Homeless, & Working Exit 5

As cars raced by the I‑95 Exit 5 entrance ramp on State Street during the morning rush hour, ​“Keith Nauer” was ​“flying a sign.” It read, ​“Homeless. Help. Thank You. God bless you all.” 

To panhandle during the morning is an exception for Nauer (who asked to use a pseudonym for this interview). His usual post is at Exit 6 on Willow Street during the afternoon.

“I’ve been up since 6:45 a.m.,” Nauer said during a conversation on the ​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. ​“I’m just trying to get some money for breakfast and cigarettes.”

Nauer said he and his wife live in a makeshift home underneath the overpass ramp of I‑91 right past Willow Street and Blatchley Avenue, a couple of blocks from Exit 5. 

The couple have been living there since the beginning of last December after taking over the place from a friend, he said.

“A friend of mine stayed here. I knew that he was sick and in the hospital,” Nauer said. ​“I knew that he wasn’t going to be coming out, but I also knew that he stayed here …”

Nauer said he has been homeless for the past three years. He and his wife of 15 years rely on each other to survive the streets. For food, money, and cigarettes, they rely on the public. The 51-year-old said he also has ​“regulars” who come to see him everyday to check in.

“People are really good to us,” Nauer said. ​“I make like $30 a day.”

He used to stay at Immanuel Baptist Shelter on Grand Avenue, which is no longer open.

“I guess you can call 211 and they will put you up in a hotel room or something,” Nauer said. ​“A lot of the guys that go, after two nights they give it up, because it’s not really housing. You can’t go and come as you please. You have to be in by 8 p.m.”

When Nauer and his wife first became homeless, they were living in their car. Eventually the car got towed, along with his ID and social security card.

“All of our stuff was in the car,” Nauer said. ​“It was raining that day, and I knew it was going to be a lot colder at night. Even if a job hired me, I would have to show paperwork, and that’s my stumbling block right now.”

Nauer said he once lived in an apartment on State Street, only a couple of blocks from where he now flies his sign. He partly blames himself for losing his housing. But life for Nauer quickly spiraled out of control.

“This neighborhood, Cedar Hill, is pretty much where I’ve been since 2001,” Nauer said. Everybody here looks out for each other. I used to work a landscape job, but I lost work because of the winter. I couldn’t pay the rent anymore. I wasn’t able to make money. Got scared. I don’t know. I should have gone out and gotten another job.”

Nauer and his wife have three children who live on the Shoreline with their grandparents, he said. They see their kids two to three times a week. 

“My wife’s parents are raising them. We don’t lie to our kids. We tell them that we’re sorry that we’re not able to care for them the way that we want to. My in-laws are incredible. They had to come out of retirement to help raise the kids,” Nauer said. ​“We tell them that it’s our fault for being irresponsible. There’s other things in play that we explain to them. I know it bothers them, but they love us. And they know that we love them.”

Being homeless on and off throughout the years has made Nauer learn how to do without. Occasionally he will go to the soup kitchens throughout downtown but mostly relies on whatever he can collect. He said that the pandemic turned organizations that look out for the homeless ​“upside down.”

“But I feel safe. Nobody really messes with us. People help,” Nauer said. ​“I love New Haven. The people are so kind and generous. They’re friendly. It’s just everybody gets along and looks out for each other.”

Nauer weighed in on New Haven’s pizza dilemma.

“My favorite pizza used to be Amato’s pizza on State Street,” Nauer said. ​“But now it’s Bar on Crown Street. My favorite pizza is tomato basil garlic pizza. Burn it.”

The interview abruptly ended when Nauer’s wife came to grab him to carry on their day.

“I want to thank people that help us,” she said. ​“I want people to understand that it’s really difficult to change your life when you’re dealing with these kind of obstacles that don’t go away. I look up to God and my husband.”