- Support for "Where Then Shall We Go" is provided by Connecticut Housing Partners making home happen for 35 years.

(tent rustling) (brick thumping) - You have not designated a place where people have a right to live, a right to exist.

You keep telling us where we can't go.

You keep drawing lines around the places that we do go.

So where then shall we go?

We're taking up that question in our own community.

Okay, so for those of you who may be new here, what we have going here in the backyard is we've claimed this space and we're declaring it to be a neighborhood, okay?

It's like a micro neighborhood in the midst of a big neighborhood, right?

- But this is a neighborhood, and so the people that live here in the backyard, they each have been granted or been given a piece of land, okay?

So where people put their tents down is their land, and so what we're saying is that that makes us neighbors to each other and neighbors to the other neighbors in the neighborhood.

So it kind of changes, hopefully changes the dynamic of how we live both with each other and with the neighborhood at large.

So we have to somehow work that out without city's support, without police.

We don't need police, but we have to figure out how to do it in such a way that everybody is respected, right?

We wanted to have a quick meeting to come up with a list of rules that, you know, and again, when everybody participates in making the rules, then there are no dictators and no need for police.

We just simply hold each other accountable to what we all agreed to.

So that's... Now I will shut up and I want you to, guys, the people who live here first, to say what do you think would get a handle on this situation?

- I would say just respect.

I mean, I know it's hard when you're in a small space with a lot of people that we just come together.

Maybe figure out some way to just try to get along.

- That is the best place to start is with respect.

Unfortunately, we can't legislate respect, right?

But what we can do is put some boundaries.

- [Resident] Of course.

- You know, maybe physical boundaries, but also kind of like psychological boundaries.

Like, you know, you can't make noise after 10 o'clock.

I just came up with that last night.

- I like that.

I like that.

- Because I was worried about people coming in here last night and raising hell again.

So I put that sign up last night, and actually nobody.

I checked at midnight.

- Last night was the first night that we didn't get woken up.

- Well, what is that?

Would that be a 10 o'clock?

- That's reasonable.

- People agree to that, or you wanna change the time?

- That's reasonable.

- More than fair, I think.

- Any objections to that?

Okay, so that's our first rule, and what we're saying is we're not saying you can't be here or anything, but we're saying after 10 o'clock, it has to be.

Essentially what we have now in the backyard is an encampment for people who are unhoused.

The first thing you'll see is a sign that we've posted right there on the gate going into the backyard, which declares that you are entering a human rights zone and anybody who enters this space is required to behave accordingly.

In 1994, let's see, four of us, four adults and two children committed to coming here and starting a Catholic worker house.

We're about hospitality, nonviolence, community living, you know, simplicity of lifestyle, and pooling of resources.

- We used to take homeless people into our home.

We could have up to 18 people living between the three floors, and that's when we were raising our kids.

We used to do three meals seven days a week indoors.

People lived with us, people took showers from the streets, and so on.

We stopped doing that just before COVID because our youngest son had cancer and because of our fear of, you know, him being immunocompromised, we decided our ministry was gonna go outdoors.

Tony Harp was mayor at the time, and when we were protesting at her office about homeless people needing a place to stay, she said the key words were, "It's a liability."

You know, oh, everyone's worried about being sued.

But she said, "How about doing it in your own backyard?"

And we said, "You know, good idea.

We will do that!"

(upbeat music) Catholic Worker movement there's 175 plus houses like this all over the world, but each house is autonomous.

You know, there's not one purse string that covers all the bills.

You have to figure out how to pay your own bills.

And so for me, I work outside of the household, we get some monetary donations, we get a lot of food, clothing, and so on, but to cover the bills, it's dependent upon what comes in in my paycheck.

- A hundred lunches, bagged lunches.

There's a real sort of an anarchistic spirit in the Catholic worker movement.

Authority, rules, accountability comes from within rather than being beholden to external laws, or rules, et cetera.

In other words, we do the right thing because it's the right thing.

- [Mykala] So how long have you been homeless?

- Since July.

- Oh damn.

