Keeping homeless shelters open is not a new struggle in Hartford, but this time, the some $100,000 that was expected for the Salvation Army Marshall House vanished between the recommended budget and the adopted budget. A mere five-minute walk from what will be the CTfastrak Sigourney Street Station, the Marshall House has provided shelter for single women and families since 1974.

The adopted budget for the “Senior and Community Services Program” is $2.13M, down from the $2.2M in the recommended budget. This is where budgeting for the Marshall House, which serves as a no-freeze shelter for families, can be found in the City document. The 2013-2014 budget was $2.36M and reasons for the decrease in funding have been vague; the spending difference is explained only for the Health and Human Services budget as a whole.

The amount allocated for the Marshall House has typically been matched with private funds, raising more questions about why this item in particular was dropped.

from the 2014-2015 adopted budget for fiscal year. Check means this item under Health & Human Services is a legal mandate.

The last two rows of the table below show that the City of Hartford expects the shelters, which include the Marshall House, to have to turn away an increased number of people this year:

 In a letter to the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women requesting legal intervention on behalf of the affected families, Councilperson Larry Deutsch wrote, “It is of note that McKinney and other shelters, serving primarily homeless men, have been little affected.”

Deutsch also sent a message to Mayor Segarra and other members of the administration yesterday requesting an explanation for the City’s decision to stop providing funds for the Marshall House, along with an update on what the City will do to restore funding. As of earlier this morning, he has received no response from Segarra or the rest of his administration.

Meanwhile, the City of Hartford has found money for the $269,852 or $240,000 (both numbers have been released) in legal and consulting fees connected to the proposed Rock Cats stadium, an item nowhere in the 2014-2015 budget, as this matter was secret until June 2014. Questions have been raised about how the City could write out a check for something absent from the budget; various sources, from the standard anonymous ones in City Hall to Segarra’s spokesperson, have pointed to the Capital Improvement Project fund.