All posts by Susan Thomas

There is something fundamentally wrong with this country’s priorities. In addition to the gravity of losing thousands of lives a day, millions of Americans have been waiting since May for Congress to provide the adequate financial relief needed to blunt the crushing economic impact of the pandemic. Yet, amid this crisis, lawmakers have identified, “vetted” […]

The US Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) recently released a new strategic plan to end homelessness called Expanding the Toolbox: The Whole-of-Government Response to Homelessness. Unfortunately, it is not a plan. Instead, it is an expansive list of recommendations that ignores the root causes of homelessness and disregards 30 years of evidence about what works. […]

Published in Viewpoints section / CT Mirror As our country continues to reel from the COVID-19 virus and the economic fallout it has created, some of our elected leaders are relying on old models of thinking to try and bring our country through a series of crises that require new ways of doing business. For […]

Dear friends, In 2007 the Melville Charitable Trust launched Firebox, a farm-to-table restaurant in the Frog Hollow neighborhood of Hartford. Our vision was to serve extraordinary food and to bring jobs, investment, and opportunity to the community. It is no exaggeration to say that Firebox succeeded far beyond our expectations. A leader in the farm-to-table […]

The Trust has always invested in addressing the underlying systems that cause homelessness, and in times of unprecedented challenge we believe it’s important for us to stay the course and remain focused.

Jeff Bezos is investing $2 billion to help families experiencing homelessness. But will it actually help in the long run?