Oh, I kinda like it here.

It's a neighborhood, so it sucks being in this situation, but, oh, I guess I gotta figure it out myself, and I know I got help here, so.

I was incarcerated, just got outta jail in January.

This was the only place that I could really get to know because they're LGBT-friendly.

One of my sayings is gotta live in the now, and you gotta focus on the positives.

Yes, I lost a lot of people in my life, but you can't focus on that.

You gotta gotta be happy with yourself.

You gotta realize, look, you got a place to live.

You know, it's something.

You gotta be happy for what you got.

So I'm gonna stay here until I can save up enough money, get enough money to get myself a studio or an apartment, get myself situated, get financially stable, get emotionally stable.

That's the first thing I need to be doing.

I don't know, I think this little place will get me started.

- [Resident] Don't like the idea of my dog coming around.

- We don't?

- No, not really.

- You want me to go food out?

- No, try not to.

- Being here, I'm safer here.

This is a definite safe zone for a lot of people, which is great, you know, because to be out there in the rain as it's getting ready to do now.

See, that can't happen.

That can't happen.

Hanging up over, put it up top, but it just can't happen.

Can't block a walkway and take electricity from everybody.

Nah, you can't do that.

No, I've been here for quite a while back and forth helping out.

Be more than happy to help out.

They didn't give him time.

They know that already.

- Well, Rico's in.

The handyman, he's left his mark on this house for sure in terms of, you know, painting stuff and making stuff, patching walls, stuff like that.

- Electricity.

- Electricity, yeah.

- But I try to help out as best I can.

- If I get a rubber mallet it would be better.

Or if we have one- - I think we have a mallet here somewhere.

- So that's an option I could try as well.

But this is like, I enjoy this kind of crap.

So I will be spending time trying to make this place nicer, and better, and bigger.

No, I love that kind of crap.

I couldn't do it before because I didn't have a place that I actually was entitled to, you know what I mean?

I was living on by the side of the road in Branford and they're not gonna let me build a structure there.

But when I saw this, I was like, oh, I like that it's a little structure.

I wanna be able to like build it up to pallets.

If you can find the right place, we could definitely get some more pallets for free, and yeah, it'll be great I think.

I'm excited.

- Me too.

Me too.

- I thought that I might come here and then immediately feel like, oh God, what did I do?

Why am I here?

But I don't feel like that, I'm excited.

- [Mykala] It's like our first home.

- Yeah, it is kind of, isn't it?

And we've been dating like three weeks.

(both laughing) - I was actually part of the tent city encampment on Ella Grasso Boulevard that they had a full eviction and I guess demolition of that in April of this year.

I had actually known Mark Colville and he asked me if I wanted to move here and be part of this, and kind of help get it running and everything.

And finally once we had the eviction, we agreed, my husband and I, and we ended up here.

There's a reason why, you know, a lot of the people aren't in shelters 'cause a shelter is very much like being in a jail sort of, you know?

'Cause you're giving up all your rights to privacy, you're giving up your rights to your possessions, to your ability to come and go as you please, and a lot of us that actually work, it's completely unreasonable to expect someone to be in by 8:00 PM every evening or something like that.

A lot of us work, you know, odd hours, and especially when you're working two or three jobs, you know?

- You have to get up at five o'clock every morning.

You have to get out no matter if it's hot, cold, or warm.

- Pouring rain.

- Or pouring rain, or snowing.

- Sick, you could be dying of some sickness.

- You are kicked out every morning.

- Yep.

- The only option for a person who is homeless tonight in New Haven, the only legal option, would be to self-institutionalize in a shelter.

When people come to us, you know, seeking refuge in the backyard, what we tell them is we're not giving you a tent, we're giving you a piece of land.

Of course, we'll give them a tent if they need one.

But essentially what we're doing is giving people a piece of land, and when you have a piece of land that makes you a neighbor and that brings with it rights and responsibilities.

- Housing is very tight.

I mean, like, granted, someone, even anyone that gets even a thousand dollars a month can't afford housing because they want three times the amount of money that you make a month.

