the flight lands, so going back home [takes] two days,” Ojha said. “Out of a week and a half, four days will just be traveling and two days will be jet lag, so we’d be doing nothing.”

Yale’s November recess begins at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 17.

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Jamie Dawn, a local real estate agent, opened the store in April after realizing that New Haven didn’t have any consignment shops. Her store caters to a diverse clientele that includes New Haveners, college students — both from Yale and other nearby universities — and tourists. 

Dawn was drawn to selling secondhand items due to their affordability and positive environmental impact.

“I’ve kept thousands, literally thousands, of items out of landfills,” she said. “One Good for Another, the name of the store, is actually the definition of ‘exchange.’ It’s good for you, it’s good for your wallet, it’s good for the planet, it’s good for the community, it’s just good for everything.” 

Dawn accepts secondhand “clothing, accessories, home goods, furniture, and more” from consignors, according to One Good for Another’s website.

Consigned goods, apart from formal wear, are on sale for 90 days. If the goods are purchased during this period, the consignor receives 40 percent of the revenue from the sale. Consignors can either collect unsold goods once this period elapses or the goods become the property of the store. As of Nov. 13, Dawn has paid her consignors $12,220.05.

“I have Prada handbags and Coach handbags and Jimmy Choo shoes and Dolce and Gabbana skirts — crazy stuff — but I also have Old Navy and Target,” Dawn said. “I’m not a snob. I’ll take anything if it’s just gently used.” 

Anna Lehman ’27 visited the shop for the first time on Monday and described it as a “cute experience.”

Despite liking some clothing items, she said she didn’t buy any of them because they had high prices.

“On a student’s budget, some of the stuff that I actually wanted to buy was not attainable,” Lehman told the News. “[Dawn] did have really nice stuff, but I’m not just going to buy it on any regular Monday.”

The store is located on the second floor of 59 Broadway, right above Campus Customs. Lehman and Dawn noted that this upstairs location makes it more difficult for potential customers to find the store.

Dawn made three signs and several balloons advertising One Good for Another, which are displayed at all times on the sidewalk outside the building. Additionally, when she first opened the store, she put up flyers around Yale’s campus and mailed 4,000 postcards to New Haveners.

“Two or three people a day will climb up those stairs and say, ‘You need a sign.’ And I go, ‘Really?’ I bring them downstairs and I show them,” Dawn said. “People don’t pay attention. They’re walking by on their phones.”

Dawn held her first 20 percent off clearance sale over Labor Day weekend, which she said was “amazing.” Since then, she has continued to hold regular sales in hopes of drawing new customers to the shop.

On Friday, Nov. 10, the store had its first Black Friday sale in which all goods were 25 percent off. Dawn said this sale was geared towards students at the University since most of them won’t be on campus on Black Friday, which falls on Nov. 24 this year.

Sabrina Zbar ’26 spotted a sign on Broadway advertising this sale and visited the shop for the first time on Friday, purchasing a secondhand sweater. Although she would’ve been interested in the consignment shop anyway, she said the sale “pushed [her] to actually go.”

“I got a pretty good deal,” she told the News. “Cashmere under $50 — that’s unheard of.”

Recently, Dawn started distributing loyalty cards to her customers which provide a 25-percent discount to returning customers after five shopping trips.

She’s also adopting a “pay it forward” marketing model, where customers can write their own names on the loyalty cards and give them to their friends. For each new customer that they bring in with these cards, the original customer will receive a 10-percent discount. 

One Good for Another is open every day of the week except Wednesdays.

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When de Paz Royes refused to work at or leave the hotel where he had been working and living until he was paid, he said that his employer reported him and his co-workers to immigration authorities. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained de Paz Royes for almost two months, holding him until early October, he told the News. 

John Jairo Lugo, the community organizing director for New Haven-based Unidad Latina en Acción, postponed the News’ original interview for this article in order to travel to Buffalo and advocate for de Paz Royes’s release. He said that he did so out of concern that de Paz Royes would be deported for exercising his rights as a worker. De Paz Royes’s family members and colleagues who lived in Connecticut had contacted ULA following his detainment. 

