Mayor Dean Esposito Announces New Danbury Homelessness Task Force

In a Thursday (2/24/22) press release from City Hall, Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito announced a new homelessness task force. The Mayor had the following to say of the effort:

“This Task Force will help us determine the best direction forward for our city when it comes to providing support for our homeless community. I want to thank the members of the Task Force for their commitment and dedication to Danbury. I look forward to hearing their recommendations and ideas in the coming weeks that will add to our collective plan in regards to homelessness.”

Esposito has named Robert Botelho of Victorian Associates to serve as Chair and Ari Rosenberg of ARC to serve as Vice Chair. The two men echoed the Mayor's words releasing a statement that read:

“We are honored to serve as Chair and Vice Chair of the Task Force on Homelessness and look forward to meeting with the membership and bringing our collective ideas and recommendations to the Mayor.”

There are 15 other members joining Robert Botelho and Ari Rosenberg on the committee, and they've been described as community leaders who are "focused on finding a short-term and long-term solutions for the cities' homeless population needs."

The issue has not been a simple one and the solutions that have been proposed so far have divided the voters and residents of Danbury. In the statement, Esposito recognized there are different kinds of homelessness that require different solutions. How do we tackle homelessness, episodic homelessness, and transitional homelessness? These will be the challenges facing the new Danbury leadership.