I got my fixed income.

There is no okay, you're on a fixed income.

We'll look out for you.

No, there is nothing.

The ones that are on fixed incomes don't have enough to make it, and even with two people, they can't make it that way either.

The lowest one I've seen was four some change, and it's only for women.

The other ones are 650 and up, going to 1,100 bucks for a single room.

Not for a bedroom, single bedroom apartment.

No, one room.

You're talking about 1,200 to $1,500 for an apartment, and you can't make it.

- I think it's important to be realistic, but you don't wanna focus on it and, you know, like make it come true.

You know what I mean?

- Yeah.

- You don't wanna dwell on it.

And I could, I mean, there's a very good chance I was just gonna be on the street in a couple weeks anyways.

- Well, I'm very happy that you're in my life, and I'll protect you.

- [Blyss] Thank you.

- This is the love story.

- Protect our heart.

- [Rico] This is the love story.

- It's true.

- Yuck.

- Ooey-gooey lovey-dovey.

- The simple solution to homelessness is housing, okay?

Housing is not forthcoming in this country anymore for low income people unless there's significant systemic change.

Housing has become exclusively a capitalist venture.

It's no longer recognized as a human right.

I mean, if you did to the fire department what we've done to the housing situation or the housing market in this country, then the only people that would get fires put out would be those who could pay.

- Can we please have a round of applause for the meal that we have just partaken in?

(people applauding) - As people know, we set up this tent city on the public land over by the West River back in 2020, and it was allowed to stay, as I said before, for three years.

And just about two months ago, they came in and bulldozed the whole thing and displaced a lot of people.

At the same time, about a year ago, almost a year ago now, we had realized that after two years of the tent city on public land, that our campaign was failing, okay?

And why do I say that?

I mean, literally hundreds of people probably lived at that tent city through the course of three years and had housing there.

Okay, a very simple housing, but they had housing, alright?

But the failure came because we failed to get the city to change its policy, okay?

And so a year ago we said that we need to come up with a new strategy.

So that new strategy was we would set up a model tent city in our own backyard at Amistad, which is at 203 Rosette Street, which came to be known as the Rosette Neighborhood Village.

Thank you.

The Rosette Neighborhood Village.

- We have been approached this afternoon by a person in this room who is generously volunteering to fund the building of the first pallet house at the Rosette Neighborhood Village, and is looking to see if we can get a match in the room.

- So this is a closer look at what the actual units look like.

You can see here they have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

They meet all municipal fire and building codes.

They have two means of egress.

All of the residents of this community will have access to kind of the infrastructure that comes with the Amistad house.

You know, the bathroom facilities, water, electricity.

These will actually, these will have individual electricity and heating and cooling as well, but, you know, they'll still be plugged into the community at the Amistad house as well.

And, you know, one of the things that we've kind of already.

(gentle quirky music) - Excuse me.

This the front of the bike.

- Compartment's right here.

- Where did the parts come off though?

- Came off the scooter.

- We did turn out this morning.

Did a lot more backyard neighbors here.

Do we have all of our backyard neighbors here?

- I'll do Mondays.

- Mykayla has Tuesday.

- [Blyss] Thursday is Blyss.

I don't know about Thursday.

- I need someone for Wednesday.

- [Rico] Friday.

- So we have Blyss for Thursday, we have Friday.

- [Resident] Rico's name can go on there.

- Everybody.

- Rico stands getting up in the morning to open up the damn door.

You're gonna wash dishes too like everybody else.

- All right, so we still need somebody for Friday and somebody for Sunday.

So Friday's Jojo.

Okay.

It's almost kind of like sad a little bit when you're working on these houses and stuff that are for us right now are definitely out of reach, But that's why it's so important though to be a part of like our community there and with the tiny homes and everything is just it's one step closer to reaching that goal of being able to obtain, you know, a home as beautiful as this one.

We probably work three different jobs at one time.

We do power washing, we do the painting and remodels, we do landscaping, we mow grass for several of our neighbors around the Rosette neighborhood community.