With the help of ULA, de Paz Royes, originally from Mexico, has temporarily settled in New Haven, while awaiting immigration hearings in Hartford. De Paz Royes told the News that he hopes to obtain a T-visa, an immigration status for victims of human trafficking. 

“Thank God for the support of Unidad Latina that allowed me to leave immigration detention,” de Paz Royes said in Spanish. “They have helped me a lot with what happened to me and what I’m going through in this moment.” 

This January, ULA rallied in City Hall along with the Connecticut AFL-CIO and other local organizations, calling on the Biden administration to protect undocumented whistleblowers reporting labor exploitation from the threat of deportation. Following a nationwide movement spearheaded by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Department of Homeland Security announced new policies that would temporarily protect workers like de Paz Royes in Buffalo from deportation. 

Protecting members from exploitation, deportation 

Founded in 2002, ULA strives to protect the rights of immigrant workers and families throughout Connecticut by assisting victims of wage theft and other forms of labor exploitation, fighting deportations and connecting members with legal support, Lugo said. 

According to Lugo, ULA has helped recover approximately $1 million in stolen or delayed wages, promoted efforts to increase the state minimum wage and succeeded in establishing the first municipal identification card for undocumented immigrants in the U.S. 

Although ULA assists a range of members, Lugo said that the organization centers its services on Spanish-speaking undocumented immigrants who do not have access to government support. 

He also emphasized that ULA prioritizes collective action and problem-solving and highlighted weekly meetings that are open to the public. 

“If we have a problem with the police, if we have a problem with a boss, what we do is basically mobilize members so that people in the collective can create pressure to resolve a problem,” Lugo said in Spanish. 

ULA’s weekly Monday meetings are set in a Howe Street building decorated with art, including a poster of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and a quilt interwoven with photos of civil rights figures and quotes from the Declaration of Independence. The meetings begin with attendee introductions of their name and country of origin, with usually about 40 people in attendance — either in person or on Zoom. 

Their Oct. 30 meeting featured preparations for an upcoming Día de los Muertos celebration, including how to best preserve the heat of freshly-made tortillas. During a meeting on Oct. 2, attendees introduced the possibility of starting a support group focused on alcohol abuse, shared wisdom on how to make complaints to public school administration and had a member ask for someone to accompany them to a court date. 

ULA through the years: municipal ID cards and political advocacy

Lugo, originally from Colombia, described the history of the organization while perched on a folding chair in the office, its walls plastered with posters reading “NUESTRO LABOR MANTIENE LA ECONOMÍA DEL MUNDO” and “ESTAMOS EN NUESTRO HOGAR Y AQUÍ NOS VAMOS A QUEDAR.” 

In 2001, Lugo and ULA’s other founding members began advocating for undocumented immigrants to be able to obtain Connecticut driver’s licenses. According to Lugo, they were unsuccessful due to increased anti-immigrant sentiment following 9/11. Despite the setback, the group founded ULA the following year in hopes of assisting the New Haven Latine population with other issues, he said.

“Talking about the licenses was also talking about the police that hit you, the boss that robs you, the landowner that mistreats you, the one that discriminates against you on the street,” Lugo said in Spanish. “Why don’t we continue with the group [if] we’ve realized during all this time that there are many problems that affect the immigrant community?”

One of their first major efforts was a campaign for a municipal ID card program in New Haven, in order to grant undocumented immigrants access to city services and allow them to identify themselves to the police when reporting crimes and facing arrest.

In 2005, ULA collaborated with Junta for Progressive Action — another organization dedicated to supporting Latine residents in New Haven — and students at the Yale Law School on a study to ensure that the municipal ID cards had a legal basis. Despite the study’s success, the groups’ proposal for the creation of the IDs was not implemented immediately.

After further political advocacy, the Elm City Resident Card was approved in July of 2007.

Two days after the ID cards’ implementation, ICE raided homes in Fair Haven and arrested 32 alleged undocumented immigrants. Suspecting that the raid was an act of retaliation, ULA and Junta jointly filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security with the assistance of attorneys at the Yale Law School. 

