Tent City Campers Start To Clear Out

The residents of a West River encampment loaded their belongings into backpacks and U‑Hauls Wednesday to comply with a public eviction notice from the Elicker Administration — as organizers pitched new tents to protest a pending, forcible clear-out of the site.

That was the scene throughout Wednesday morning and afternoon following an announcement by the city on March 10 that they intended to shut down ​“Tent City,” an encampment of roughly 10 individuals without housing living off Ella Grasso Boulevard near the West River.

City officials said in that latest notice that the deadline for all individuals to leave their makeshift homes was by 1 p.m. on March 15. That notice came a week after the city required residents to remove any ​“permanent structures” from the property, halt use of any heating devices, and clean up outstanding debris in order to prevent any health or safety hazards. 

In keeping with city orders, the community tossed out a shower shed, grills, propane tanks and loads of debris. City officials told the Independent at the time that they would withhold from dismantling the encampment due to the residents’ responsiveness. Read more about that here.

The city later revoked that stance, asserting that subsequent inspections found evidence of sustained open burns, heaters inside flammable tents, human waste, and​“permanent structures” in the process of construction on scene. 

By 9 a.m. Wednesday, local activists had flooded the encampment to help relocate residents while also calling attention to what they described as hypocritical actions by the city in the face of an affordable housing shortage. Those same individuals said they plan to return to the encampment Wednesday night, as the city declined to name a time at which it will fully dismantle what’s left of the self-governing community. 

“The City named 1 p.m. today as the deadline and it is our hope and expectation that everyone will voluntarily comply with the order. However, if not, the City will take the necessary steps to safely and responsibly clear the site in order to remedy the public health and safety violations that exist,” City Spokesperson Lenny Speiller said. 

The majority of those living at Tent City willfully left the premises Wednesday, moving their clothes, mattresses, essentials and mementos into bags and borrowed vans to seek shelter elsewhere, such as an encampment behind the Amistad Catholic Worker House on Rosette Street, run by activist Mark Colville. Others said they were living in limbo with no clear place to go while others still said they would refuse to leave their home unless police physically removed them.

“I’m not leaving here until they drag me off the field!” Paul C., who has lived at Tent City for over a year, told the Independent. 

“I thought they were gonna come down with the PD and garbage trucks and haul off anyone who didn’t wanna go,” another resident, Suki Godek, said as she finished packing her things. ​“We were here hoping they’d change their minds, but you also gotta prepare for the worst.”

Paul Boudreau and Greta Blau, who founded Hamden’s first tenants’ union last year out of the Seramonte Estates and are now fighting their own eviction order, were two of the first organizers to arrive at Tent City Wednesday.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is an eviction like any other,” Boudreau stated. ​“They’ve established this community, this is their home. They have jobs, places to go to. They’ve made the best of a bad situation.”

Around noon, Community Services Administrator Dr. Mehul Dalal arrived at the encampment with representatives from the COMPASS crisis response team and members of Columbus House to provide outreach services to those living at Tent City. 

COMPASS Coordinator John Labieniec was present with outreach specialist Sarah Alkire to distribute care packages, connect residents with material resources like blankets or air mattresses, and provide emotional support. Dalal said that eight beds at the Columbus Houses’ homeless shelters have been set aside for any Tent City resident who wanted one (he said that his team had previously identified eight individuals who they believed were actually living at the site). He also mentioned that the United Way of Greater New Haven is offering to fund storage units for any residents in need. 

Asked whether or not the city would be actually emptying the encampment on Wednesday as they had originally stated, Dalal replied: ​“Not today.”

Mayor Justin Elicker reportedly visited Tent City at 8 a.m. Wednesday, before a crowd arrived on scene, and at 2 p.m., after they had departed.

In the meantime, activists like Mark Colville set up new tents within the encampment, asserting that ​“we intend not to obey” the eviction order ​“because this conversation needs to happen in a courtroom.” He said he planned to file a suit against the city and is looking for legal support. Yale Law School students were also remaining at the encampment in shifts through sunset to observe in case police officers show up later in the day.

As activists chanted, ​“Let them tent, let them live!,” Godek leafed through a photo album she had rediscovered during the packing process. ​“These are the only photos I have left,” she said. She showed this reporter the shell of a turtle she had once discovered while walking along the river she started calling home last summer.

“It’s a shit show,” resident Suki Godek said. ​“Everyone’s in denial. I was packing all day yesterday. It’s been nuts.”

She said that she and her husband both denied the offer to enter Columbus House because her husband works late shifts and would not be able to sign into the facility at the required hours. Instead, she will be moving to the Amistad House on Rosette Street along with at least five other residents to live in Colville’s backyard.

Paul C. was more indignant: ​“Yesterday Columbus House says we’ve got some beds available for all you guys? Four or five months later?” he asked, citing a city-identified shortage of beds and impenetrable waitlist for shelter.

“Shove it up your ass,” he declared. ​“Fuck it, I’m a squatter now. Tent City for life!” 

New Haven native Barry Lawson, 23, also said he has no plans to leave the encampment.

Lawson first visited Tent City when he was 17, after his stepfather kicked him out of the house. He lived out of a tent for a few months until he enlisted in the military. He said he was later discharged for an injury, and returned to Tent City. Then he found housing in an apartment owned by Mandy Management, until a recent rent hike that he said sent him right back to the West River.

“When I first came here, I found a lot of good people that helped me out and looked out for me. As weird as it sounds, this place is like a home to me. I’ve made quite a few good friends here.”

He said he is remaining in place because he is too tired to move without a promise of permanent shelter. If the cops come, he said, ​“at least if I get put in jail it’s three meals a day, a bed to sleep in and a roof over my head. It’s sad when going to jail is a better option.”

Organizers and activists congregated later in the afternoon on the steps of City Hall to relate the move-out to broader issues of housing insecurity across the city.

Tenant organizer Francesca Maviglia argued that while the city described ten individuals without housing living along a river as a health and safety hazard, megalandlords around the city are continuing to keep tenants in substandard living conditions while raising rents often without reason.

“What are you gonna do when more people become homeless, when more people get evicted?” she inquired.

Mayor Justin Elicker expounded on his stance on the encampment during an interview earlier in the day on WNHH radio’s Dateline New Haven program. (You can watch the interview in the above video.)

Campers there did clean up the site when the city first asked them to several weeks ago, Elicker said. But then city inspectors — including the fire marshal — visited last week and found renewed threats to public health, including propane tanks, heaters inside highly flammable tents, a new permanent structure in construction, ​“evidence of open burn pits” and ​“human waste on site, and a lot of waste.”

“We’ve generally taken a very hands off approach, with the exception of our outreach workers in partnership with other nonprofits that work in this space who regularly go out and check on people, offer resources, offer support. That’s everything from mental health support to identifying potential housing. Our outreach has been very, very engaged over years and years,” Elicker said.

More broadly, more work needs to be done on affordable housing as well as emergency services, especially in the suburbs, Elicker argued.

“A lot of people put a lot of pressure on the city to do more. And rightfully so. There’s always more that we can be doing, and we care deeply about this issue. We’re not an island, and we can’t do this alone. You think about how every surrounding town does not have a homeless shelter. But we have multiple homeless shelters in our city. And New Haven is working very, very hard to expand our affordable housing. We’ve seen active resistance by surrounding towns to do any sort of development in many cases, and we can’t do these things alone.”

Paul Bass contributed to this report.

See below for more recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter.

• ​“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