You keep saving, you know, like, we keep working and saving and hopefully eventually, my husband and I we do like the handyman and kind of general labor stuff right now, but we hope to have our own farm again one day.

I never really envisioned myself at this point in my life.

You know, with degrees and like, you know, almost a hundred grand in school and credit card debt being not using those degrees and working general labor jobs, but, you know, you never really know what life's gonna throw at you I guess.

- We know what's happening with the people under the bridge, right?

You may have forgotten we have a standing commitment here at Amistad that every time the city scatters people in that way by evicting them from places where they have a human right to build a home, that we're gonna gather people together again, or at least offer that possibility.

So again, every time they do this, we need to be the ones picking up the pieces.

Okay, thank you.

When the institutions in our lives fail to take care of the common good, we have to do that ourselves.

How do we do this?

What are the issues that are involved here?

All right, do you understand what my plan is?

- To poke the city with the community garden by going, cutting a fence down, right?

- Yes, does anybody object to this plan?

- You said something to me when I was first met you that really stuck with me, that you said that we always try to have room for one more, and, you know, for me, when I was living in a tent in Branford for a while, and when the police evicted me from there, it led me to trying to take my own life because it's like, okay, there's just nowhere for me in the world at all, you know?

And I don't want anybody else to have to go through that so I would rather them come here even if it's a little bit of a risk.

That's how I feel.

- Thank you.

So, okay, so let's get to the logistics of this.

We're gonna cut the fence, right?

Is anybody not ready to do that?

- [Resident] We're not gonna cut it.

We're gonna unbolt it and roll it back.

- You got that?

So you're gonna do it in such a way that the frame of the fence is still up, peeling the chain link back, and anytime we want, we can roll it back again.

We don't want to take over the whole garden 'cause there's some pretty active, you know, flower and vegetable growing going on.

So what we're gonna do is simply take the fence that goes across the back of the adjacent property.

We're just gonna extend it across the community garden space, and from there we're gonna set up this big carport right here.

That will be a nice enclosed space.

So that again, for the initial emergency, people can take refuge in there and not be, you know, too out in the open.

- Oh, Mykayla.

- Yeah?

- Do you want this old brush?

- No, I got one.

- Okay, just making sure 'cause I'm gonna throw it away.

- [Mykayla] Giving me a broken brush.

- Well, it's, I mean, as opposed to throwing it away, yeah.

- [Mykayla] Okay.

(laughs) - I don't like throwing things away unless I absolutely have to.

- I know.

I had this old key I found on the pavement the other day, and I had it in the bottom of my purse.

I'm like, I gotta throw it away.

I'm not gonna use this.

- But you kept that key of mine, right?

- [Mykayla] Yeah.

We are all connected to the electricity from the main house and you have to be careful like not to use an insane amount because we're basically all plugged into the same extension cord, right?

Recently I got this computer speaker system for like $10 at the thrift store, and I'm really happy with it.

Like, it's an old system from like the '90s, but it was really nice.

It sounds really good.

And then I got this TV, I got this on clearance from Walmart because I wanted to be able to because I hooked my phone up to it.

So it's just a monitor, but I connect my phone to it so that makes it like a smart TV, you know?

And so I can like watch YouTube, or movies, or play video games.

I play a lot of games on it and stuff like that, and then the last thing I got recently was this dust buster I've got mounted to the wall here just because it makes it easier to, you know, clean up the little messes that you track in with your feet.

Being autistic means I need to have control over my immediate environment, and not having that control makes me very anxious, and unstable, and not happy.

And so, yes, it's a small little place.

It's five and a half by six and a half feet, but it's mine and I control it, and these are my things and I chose the way it's laid out in here and I wrote the things on the wall, and so I have control of this little space, and for me, that has made such a big deal.

Like, for the last few weeks I've been doing a lot better, and this place is a lot of the reason why.

- Careful of the string.

- [Caller] Hi.

Good morning.

Can you transfer me to CMU please?

- Yeah, so this is it.

I would open it, but it's messy.

