by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
Eddie (left): From sleeping in a car outside Union Station to looking forward to a warehouse job.
Jake Dressler, with pizza.
Earlier this month, Eddie, 40, spent his nights sleeping in a car outside of Union Station. It was one of the lowest points in his life. Without a home and out of touch with his family, he was “spiraling.”
On Monday afternoon, he sat in the heated, holiday-decorated homeless shelter at 645 Grand Ave. — where he ate two slices of Pepe’s cheese pizza and looked forward to starting a warehouse job he said he’d just secured.
Eddie was one of around a dozen homeless men seeking shelter from the cold inside 645 Grand Ave. on Monday at around noon, when local lawyer Jake Dressler and a half dozen other volunteers came by with free pizza and donated blankets.
Dressler, 31, grew up a few blocks away, on Saint John Street in Wooster Square. (He has also written occasional articles for the Independent over the years.) Now living in Cromwell and working as a lawyer in Hartford and Springfield, Dressler has been dropping off free pizza at the Grand Avenue shelter once a month for the past few months.
On Monday, he showed up with a total of 15 pies from Pepe’s and Sally’s — some just cheese, some with clams, some with meatballs — to help provide a tasty New Haven meal for New Haveners with nowhere else to go. He told the Independent he felt all the more of an imperative to step up after a 65-year-old homeless man named Abdulah Kanchero died on the Green after spending 12 hours on a bench in below-freezing temperatures.
“It’s amazing,” Pastor Valerie Washington said about Dressler’s pizza donations. Washington’s church, Upon This Rock Ministries, runs the 75-bed Grand Avenue shelter, as well as a 35-person new warming center at that same site. Dressler’s pizza and blanket donations “show that people care,” she said. It’s just another example of New Haven “coming together” to help those most in need.
Each person seeking shelter from the cold inside 645 Grand Ave. on Monday spoke about how grateful they are for the food, and for the kindness that motivated the donation, as they work to get their lives back on track.
Eddie, who is originally from Bridgeport, said that he’s been homeless for several months, and has been sleeping at the 645 Grand shelter for a week. Before coming to this shelter, he said, he was sleeping in his Hyundai outside Union Station. He then ended up at the 180 Center warming center on East Street, one of two city-funded warming centers open this winter. He said that 180 Center’s operators referred him over to 645 Grand.
As he waited to pick up a slice of cheese pizza, Eddie said his life is hopefully about to take a serious turn for the better. He said he just got a warehouse job in town. Now, all he needs is to find a place he can afford to rent.
Andre, 56, was also inside 645 Grand at around noon when Dressler came by with the free pizza.
“It’s great for the people that need it,” he said about the food and blanket donations. He said he’s still searching for an apartment of his own. For now, 645 Grand is “a great place to stay.”
Andre said he’s been homeless for about a year, and has been staying at 645 Grand for a month and a half.
His favorite type of pizza? Pepperoni.
Travis Gray was finishing up a slice of sausage pizza when he too told this reporter how much he appreciates the small acts of kindness — like the pizzas dropped off by Dressler, and the help provided every day by those who work at 645 Grand.
“It’s appreciated,” he said. “I’m not really a pizza” fan, he admitted. But this hot lunch is a comfort on a cold winter day.
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