Nora Grace-Flood file photo
The "tiny homes" currently standing in 203 Rosette's backyard.
The city has joined forces with human rights activists in the Hill to try to convince the state to recognize prefabricated shelters in a Rosette Street backyard as “single-family homes” — at least, sort of — so that the heat and the lights can be turned on as winter approaches.
On Dec. 8, the Elicker administration officially co-signed and submitted an application alongside the Amistad Catholic Worker House asking the state to OK a series of prefab shelters that are currently considered non-compliant with Connecticut building code.
The Amistad Catholic Worker House is a Rosette Street house of hospitality which welcomes individuals facing homelessness to set up camp and community in the nonprofit’s backyard.
The six tiny homes in question, which are currently occupied, have been standing since October and were put up by 203 Rosette St.‘s owners Mark Colville and Luz Catarineau — with the help of a large network of activists, Rosette Street residents, and unhoused allies. They set the structures up in an effort to develop relatively dignified, neighborhood-based shelter for the growing number of people dealing with housing insecurity across New Haven.
The recent application on behalf of Amistad House was signed by City Building Official Bob Dillon and Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli, and was sent to State Building Inspector Omarys Vasquez.
It asks for 20 different modifications to the state building code that would allow for the shelters — each sized at 100 square feet and below — to be categorized as “single-family dwellings.” It also includes site plans detailing how the nonprofit aims to run underground cables to those homes in order to provide heat and electricity. The application makes clear that the shelters provide an emergency place to sleep and live; “bathrooms and cooking facilities are provided by the adjacent Amistad Catholic Worker house, and are not part of the shelter units.”
“The Amistad Catholic Workers and the people occupying the shelter units do not concede that these units should be treated as single family homes, with modifications or variations of the existing codes governing single family homes,” a cover letter for the application reads. “However in the interest of expediency in getting approval to connect the electric service to the units, Amistad and the residents are joining with the City of New Haven in seeking modifications/variations of the existing codes governing single family homes.”
The letter also reads: “Our leaders on a state, local and national level have recognized that homelessness is a public health emergency and a national crisis; and the City of New Haven recognizes the urgent need for emergency shelter and therefore is working collaboratively with the Amistad Catholic Workers to obtain the enclosed modification/variation.”
That act of city-activist collaboration around the Rosette Street tiny homes follows the release of two different cease-and-desist orders (read about those here and here) from the Elicker Administration calling on the crew of housing advocates to take down those one-room shelters on the grounds that the shelters had been installed without earning government approval first and might threaten the safety of those living on and around the property.
In a Thursday interview, Mayor Justin Elicker said that he is refraining from taking action against the tiny home project while his team works beside Colville to retroactively gain compliance with both city and state zoning and building codes.
“We wanna make it work,” Elicker said, “so long as we’re able to without risking people’s safety. We’re all trying collaboratively to do that.”
“Hopefully this decision is the beginning of a partnership and not the end of it,” Colville told the Independent.
The state did not respond to repeated requests for comment by the time of this article’s publication.
"It's Not As Though There's A Handbook For It"
Laura Glesby photo
Mayor Justin Elicker: "We wanna make it work."
The controversy surrounding the structures, which Colville and others have referred to as “tiny homes,” concerns the fact that no clear definition exists permitting small-scale, one-room alternative shelters in either state or local building and zoning regulations. Read about that in more detail here.
In order to attempt legal compliance, Amistad House is requesting exemption from several state rules regarding what constitutes a single-family home.
According to the State Building Code, single-family homes must feature a private bathroom and kitchen, at least four electrical outlets, and a minimum snow load capacity, among a long list of other demands.
So, in this recently submitted application to the state, Amistad House is asking for relief to provide communal kitchen and bathroom spaces, as well as modifications of rules related to foundations, fire exits, outdoor lighting, design features, heating capabilities, ventilation systems, and more.
If the state gives the go-ahead and declares the tiny homes safe and up to code, Elicker said the city will allow Amistad House to activate electricity for all six units, which Colville has said is key as residents continue to rely on hot water bottles and heavy blankets to survive dropping temperatures.
“This is the first time we’ve been presented with a land use like this – and it’s not as though there’s a handbook for it,” city Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli told the Independent, stating that potential next steps to secure the structures’ sustainability remain unclear.
Elicker said that while the city is trying to collaborate with Amistad House for state approvals, the nonprofit still has to apply for variances from the local Board of Zoning Appeals in order to gain full compliance with the law. If Amistad House fails to earn either modification waivers from the state or zoning relief from the city, Elicker said, then “they cannot move forward.”
In the meantime, he added, the city has performed safety inspections of the property, requesting, for example, that Colville remove a heating lamp from a central wooden warming hut. Because Colville and residents of the backyard have reportedly cooperated with those requests, Elicker said he sees no reason at the moment to take action against the community.