After the lawsuit’s victory, ULA and Junta gained access to documents demonstrating federal officials’ concerns about the municipal ID cards and implying that the 2007 raids had been reprisals for the card policy. In subsequent years, this evidence aided ten New Haven residents’ suits against the ICE agents who had arrested them in the raids.

A major focus of ULA since their founding has been advocating to enact policy change on the local and state level.

In late 2006, ULA successfully pushed for the approval of General Order 06-2: a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for the New Haven Police Department regarding immigrants’ documentation status. The policy was the first of its kind to be implemented in Connecticut.

ULA’s efforts had been prompted by an incident a few months prior, in which an undocumented Mexican family called the NHPD regarding a house robbery and were threatened by the police with being reported to ICE.

ULA and Junta collaborated again throughout 2012 and 2013 to advocate on behalf of Jose Maria Islas, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who had been wrongfully charged with attempted robbery and turned over to ICE, despite his charges being dropped. ULA and Junta’s efforts contributed to ICE’s release of Islas and Connecticut’s passing of the TRUST Act, which prohibited police from handing over undocumented immigrants who had not committed serious crimes to ICE agents.

During Donald Trump’s presidency, ULA organized rallies and walkouts urging local churches — such as the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church, which is located on Yale’s campus — to offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants facing deportation. 

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, ULA raised $40,000 to provide struggling families with food and financial assistance. The organization also led a campaign urging Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont to issue an executive order forgiving undocumented immigrants’ rent and mortgage debts while the economy was shut down. Lamont suspended rent payments until July 1, 2020.

Miguel Garcia ’24 has been a member of ULA since May 2022, acting as a liaison between ULA and Mecha de Yale, a student organization devoted to social justice for Latines.

Mecha used to have strong ties to ULA, Garcia said, but the connection between the organizations has been weaker in recent years due to the pandemic. One of his roles in ULA is rebuilding that connection, he said. Garcia is part of a group of Mecha members who attend ULA’s weekly meetings and participate in its events and demonstrations.

“I feel like it’s our obligation as students to get involved in the city in which the University is, and have conversations with people who are actually in the city, who live the day-to-day,” he said. 

ULA has conflicts with local unions, politicians 

Lugo said that there are some New Haven residents that disagree with ULA’s persistent and loud organizing tactics. For Lugo, internal and external conflicts are a part of running an organization and cannot be completely avoided. 

Lugo said that ULA no longer directly works with UNITE HERE! Locals 34 and 35, Yale’s clerical and technical workers union and service and maintenance workers union. He mentioned disagreements with union leadership stemming back to the 2000s and said that their agendas involve protecting different workers. Lugo said that the relationship remains respectful but distant. 

In a statement to the News, Pastor Scott Marks, organizing director with UNITE HERE and director of New Haven Rising, commended ULA’s dedication to championing immigrants’ rights in Connecticut and emphasized UNITE HERE and New Haven Rising’s commitment to investing in partnerships between unions and the local community. 

“The majority of members in our union, UNITE HERE, and in New Haven Rising are immigrants, women, or people of color,” Marks wrote. “Our members’ fight for justice in the hospitality industry is a fight for immigrant justice, and that includes the fight for the rights of non-citizens.” 

According to Lugo, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker has broken promises made to ULA and the immigrant community more broadly with his inaction, despite a close relationship with the organization and frequent attendance of meetings prior to assuming office. Lugo said the Elicker administration’s policies have lacked new initiatives supporting immigrants and increased NHPD arrests of ULA members, including Lugo himself. 

Elicker described Lugo’s comments as “disappointing,” saying that New Haven is a leader in supporting immigrants and undocumented residents. He cited the city’s issuing of 675 municipal identification cards this past year alone and the strengthening of sanctuary city policies in 2020, which he said ULA closely worked on. 

