NewHaven'sElla Grasso homeless encampment cleared out before demolition begins

Aug. 14—At that point, most of them were waiting on the sidewalk in front of the Amistad Catholic Worker House two blocks away on Rosette Street. Residents who live in tents in the backyard there began to downsize their own living spaces to make room for about 10 newcomers.

State police, New Haven police and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police initially gathered across the tracks from the collection of tents set up under the overpass before 7 a.m. Monday.

They had not yet told people to leave at that point, but most knew the time had come.

"Somebody came here like last Tuesday to tell everybody that they've got to get out," said Ivan Bureos, who has been staying at the encampment with his girlfriend, Marie del Valle.

Bureos said they had been working at a restaurant in East Haven but couldn't afford to pay rent after they lost their jobs.

"We're so desperate, we don't sleep at night," he said as the encampment began clearing out.

"I'm not happy," said MaryAnn Cotto, who had been living in a tent off Lamberton Street with her boyfriend for several months — since the city pushed her out of the former Tent City encampment on the West River in New Haven.

She said she was surprised that authorities gave her and her fellow residents a chance to move some of their belongings before demolishing the camp.

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"At Tent City, we did exactly what they asked" by cleaning up the area, but the city cleared them out anyway, Cotto said.

She said she thought they would probably go to the worker house on Rosette Street.

Kafi Rouse, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, said the agency decided it needed to clear out the encampment six months ago after a 37-year-old man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train on Feb. 11. DOT posted signs saying it would begin cleaning the site on Aug. 14.

"We've been working hand-in-hand with our partners, and we felt that we had the beds," Rouse said at the scene of the encampment Monday morning. "Our goal today is to rehouse the individuals as well as clean out this area."

Rouse noted that authorities had held off on clearing the camp when city officials asked them to do so earlier this year. She pointed out that there are no barriers at the nearby railroad tracks — unlike at train crossings.

"It's safety. It's about safety. We're really concerned that someone else can be hit," Rouse said. "When you are crossing tracks, that's not safe."

The long-awaited move to close down the Lamberton Street homeless camp came about five months after city workers bulldozed the "Tent City" at West River Memorial Park in March, when one person was arrested after refusing to leave, officials said at the time.

Bureos said the person who told them they would have to leave "said something about beds at Columbus House," a nonprofit shelter in New Haven. But Bureos said he and his girlfriend would not be allowed to room together at there, so instead, the couple plans to head to the Amistad Catholic Worker house.

Several activists with U-ACT, the Unhoused Activists Community Team, had also gathered at both entrances to the encampment at Lamberton Street and the other at the New Haven Fire Training Academy off Ella Grasso Boulevard.

A flyer that circulated over the weekend told activists to meet at the training academy Monday morning, but the entrance was closed off by a gate and two MTA police cruisers.

Carlos Sosa-Lombardo, the city's director of community resilience, said New Haven is offering people who are displaced both bedding and storage for their belongings. But so far, he said, no one had taken them up on the storage option.

Clearing out the encampment is a state-led project, Sosa-Lombardo said, and the state has been working on outreach for the past six months.

But Sosa-Lombardo said that the option of living in a shelter is not for everybody. "It's very evident that we need more housing, especially more affordable housing," he said.

The city recently opened a 50-bed temporary shelter off Ella T. Grasso Boulevard that is run by Upon This Rock ministry. It's in a building owned by the Columbus House at 209 Terminal Lane. It previously served as Columbus House's overflow housing during the winter.

The city is also in the process of purchasing the Day's Inn on Foxon Boulevard, where people will be able to stay in noncongregate housing within their own rooms.

Not all of the social workers helping people to get out of the encampment were happy to see it demolished.

"We don't like for people not to have a place to go," said James Hudson, a case manager for the Connections program. "I hate to see this, man."

Jose Luna, a native of Tlaxcala in central Mexico who had lived under the overpass for about eight months, said he planned to go to Rosette Street, but "I like it here."

He said he didn't want to go to a shelter because he didn't want to be separated from Zorro, his gray tabby cat whose name translates to "fox" in Spanish.

Luna was busy dismantling a makeshift home built from 2-by-4s and tarps and moving his belongings, which included inflatable mattresses, portable tables and a microwave.

As he spoke, workers from Cisco Site and Environmental Services were moving equipment into a nearby access drive, unloading the payloader from a trailer.

By a little after 9:30 a.m. Monday, state and MTA police began moving in to collect tents and makeshift homes near the tracks. The site was divided into two camps, with some tents situated close to the railroad tracks, and others tucked up closer to the overpass abutment.

Jose Guadalupe, who was clearing out his belongings, said he works between six and seven hours each day installing carpets, but it's not enough to afford housing.

Once the encampment residents gathered their essential belongings and left, their ordeal wasn't over.

A couple of blocks away on Rosette Street, about 10 encampment residents were waiting on the sidewalk to get in to Amistad Catholic Worker House, where residents in the backyard had voted to downsize their own campsites to make room for more.

Amistad co-owner Lucy Catarineau, who is married to homelessness activist Mark Colville, said that even though Amistad residents voted to make room for some new residents, "we came back with a lot more people than we expected."

Nevertheless, "people have downsized" in order to accommodate them, she said. "It's the right thing to do."

Mayor Justin Elicker said the encampment's closure by state authorities was prompted by the death of the man hit by a train in February. Officials believe he was a camp resident.

"In addition, there's been a number of near-misses since then," Elicker said, calling the site "very dangerous" because "of its proximity to the train tracks."

He said the city has extended hours at its warming centers throughout the year, where people can go to sleep.

"We do more than any other Connecticut city; with all that being said, we're looking to do even more," Elicker said.

"The big picture here is this is a really, really challenging issue that I think we all need to recognize is a struggle," he said, adding that New Haven can't solve the issue on its own.

"Ultimately this is about affordable housing," the mayor added, noting that New Haven's surrounding suburbs also need to do more to alleviate issues with homelessness.