Soup kitchen hopes for new home

NORWICH, Conn. (WTNH) -- The battle over a soup kitchen in a Norwich neighborhood is reaching the boiling point.

Folks are expected to come out in full force at a meeting Tuesday night, where officials will decide if the food pantry can stay there.

The sign is temporary, but those who run St. Vincent De Paul soup kitchen hope the former St. Joseph school will become their permanent home.

"If it wasn't for this place being here I would have really been in trouble many of times," said Michael Romano, Soup Kitchen Client.

Romano is one of more than a hundred folks who go there for meals and to pick up food from the pantry.

"I don't see no problem," Romano said. "Nobody starts any trouble here, we're pretty quiet."

Some neighbors though say there have been problems with a handful of folks who now walk the residential streets.

"We had the police up here just a few moments ago for three people that were abusing what appeared to be crack in the cemetery," Brian Kobylarz said.

Kobylarz plans to speak at Tuesday night's meeting in front of the Commission on the City Plan which is expected to decide whether or not St. Vincent can stay in what was supposed to be a temporary location while it's home was renovated. However, that building cannot be repaired.

Since the food pantry is up on the first floor and isn't handicapped accessible St. Vincent had to get a special waver from the state. If it does get approval to locate there permanently, one of the first things it plans to do is put in an elevator.

"Some might say it's kind of not in my backyard situation," said Kobylarz. "That's certainly not the case, we've embraced other social service agencies in the neighborhood."

"Not all homeless people are quote stereotyped as being derelict," said Romano.

Even those who oppose the soup kitchen in the Cliff Street neighborhood say the majority of folks are fine, it's just a few causing concern.