Carrie Howe has been on a decades-long mission to give back.
A self-described altruist, she has helped thousands of people in Hartford get housing, get out of the cold and enjoy a warm meal. During a cold night in the city in 2011, Howe and some friends were called “angels of the night” after giving a homeless man wearing only a T-shirt some warm clothes and food.
The phrase stuck and so did her passion for helping others.
Howe, who started the grassroots organization Night Angels in 2011, has worked for the First Church of Christ (Center Church) in Hartford for the last six years, heading its community meal and outreach programs.
“We stayed open all through the pandemic, we never closed,” Howe said. “The only time we closed is when I actually got COVID myself and ended up in the hospital for over a month. We were for a long time the only place still open.”
Howe, who had a brush with death during a bout with COVID-19 in 2021, said her passion for helping others comes from wanting to connect people.
“When I was younger, I enjoyed finding solutions. I wanted to connect people to solve things,” Howe said. “My drive now is really based off the fact that after years of serving, I’m one person who has a lot of information. Maybe not all the information, but I’m able to share that with people and help people gain access to resources. That’s my motivation now. Call me a hippie, but I really think we can solve a lot by connecting people together. It’s not a dream or thought. It actually works.”
Howe, who is in the process of creating a nonprofit called “The Space Between,” volunteers on an almost full-time basis outside of her day job with the church. Last December, Howe opened a warming center during the freezing winter months as the city turned people away due to lack of beds. From midnight to 5:30 a.m., seven days a week, the volunteer-run center served as a refuge for members of the unsheltered community with nowhere else to go.
“Night Angels was always meant to be grassroots, that’s never going to change,” Howe said. “But I’m getting back to the roots of why I started Night Angels, which was for homeless outreach and coming up with small solutions. I got the letter from the IRS last month and I’m just trying to learn right now what my options are for applying for grants. I don’t want to hire a lawyer, I have enough skin in the game to know the work. I just want to make sure I have all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed before I start accepting donations.”
In its first week, Howe said the warming center served over 150 individuals, according to a previous Courant article. The youngest guests were a 20-year-old with a 1-year-old baby. While many awaited shelter, she connected some to job training resources and opportunities.
“I did that for 92 days. The church allowed me to operate in that capacity on a 100% volunteer basis. It’s not part of my position here, it was just extra,” Howe said. “During the process, I had to leave my job and my car was even stolen. But I always kept my faith.”
Howe recently helped coordinate a donation of 24 individual lockers to solve a problem she said she hears all too often. The lockers were donated by Bluestone in nearby Bloomfield.
“I’ve witnessed people who haven’t had an ID, a birth certificate, or social security card. Because of that they can’t apply for housing, get a job, or start addiction treatment,” Howe said. “One of the biggest problems for the homeless is not having a place to store stuff. A lot of times things get stolen or lost. So I started this locker idea for people to store their documents they need to keep them safe.”
Howe said that each locker will have around 10 small plastic containers so that multiple people can use an individual locker for their documents. She estimates over 200 people can store their documents in the lockers.
“People can’t get work if they don’t have an ID and often times can’t get treatment if they don’t have an ID either,” Howe said. “I have one individual who does not have his ID, so he can’t get a job he applied for. Another individual lost theirs and is unable to get treatment. It’s such a simple fix. People just need a safe place to put their documents.”
Howe said next Saturday she is inviting community members to come and paint the lockers in the basement of Center Church.
“It’s not just about the individuals who use them,” Howe said. “I want the community to come out and paint words of encouragement on the lockers or even prayers. We have a prayer wall right outside the door to this space and people have really filled that wall up with prayers for themselves or others. Whether you believe in a religious or spiritual system or not, sometimes just the act of doing something positive is all a person needs.”
Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@courant.com
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