The Mayor also took issue with Lugo’s criticism of NHPD arrests of ULA members. Elicker said he personally reviewed the body cam footage of one of Lugo’s arrests and found no evidence of inappropriate behavior by the officer. He noted that Lugo was “uncooperative” with the NHPD. 

“The police department makes arrests, not targeting specific organizations, but based on illegal activity,” Elicker said. “Insinuating that the NHPD targeted any members of ULA is unfounded and goes against our values.” 

Looking to the future, Lugo and the other ULA leaders said they hope to create community legal clinics, rather than relying on lawyers with high legal fees for immigration and asylum cases. 

ULA is also preparing for a possible second Donald Trump presidency, Lugo said.

“It’s much better to face a new administration that’s against immigrants with an organized community,” Lugo said in Spanish. “When [Trump] came the first time, no one was organized, no one was prepared. But this is our idea: preparing ourselves in the coming year for if something happens that goes against our interests.”

Unidad Latina en Acción is located at 37 Howe St.

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In the spring, YCC President Julian Suh-Toma ’25 and Chief of Staff Viktor Shamis-Kagan ’24 — who both worked on the health and accessibility policy team as YCC senators at the time — drafted a proposal for a pilot program aimed at increasing students’ accessibility to Narcan. The Yale College Dean’s Office approved their proposal and provided them with a $2,500 grant to purchase Narcan kits and work with student group Students for Sensible Drug Policy at Yale to distribute them. 

This semester, Suh-Toma and the current YCC administration are planning to implement a second program that will provide students with fentanyl test strips in addition to Narcan kits as well as organize training for campus leaders.

“It’s also important to acknowledge as a university that students are engaging in drug use, and what we can do in order to help make campus safer is to provide resources like Narcan and fentanyl test strips,” Suh-Toma said. “And I think administrators are, and different community members are also, on the same page, and that’s why you’re seeing the expansion of these types of pilot programs.”

For the training, the Yale College Council will collaborate with Yale Emergency Medical Services and Yale Health to train student leaders in how to administer Narcan and provide Narcan kits.

“[Training] FroCos, as well as FOOT leaders, and different students who are influential and also have a lot of reach and are consistently interfacing with other students is really important,” he said.

Dean of Student Affairs Hannah Peck wrote to the News that the program is a collaborative effort between the Yale College Dean’s Office, Yale Health, Yale Emergency Medical Services and the YCC.

Peck added that students who complete training will receive Narcan and fentanyl testing strips for free and that currently, all Yale emergency medical technicians and police officers carry Narcan and are trained in administering it. 

“Through this project, we hope to increase the number of people on campus who are trained to use both items and accessibility to the items on campus,” Peck said.

The expanded training and distribution will likely be implemented in the spring, per Suh-Toma. The extended timeline is mainly due to difficulty securing funding as well as the administration and the YCC’s desire to come up with the best way to provide students with these resources, he said.

“We want to see Yale provide Narcan and fentanyl test strips and other public safety measures more broadly to the community,” Suh-Toma said. “What we’re hoping for is a successful pilot program and then afterwards an expansion and see Yale take some of the responsibility to help provide these measures for students.”

According to a 2021 survey by the American College Health Association, 2.6 percent of student respondents reported using prescription opioids recreationally. Other colleges, like the University of Texas at Austin, started similar programs providing Narcan, and some states like New York and California require that Naran be provided on public college campuses.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy at Yale, or SSDP, and Yale Emergency Medical Services are also offering Narcan training this semester. The first Narcan certification course took place on Monday evening in the Dwight Hall common room.

The training was not coordinated with the Yale College Dean’s Office or the YCC. Students received Narcan kits from SSDP and YEMS, using remaining Narcan from last semester that was provided by the YCC.

Emi Glass ’26, a member of SSDP, said that training can help people feel more confident administering Narcan and can help them identify signs of an opioid overdose.

“I think giving people the opportunity to get trained can transform the conversation surrounding drug overdoses and can really empower people to make a difference in their community,” Glass told the News. “This isn’t an abstract issue. This is a way to provide students with harm reduction strategies that could potentially be life saving.”

The YCC was established in 1972.

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