September 11, 2008 Shelter seeks firewood, jobs for homeless Play video

(NECN: Brian Burnell, Hartford, Conn.) - Despite today's lovely weather, it is not too early to talk about heating your home. One homeless shelter in Connecticut is on the lookout for firewood -- not to burn, but to sell. The downturn in housing is making it tough to find.

The Open Hearth is a shelter for men in Hartford. It provides food and temporary housing for up to 87 men who are down on their luck -- some just out of prison. Perhaps, its most important function is job training.

"They learn electrical skills, they learn plumbing skills, and they basically learn life skills and we feel as though once you have the life skills you can do anything else. So it's a wonderful program and it teaches men who may not have the self esteem or they lack in confidence. It teaches them how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps with the help of organizations like the Open Hearth," said Eric Ringwood of Open Hearth Shelter.

Some of the men work at the shelter's woodyard. This is where the big ones are cut down into little ones and sold for firewood.

The Open Hearth gets money from several different sources, the state being one, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving just gave them a $150,000 grant. That money went to pay for some of the equipment you see here. But the firewood sales? They're a significant and ongoing source of income.

"The woodyard generates anywhere from 150-thousand to 200-thousand a year in support of The Open Hearth homeless

This year there is a problem. There isn't enough wood to meet demand.

"You could sell more wood but you can't get more wood. Is that it? That's basically it in a nutshell. The issue is there's basically no home development, no housing development being done so there's no wood that is being cleared. As a result there's no wood to sell to support our program," said Ringwood.

They have the same amount of wood they had at this time last year, but with the skyrocketing cost of heating oil, demand has tripled. As Eric said, fewer new homes being built means fewer lots being cleared and less wood being delivered.

They sell the wood for $210 a chord, picked up. $270 delivered within a 10-mile radius. And, they could sell a lot more if they could get it.