Well, I finally got a job part-time, but it's still money in my pocket.

Other than that, I've just been kicking it.

- [Interviewer] I didn't even see the sign.

- [Mykala] Oh yeah.

They put sign, oh, I didn't see that Oh, there it is.

- For information and assistance, call Columbus House outreach.

- Oh wow.

- Yeah.

Wow.

- Just the place we're trying to get away from.

(laughs) Yes, it's the city's and we understand that.

I understand that.

But as you see, it's clean.

What is there to complain?

That we're taking up space?

Are you ridiculous?

I'm not gonna give up.

- [Reporter] Day two of cleanup at the homeless encampment just off of Ella T. Grasso Boulevard.

The state owns this land sitting under an overpass next to the Metro North train tracks.

On Monday, they had to evict the nearly 20 people living in tents under the bridge.

- The structure itself means something to ‘em.

- [Reporter] Rico Jones was there for the demolition.

He lives and works here at the Amistad Catholic Worker where they've opened their backyard for anyone who needs a place to pitch their tent.

- First we went down to the bridge, and police were there.

Police came and told them everybody had to go, moved some people out.

Some people got out of there, some people didn't, and from there they all flocked here, and we had people all over the place.

All of a sudden we had to sit back and clear up the spaces and put down pallets for 'em, and after we put down pallets, we went ahead and set up tents, got everybody in their place, you know, what was left.

Whoever wasn't left had stuff still out here.

They had to take it away 'cause we had no more room.

We were tired.

It was a long day yesterday.

We had to change a lot of people away here by downsizing them.

They had to get rid of some stuff.

They can't just keep all that stuff around.

They can't just.

Gathering things is the idea of I don't have nothing.

I wanna try to keep everything, and that's what they do.

(lighter clicking) Before Monday, there were 22.

Now, it's about 30 something.

We grew big time.

Big time.

- You come here, you're supposed to contribute and help, and they didn't.

They left their stuff out in the road, left their stuff on the sidewalk and nothing, and just left and then came back here shouting orders.

Well, we're gonna start weeding out people, we're gonna get it back to where it used to be.

You know what I mean?

Getting rid of the druggies, the dealers coming in here.

A lot of people come here just to get high, and that's the bad reputation of it.

So we're gonna get it back to where we almost had it at one time.

It was nice.

You remember everything was clean, everything.

You know what I mean?

And just big shit storm.

But we'll get it back to where it's gotta go.

- It's hard for someone to now live in a relational situation because they've always been out on their own living as individuals.

What we're trying to create is a community back there, okay?

Of people who are going to be self-sustaining and be able to get out on their own, okay?

But you gotta work with people, okay?

This is not counseling.

It's more about giving them something that they lacked before they got here.

- [Interviewer] How did you meet Mark and Luz?

- I came every single day to help out.

Thursdays was my day to give and take, and give and take was something where we gave people things that they needed, and we took in things that we needed.

We give more than we take though thats for sure.

They'll give 'til it hurts.

And sometimes it does.

I've seen 'em pay people's rents pay a light bill for somebody else.

I've seen them someone's sick and shut in, and they'll go and make sure that they're okay.

They'll take estates and take the furniture and stuff and give it away.

Give it to people that need it.

And have a whole bunch of space, have no space for themselves.

Wow, that is screwed and pooch is screwed.

And with no remorse, with no idea of oh, what are we gonna do?

I ain't never seen nobody else like 'em.

That'd be the truth.

I have to get bigger screws.

- I just gotta change into my uniform.

Yeah, so, you know, we don't have an actual kitchen anymore until we get the rehab of the house done.

So most of the food, thankfully, that we serve is being made off site, and so a lot of it is just heating stuff up.

So we have a small oven here, and I'm just heating up some egg sandwiches that were made by a church.

St. Mary's actually.

Today happens to be a kind of an important meeting at least for me.

I think for everybody.

You know, we've been doing this now for about a year and a half, and not once has a neighbor called the police, you know?

