Maya McFadden Photo
Brenda Fulcher: “All they want to do is put a band-aid on a gunshot .”
Plans to house homeless people overnight during the winter at a West Hills hotel sparked opposition from longtime neighbors who fear more crime and drug use in an already burdened area.
That opposition surfaced at a community meeting held Wednesday night at the neighborhood community center “The Shack” at 333 Valley St.
Fifty neighbors gathered to hear about the winter plan from Bobbi Evans, housing and outreach program manager at BH Care.
The city is contracting with BH Care, a local behavioral health agency, to operate a “warming center” in winter months at the New Haven Inn on Pond Lily Avenue.
In past years the city contracted with institutions to run “warming centers” to give homeless people a central area to rest and get some food, out of the cold. Because of Covid-19, last year the city pivoted to contracting with a hotel (last year it was the Village Suites Inn on Long Wharf) to make rooms available where homeless people can sleep, shower, and get meals during cold weather, and maintain social distancing to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The contract is in the process of being completed, according to city Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal.
The plan would make room for 120 homeless people to sleep at New Haven Inn and take advantage of daily mental, drug, and addiction treatments overseen by the behavioral health clinic BHcare and other community agencies like Cornell Scott Hill Health. Community Action Agency plans to offer financial literacy workshops onsite.
A dozen neighbors spoke at Wednesday night’s meeting about the large number of homeless individuals already in the neighborhood, with attendant drug and crime problems.
The neighbors also argued that the New Haven Inn was rodent and drug infested.
West Hills/West Rock Alder Honda Smith and Alder Richard Furlow organized the Wednesday community meeting for the neighbors to hear the plan specifics directly. Smith said she does not support the programming coming to the New Haven Inn because “it isn’t habitable for anyone,” she said.
“How can they get better in a drug infested hotel?” Smith asked.
West Hills District Manager Lt. Elliot Rosa reminded the group that the department “can’t arrest our way out of” neighborhood concerns about homelessness.
When presented with the plans Rosa recalled asking himself: “What is this going to do for the drug population that I already have here?” And: “Is it going to be a burden on putting another 120 residents here?”
Although initially “apprehensive,” Rosa said, he now supports the program in hopes that it will help reach those currently causing crime and bringing drug activity into the neighborhood.
In a separate conversation with the Independent, Dalal also expressed the goal of reaching people already causing problems on the street and helping them at the hotel instead.
When Rosa asked aloud Wednesday night if the program will help, the room echoed with a unified “no” and dozens of shaking heads.
“I can just sit around and pretend that it’s not there. It is here. And as much as we don’t want to accept that this is a part of our population, it is. So are we to do nothing, or are we to try to help?” Rosa said.
Rosa said he plans to keep a close eye on the possible increase or decrease in calls for service.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said.
“We’re here to [help] people who happen to have life happen to them,” said a BHcare worker named Shaunet.
Colleen Lapierre.
A local activist and entrepreneur, Colleen Lapierre, spoke in support of the program. She said she has dealt with homelessness throughout her life. She showed the crowd of residents a black trash bag tucked in her purse that she used to use as a blanket when living in her car when homeless in the past. She told the group she continues to keep it with her for emergencies.
With three college degrees, Lapierre said, she still is only one paycheck away from homelessness. “We put a stigma on homelessness. Not everyone has a mental illness. I am the professional face of homelessness,” she said.
Neighbors Speak Up
Diane Prince: “We’re like lost souls.”
Brenda Fulcher, who has lived in West Hills for 39 years, said every morning she sees groups of homeless individuals gathered at the Pond Lilly and Whalley Avenue intersection underpass and at the Stop and Shop on Amity Road.
“When the homeless people moved, so many of them, on the New Haven Green the other year, they were trying to tell the city something then, and they were ignored,” Fulcher said.
Fulcher had to have her home fenced in by her son recently because homeless individuals were using her hose to wash off and using the bathroom in her yard.
Fulcher suggested the city work to expand the Columbus House shelter at 586 Ella T Grasso Blvd. “All they want to do is put a band-aid on a gunshot and let the bleeding in communities,” she said.
She added that she has talked with her neighbors who have dealt with individuals doing drugs on their property across from the hotel.
“You got enough on your plate,” Fulcher told Lt. Rosa.
She stressed that she supports helping the homeless. She has brought her children out in the past to feed people living on the street, she said. But she disagrees with this approach at this location.
“You cannot bring anything like this here, because we’re already underwater trying to get out,” neighbor Diane Prince said, who lives in her family home that her parents bought in 1955. “We’re like lost souls. Nobody cares, and nobody does anything.”
A Genesee Street resident said his Ring camera constantly goes off at night capturing individuals roaming the street and checking cars.
He asked the group what’s next if the program happens. “As a community I think it’s time for us to start thinking about Plan B. I think we need to organize and have our own patrols,” he said.
“Why is it falling on inner-city people to be taking on this program?” said a neighbor named Steven, who pushed for the city to work with Yale for funding and space for homeless programming.
Pond Lilly Avenue residents Shonte and Clarence Scott said homeless individuals have climbed their home fence at peak morning hours.
Shonte suggested using the Goffe Street Armory for programming. “If they can’t be in yours, why they got to be in ours?” she said.
“I feel like a prisoner in my own home” due to having to constantly have to reinforce his fence and putting bars on the windows, said Clarence. He said he calls the police and the Livable City Initiative on a weekly basis due to the individuals arguing with him and starting fights while on his property.
“There’s already a lot going on in our community, that we’re dealing with that we don’t need anything else added,” a Harper Street resident said. “That really speaks to what you think about our community.”
The group said they plan to host a community meeting next week to strategize potential protest for the programming.
“We’re tired of being disrespected,” Smith said. “There’s so many seniors out here, we got to protect our own.”