As Temps Drop, Tiny Shelter Residents Double Up

A group of unhoused neighbors have taken to sleeping two or even three to a room inside unheated pre-fabricated tiny shelters that are still standing in a Rosette Street backyard.

“When we do bundle up, it’s tolerable being in there,” said Robert Harris, as he pointed at a row of white Pallet shelters. ​“But sometimes it’s colder in these because it can be like an ice box.”

There are currently 14 people living in six different under-100-square-foot shelters that have stood for over a year in the backyard of the Amistad Catholic Worker House at 203 Rosette St. in the Hill.

Harris, who has been residing in that Rosette Street backyard since May, said that all the residents have numerous blankets and sleeping bags to keep warm throughout the night. Currently, he sleeps outside in what is called the ​“hut.” If the cold becomes unbearable, he sleeps inside the Amistad house, on a chair.

A group of homelessness activists — led by Amistad’s Mark and Lux Colville and their neighbors and supporters — first erected these six single-room shelters last fall to provide a roof for people displaced from cleared homeless encampments and who otherwise had nowhere else to go.

In July, the city called on UI to turn off the power in these shelters, following the expiration of a 180-day state permit allowing electricity to the backyard, thereby rendering those shelters ​“illegal dwelling units.” (The shelters do not have individual kitchens and bathrooms. As part of a suite of zoning relief granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals in March, the Amistad Catholic Worker House has to make available the main home’s bathroom and kitchen to the backyard residents.)

In the intervening five months, people have continued sleep inside these six tiny shelters — which have only become more crowded with the onset of winter weather.

Mark Colville told the Independent on Thursday that, in order to accommodate more people, the group has decided to place more people in the Pallet homes. Two people now occupy a single shelter, instead of just one. Three people now occupy the slightly larger but still quite small shelters, instead of two. 

In total, 14 unhoused residents now live in these six backyard Pallet structures. 

Colville shared that the collective is doing ​“risky things” to stay warm, including using extension cords from the main house to power heaters in rooms. The group also uses an outdoor fire pit to stay warm. Colville said sometimes a fire marshal comes to inform them that such usage is illegal, but they often ignore the marshal.

“People are not going to freeze to death over fire laws,” Colville said.

For Harris, these conditions are better than the months he spent out on the streets. He explained that when he tried staying at city homeless shelters, he was turned away due to capacity reasons.

“I wasn’t utilizing the shelters because they weren’t really open,” Harris said. ​“Most of the time, I was pulling all nighters, just not even sleeping.”

Harris used to sleep in a tent in a miniature encampment of unhoused residents in a garden adjacent to the 203 Rosette St. backyard. The encampment held about 40 unhoused people in addition to those living in the tiny homes. Internal disputes led to a temporary shutdown of the space.

“That was an internal decision, because we started to lose control over it,” Colville said. ​“People were not agreeing with the community agreements they all agreed to. We realized that our first priority has to be [being] a good neighbor to our neighbors.”

Those agreements were rules that enforced residents of the backyard and garden areas to clean up after themselves and not bring in people at certain hours, in respect to other residents’ boundaries. Harris also recalled an incident in which a resident threatened to call the police on another member, something that was not allowed at the encampment.

While some people moved tents into the Amistad backyard, a vast majority were connected to other resources in the city — as the encampment’s temporary disbanding happened after warming centers opened this cold-weather season. Colville emphasized that he hopes to make improvements to the community bylaws before opening up the space again, as well as ​“change the clientele” to make the backyard a safe space for ​“women, children, and families.”

As temperatures drop outside, so too in the tiny shelters — which, without electricity, do not have any heating measures. Rosette Street resident and homelessness activist Suki Godek described the conditions as almost like sleeping in a ​“fridge,” with the inside of the homes feeling colder than being outside.

One of the 14 people who currently spends his nights inside these Pallet structures is Tehuti-Mes IIII Kiah.

Kiah also used to live in the miniature encampment in the backyard before transitioning to one of the tiny homes, a shelter he shares with his roommate. Originally from Baltimore, Kiah said he left the United States for Guatemala before returning last year to retrieve his belongings in Vermont.

After suffering from a nervous breakdown, he found himself incapacitated in New Haven in March of this year. Kiah found a community in local unhoused circles, and a friend connected him to the services at Rosette during the summer. Kiah pointed to a large, circular scar on his leg. When he joined the backyard, he’d had surgery on his leg to remove a tumor. He said he had needed a place to go, and credited Colville for creating a community to help the unhoused.

“I had to get off the street, man. I have to take care of myself,” Kiah said.

He enjoyed the backyard encampment, noting that he didn’t have to worry whether the police would arrest him. He also appreciated the fact that he didn’t need to walk all the way across town to get food and doesn’t ​“always have to be on [his] feet.”

Despite the services that 203 Rosette has, Kiah said, the temperatures make daily living difficult.

Looking to the future, Colville doesn’t know exactly how the group is going to adapt to the winter. Financially, the group has racked up $17,000 in legal fees while trying to appeal the mayor’s enforcement of building code to shut off the electricity in the backyard. The group lost their appeal. They have ongoing fundraising events to make up the debt, as well as to provide assistance for the group throughout the winter, including an event in Meriden on Friday night.

Colville intends to bring Rosette Street services to other places where people are staying, and to make those places ​“safer and warmer.” He said that this might translate to making more ​“tent cities.” He said that this outreach effort will start to happen next week.