But during the past week, you know, a lot of the neighbors were worried, and anyway, I believe that somebody called downtown and was wondering what's going on.

And they should.

One thing you might notice from being up here is the view, you know?

The view out the back window, which I have to say when we first set up or first set up the human rights zone in the backyard, people started coming to live there.

It was a real source of torment for me to look out there.

You know, basically feeling like this is the best we can do, you know?

And in fact, you know, we've had an empty house now for almost a year because of the rehab that we're doing on the house, right?

But lots of nights where you kinda question yourself and say, why are people out there, you know?

And we could put 'em on the floor in here or something, you know?

So that's been, or at least initially it was a real source of torment for me, but within a couple of months time, the people back there had set up a community.

They were self-governing, and holding each other accountable, and being respectful to the neighbors and all that, and so the way that people came together back there helped me to get through the sleepless nights and start to sleep better.

You know, because they're kind of showing the way.

Yo, time for a meeting.

I'm bringing the breakfast down now.

There's extra.

Anybody want breakfast, step up.

If a car pulls up and you go in the car for 90 seconds and come out with a bag that you're putting in your pocket, get out, okay?

I don't want drug dealers pulling up in my front yard anymore.

- Ada's the next door neighbor and I spoke with her a couple of times this week after the changes, and she's very happy.

She's been worried about all the partying that's been going on here, okay?

All the drinking that was happening outside the gate and by the garden, Barbara was complaining about it.

- If you don't have somewhere else to go, cut it out, okay?

If you have somewhere else to go, go there.

- We have over a hundred thousand dollars invested now in improving this backyard within the next six weeks, okay?

In a project that is not completely sanctioned by the city, okay?

We are living on the edge of legality here.

(upbeat music) (coffee sloshing) - Sexual harassment of any kind.

I don't care who you are.

I don't care if it's a guy on a girl, a girl on a guy, whoever, a girl, okay?

Is not gonna be tolerated.

So if anybody is saying anything inappropriate or out the way to anyone, or you feel like someone's saying it to you, if you're not comfortable saying something to them directly, let someone know.

We will take care of it.

That's not gonna happen here.

(water sloshes) - Victor, we got more.

Alexander Martinez.

That's not.

No, This looks like a card of some kind.

It might be like a Halloween.

- So this back here, will you move that chair right now please?

- The fence is for when the tiny houses come in a few weeks, which is really exciting.

And I did my interview already with Mark and Luz so I can hopefully be on the list for a possible tiny house for me and my dog.

(upbeat music) - Today's our building day.

It's a neighborhood event.

You know, last night, late last night after all this, all the work that people have put in and all the fundraising and all, we took delivery of six tiny homes from the pallet company on the west coast, and they showed up late last night.

We fed the truck driver this morning and started unloading, and now we're building.

- For me, for the most part, it's a new step in the right direction.

Get a fresh start, you get your own tent, then you move into something bigger.

From here you might progress to get a better apartment or a better house, but it betters your situation.

You only can help yourself if you do something.

- [Builder] But, you know, we've been asking (indistinct).

And then Liz said that the lids are coming around the left.

- Big day for moving day for Baby T. See, the thing about tent living, a lot of things get moldy, a lot of things in here got ruined, you know, whatever.

So, a lot is getting thrown out probably more than I'm keeping because I want it as a new start, you know?

A new start, a new beginning.

It might be good because it can help me work on some other issues that I'm having as far as addictions that I have.

So I'm gonna be working very hard on that with this new tiny home, and hopefully, once I get my health in check, I can get a nice little job.

So, that's my plan.

So I'm very lucky, and I'm very happy, I'm very excited.

All these feelings rolled up into one.

And my dog might be just as excited too although she doesn't seem like it right now, but she will be when she goes into the tiny home.

Come on, honey.

Careful.

Okay, come on, I wanna show you the house, honey.

- [Builder] First house set up.

Just put it to the side one time.

- Moses and the 10 Commandments.

(rock thuds) - I am just happy to actually have a bed to lay in, and be able to stretch my knees out properly, and just get a good night's sleep.

