Laura Glesby photos
U-ACT protester Mell: “Show me the law telling me I cannot walk up those steps!”
Alexis Terry in the tent on City Hall's first floor.
Four dozen people showed up to City Hall on Thursday night to protest a city policy of issuing 72-hour eviction notices upon discovering outdoor encampments — leaving a symbolic tent outside the mayor’s office after a standoff with police.
The protesters, who included several people with personal experience of being homeless along with about 30 Yale students, marched around the first floor of City Hall for an hour and a half, chanting “Housing is a human right!” and “Stop the sweeps!”
They had been convened by Unhoused Activist Community Team (U‑ACT) to call attention to a city policy of providing 72-hour notices of eviction to people sleeping outside in tents and sleeping bags — “a recent shift in policy to accelerate evictions,” U‑ACT described in a press release.
According to Mayor Justin Elicker, the city has always had a policy of providing 72 hours of notice before clearing an encampment deemed to be unsafe.
“There’s been no policy change,” he said. “At times, staff will not have posted [a notice of eviction] immediately.” Sometimes, as the Independent has previously reported, the city would work for days or weeks alongside local nonprofits to encourage people sleeping outdoors to accept shelter and other resources, prior to leaving an eviction notice. “But our policy has always been that we give 72 hours” while “concurrently” offering services, Elicker stated.
At a meeting of local homeless outreach organizations, according to an outreach worker who was present, the city announced that it would immediately leave an eviction notice and start the 72-hour clock upon finding an outdoor encampment. (The outreach worker requested anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the matter.)
When asked about this account, Elicker said that he had not been present at the meeting, but noted, “I spoke with staff about how we need to be consistent with our policies.”
Elicker defended the city’s overall approach toward outdoor encampments. “We do more than any other city in the state of Connecticut to support individuals that are experiencing homelessness. We bend over backwards to do everything we can to support the unhoused,” he said.
“At the same time, we find encampments that are dangerous,” he said. “Almost inevitably, we find heating sources in the tents that are highly flammable. We find an immense amount of trash and human waste collecting around the encampments.”
Advocates for allowing outdoor encampments, meanwhile, argue that sleeping in the cold without a heating source is more unsafe than the fire hazard of running a space heater inside a tent. And they contend that the indoor alternatives offered by the city, typically warming center mats or shelter beds, are not a realistic alternative for people who are addicted to substances banned in those places, or who have experienced trauma that renders sleeping in communal settings intolerable.
“Not everyone fits into the shelter easily, and the warming centers are full,” said U‑ACT activist Suki Godek. She called for a designated space in the city where people can sleep outdoors.
In response to U‑ACT statements that shelters and warming centers are often full, Elicker said that “during cold weather emergencies, nobody is turned away” from city warming centers.
"Displacement Is A Crime!"
There was some confusion among Thursday night’s protesters about the precise details of the 72-hour enforcement window. One protester called on the city to stick to a 72-hour warning, believing that the time frame had been shortened; another suggested that Elicker was “trying to pass eviction legislation” in secret.
The protesters’ overall message, however, was clear: that people should have the right to sleep outside, especially when they are uncomfortable with the city’s shelter options and have nowhere else to go.
Elicker has “done away with the policy they had for window dressing,” declared Mark Colville, who runs the Amistad Catholic Worker. “He’s always been a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“We are Yale students, but we are also proud members of U‑ACT,” said one student. The 72-hour policy is “part of a campaign run by Elicker, run by Yale, to oppress low-income folks.”
“Many people have been victimized and hunted,” said a protester named Mell, who spoke of carrying “the pain and suffering of my friends who died out here.”
“No one should ever be turned away from a warming center,” said Sean Gargamelli-McCreight. “We can no longer allow anyone’s belongings to be stolen by the police.”
Colville and U‑ACT organizer Alexis Terry began to set up a tent beneath the City Hall staircase as fellow protesters circled them, singing, “From New Haven to Palestine, displacement is a crime!”
Meanwhile, a handful of police officers gradually trickled into the building.
One the tent was fully assembled, Colville and Terry took turns sitting inside.
The circular march continued. Nearly every protester carried a handwritten sign. This is a community genocide, one sign declared. Elicker: Stop Being Trump’s Bootlicker, said another. Yale owes New Haven $35 billion.
Tensions escalated when, at Colville’s suggestion, the protesters attempted to carry the tent upstairs to the second floor of City Hall, intending to leave it outside Elicker’s office.
Midway up the staircase, they found themselves face to face with a pair of police officers — Mark Salvati and Justin Julianelle — blocking their path.
Police stop the protesters from going upstairs.
The officers explained that the mayor had asked that protesters not be allowed up on the second floor of City Hall. (City spokesperson Lenny Speiller later said, “We were wanting to provide folks with the opportunity to protest while at the same time allowing City Hall to function.”)
“Show me the law telling me I cannot walk up those steps!” responded Mell. “You show me the legal right!”
“Please, get off the steps, man,” sighed Julianelle.
Soon, Colville darted past the officers to the second floor landing, sliding across the floor in the direction of the mayor’s office. Another police officer stopped him by holding his arm.
“This is bullying behavior!” Colville said. The protest, he said, “is a simple, simple gesture” and an expression of “First Amendment rights.”
He eventually made it to the mayor’s office door and parked there resolutely, declaring that he wouldn’t leave until the protesters were allowed upstairs.
Colville refuses to budge outside Elicker's office.
City Chief of Staff Sean Matteson eventually came by and approached the protesters, who explained that they wanted to leave the tent upstairs.
“And then you’re going back down?” Matteson asked.
At the protester’s affirmative response, he instructed the police to let them upstairs.
The group ceremonially placed the tent in front of the City Hall steps, arranging their signs around it in a border, and then posing for a photo.
Sean Matteson watches as the protesters assemble for a photo...
...and then leave behind the tent with a series of signs.
Then, as they gradually left the building, a few lingered behind on City Hall’s front steps to serve soup to anyone who wanted.
