Hartford Unsung Heroes: Matthew Morgan, Executive Director, Journey Home

What do you love most about your job?

I love serving in leadership in the community for positive change, building trust and relationships with partner agencies, and working to make sustainable improvements to the homelessness service system. I love helping those who are most vulnerable, and I love working for social justice, because everyone deserves a home, employment/income, and healthcare.

How does it make you feel to support Hartford during this trying time?

I am so grateful to have an incredibly talented team at Journey Home who are passionate about helping people in need and have been simply amazing during this pandemic, stepping up in countless ways. It has been emotional, stressful, and exhausting, but I feel so glad that more than 200 people who were in shelter and wouldn’t have been able to isolate themselves have been relocated to hotels where they are now able to protect themselves better against COVID-19.

I am so grateful to the number of individuals and partner agencies who have made this transition possible and continue to provide the food and services to those staying at the hotels. I am optimistic that none of the individuals who are currently homeless in hotels will need to return to shelter at the end of this pandemic because we will be working with our partner agencies to provide permanent housing for them.

Finally, I am so grateful to my husband, who has picked up the slack at home so I could put in more hours during this pandemic.

What’s the first thing you’re going to do when social distancing ends?

Take my kids to hug their grandparents, take my husband out on a date, go to church to celebrate together and thank God, and then take my family away on a vacation.