"It's A Freaking Emergency"
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Mark Colville: “The bureaucracy is treating homelessness like a housing problem. It’s a freaking emergency.”
Colville said he considers the collaboration a “goodwill gesture on the part of the city – though it’s hard to describe it that way when you’re talking about people freezing and there’s paperwork standing in the way.”
While Colville said that the Amistad community agreed to apply for approvals from the state and the city in order to safely, expediently, and professionally pursue the electrical work which must be undertaken to power and heat the homes, he criticized the lack of flexible pathways that exist not just to develop alternative housing, but to establish systems of shelter during states of emergency.
“The reason we’ve had to ask for 20 variances is because they’re trying to fit us into the wrong box,” he said. “Don’t go treating these things like they’re apartments. This is a refugee camp.”
“The bureaucracy is treating homelessness like a housing problem. It’s a freaking emergency.”
Colville said the motivation behind buying the tiny homes was not just to establish safer shelters for unhoused neighbors, but to push the city to empower neighborhoods to imagine and develop their own systems for keeping those unable to afford apartments within the community, rather than pushing them to the outskirts of society. That could mean handing over city land to neighborhood nonprofits, Colville suggested, or reworking local laws to allow for public encampments and alternative forms of emergency shelters.
Even as those living in the tiny homes face soon-to-be freezing temperatures, Colville noted the meaning of “being able to walk through a door and lock it behind you versus sleeping in a tent outside.”
“There’s a sense of permanency there,” he said, “that gets to the crux of why we’re doing all this. Everything we do for the unhoused is always done on an emergency basis. It’s always temporary, and that’s what needs to be remedied.”
“What the mayor has done in terms of cooperating with this request to the state is that he’s now decided to walk down the path with us,” Colville said. “But there are still a lot of steps to walk. And that’s my concern.”
See more below for recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter.
• A Good Public Bathroom Is Hard To Find
• Ex-School Reopens As Winter Overnight Shelter
• Opinion: Homelessness Transcends Urban / Suburban Divide
• Columbus House To Build New 80-Room Shelter
• Suburban Fundraisers Sing For Hill’s Tiny Homes
• 700 Free Turkeys Fly At Food Pantry Giveaway
• Homelessness Update Uncovers Mental Health Toll
• NHPS: 567 Students & Counting Are Homeless
• Youth Shelter Planned, But Not For Hazel St.
• Mike P. Skips Polls, Heads To Scrapyard
• Tiny Homes Hit With 2nd Violation Notice
• City Tells Tiny Home Builders To Cease And Desist
• 6 Tiny Houses Built In Hill Backyard
• $3.5M Hotel-To-Homeless Shelter Contract OK’d
• Hotel-To-Homeless Shelter Contract Advances
• Hotel-To-Homeless Shelter Plan OK’d
• Memorial Uplifts Activist’s Fighting Spirit
• Tents Pop Up In 2 Candidate Debates
• Three Tents Pop Up On The Green
• Unhoused Activists Mourn One Of Their Own
• Homeless Activist Found Dead Outside Soup Kitchen
• Opinion: Don’t Sweep People Away
• Union Station Clears Out
• 50 New Homeless Shelter Beds Open In The Hill
• Tuesday In The State St. Triangle With David
• DESK Preps For Temp Relocation, Major Renovations
• Parking Chief: Homelessness At Union Station Is A Housing Problem
• Closing Time At Union Station
• City Housing Plight Brought To The‘Burbs
• Tent City Exiles Re-Camp On Rosette
• Debate Q: The Lesson Of Tent City Was …
• Homeless Youth Housing Plan Revived
• 6 Crisis Beds OK’d For Winthrop Ave
• Non-Cop Crew Cruises To Crisis Calls
• Don’t Like Encampments? Fund Solutions
• Brennan Slams Elicker For“Cruel” Tent City Sweep
• Why & How We Took Action At The Encampment
• DuBois-Walton: Tent City Reflects Broader Housing Crisis
• Tent City Bulldozed
• Tent City Campers Start To Clear Out
• “Tent City” Hit With New Move-Out Order
• “Tent City” Survives City Cleanup Order
• Competing Visions Emerge For Homelessness $
• Surprise Drop-Off Turns Bottle Man East
• State Lands $18M Homelessness Lifeline
• Tent Citizen By Choice Builds Community
• Shelter Sought From Cold-Weather Emergency
• Homelessness Advocates Brace For“Tidal Wave”
• Breakfast Delivery Warms Up“Tent City”
• Warming Centers Open, While City Looks To Long-Term Homeless Fixes
• “Human Rights Zone” Grows In Hill Backyard
• Homeless Hotel Plan Scrapped. What’s Next?
• Election Day Rally Casts Ballot For Housing