DANBURY – Residents from Spring Street led a call Thursday night for an end to lawlessness outside the Dorothy Day Hospitality House – an emergency shelter and soup kitchen that has been serving the homeless for 33 years.
Some 150 residents and business owners from the greater Spring Street area in downtown Danbury gathered at the Palace Theater on Main Street to document fights, drug use, loitering and other misconduct that has been captured on video by neighborhood leaders.
Neighborhood organizer Ernesto Rodriguez called on City leaders to address the problem that he says has become so acute that some parents do not allow their children to play near the shelter.
Representatives from the volunteer-run shelter responded that the lawless behavior was not representative of the homeless clients who come to the shelter for an overnight bed.
Mayor Mark Boughton on Friday said short-term security solutions need to be worked on immediately while a larger discussion takes place about whether Dorothy Day needs to be relocated. The mayor said homeless problem is compounded in Danbury because neighboring towns do not do their fair share of sheltering and feeding people in need.