Yale University said no.
But the University of New Haven said yes.
An angry Mayor Justin Elicker said he asked Yale University President Peter Salovey whether police officers and firefighters who are asymptomatic, but who have a family member exposed to COVID-19, or who are not symptomatic, but have been exposed to the virus, or are waiting for test results, if they could use a dormitory at the university.
He said he then called UNH President Steve Kaplan, “who in the first 5 minutes of the conversation, said ‘yes. We will make this happen. This is important for the community.’”
On the issue of the dorm rooms, Elicker said “UNH has rolled out the red carpet for us. They have worked to quickly get students’ belongings out of the dorms and they are working with us to address other logistical and liability hurdles. We are quite close to finalizing an agreement with them so that our police officers and firefighters can begin moving into the space in the coming days.”
Elicker only brought up the arrangement when asked a question on his response to Yale contributing $1 million to a fund being raised in parallel with the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven and the United Way to assist the city in its needs during this pandemic crisis. Yale asked that others join in to bring its total to $5 million, as it matches donations $1 for $1.
Elicker said he had not requested that money, just the dorm space.
“My response is this: if your house is burning down and you asked a neighbor if your kids could stay at your house and your neighbor said ‘no,’ but here is a check so you could stay at the Econo Lodge across town, what would that tell you about your neighbor?
