The Stewart B. McKinney Men’s Emergency Shelter is moving into the former Days Inn hotel at 207 Brainard Road in Hartford.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the state-funded project is meant to improve the quality of care the shelter provides. The shelter’s current location at 34 Huyshope Ave. contains a large congregate setting.
The state is providing more than $3.4 million in funding for the Community Renewal Team, which owns and operates the shelter, to purchase the former hotel and create the new shelter. Construction is set to begin in October.
During the pandemic, the shelter temporarily moved its residents into a different hotel, also located on Brainard Road, to help prevent the spread of the virus.
The shelter operators found that housing residents in private rooms allowed them to provide better behavioral health care and other types of counseling.
“There were a lot of lessons learned from the pandemic in nearly every aspect of our lives, and the way services are provided to people who are experiencing homelessness is one of them,” Lamont said.
The shelter’s new location has 68 fully furnished rooms and 127 beds, and includes space for additional services.