That's really all I wanted was to be able to get a good night's sleep, and then hopefully when we get the electricity and stuff, then we'll have heat, we'll have our own little quiet area where we can relax, have our own privacy, and be able to actually relax comfortably at night, and don't maybe have to worry about bugs and spiders in your tent unless you leave your door open all night.

So it should be great.

It should be great.

We might get the mayor over here one of these Sundays because they did say he was cool at first.

You know, I don't know, but I think, come on.

I think he's gonna be on board with this.

Like, what can he say?

- When the six structures were constructed on Rosette Street, we in city hall were concerned about the initiative not abiding by the zoning code and not abiding by the state building code.

When we know about a structure that is illegal and we do nothing about it, we're at risk.

- [Interviewer] One of the main arguments of a lot of the activists within this community say when people are evicted off of public land, they don't have anywhere else to go.

What is your response to that?

- Well, first of all, I take issue with the word evicted because it's public land.

People are allowed to be on public land, everyone is allowed to be on public land, but when someone sets up a tent, they claim that land is their own and therefore becomes not public.

Well, in many cases, remove that tent but that's not being evicted from public land.

The person's allowed to physically stay there, they just can't have a lot of stuff there.

But specifically, to people don't have anywhere else to go, we work very hard to find all the places for people to go.

We've opened new warming centers, new shelters, we've purchased a hotel to address the very issues that have often been raised when people are concerned about going to congregate shelters.

There's a lot of options out there, and our outreach workers and our nonprofit partners work very, very hard to give people options.

(jazzy music) - I mean, it's a really tough life, you know?

I don't wish this on anybody.

Like I said, there's times where I'd rather be in jail just so I got a roof over my head, you know?

But it's definitely a tough experience.

It's a learning experience, it's a tough experience, and I just hope that we can all make it through the winter.

I could definitely tell you there's a lot of good people here and if we weren't here helping each other out, maybe a few of us would be dead already.

So right now I'm just making some temporary braces, but to help keep it up.

So once I got that there, now actually, it's gonna help me out better over here.

And like I said, this is just a temporary thing.

I'm gonna do something a little more permanent.

Maybe I'll, oops, connect something from the top across.

You know what I'm saying?

Going from the top of the tent here to the other rod, and it'll help it out.

I had a daughter in March and the thing was, she was born with some holes in her heart and they had put her on diuretics, and we had to see if she was gonna make it.

You know, they said that she needed to gain weight so that they could do some work for her, but in long run, we ended up losing her.

One of the ladies did tell me though that that's how God makes angels.

That he has to take children so that we were lucky God chose our daughter, but I still feel like I got the short end of the deal.

I've been waiting for a girl for a long time, you know?

But, I hope he's really there.

I mean, I believe that he is, but you know what I'm saying?

It's all in faith, you know?

But she must have been really special to be taken, you know?

And I love her and I hope that one day I'll see her again, you know?

But that's what took and turned everything upside down for us was losing our daughter.

We started losing everything after that, you know?

Everything just fell apart and, you know, here I am.

You know, it didn't take long.

She passed in March, she left in end of June, I lost the apartment in September.

So, yeah.

But I'm rebuilding.

(people chattering) - Sorry, it's a little muddy everybody walking in and out.

But, so they finished the wiring and then we always have to leave this window like ajar so that the condensation doesn't, or we get water and it rains like right on your head basically.

But it keeps it, you know, that's all we can do really to stay warm in here.

It's miserable.

I mean, these get pretty cold.

It's no different than being in a tent.

It's really not, not without heat.

- The thing is, you know, especially of us who live in New Haven, you know, I've heard a lot of, well, you know, don't you have friends to stay with?

Don't you have family to stay with?

Well, my parents are dead so that's no, but, you know, don't you have friends to stay with?

Yeah, I have really good friends, but, you know, we're all adults, you know?

The fish begins to stink after a while, you know?

Four or five days, that's all adults want for company.

It's like, at least here I know that I'm not like I have a spot, I'm not homeless.

But yeah, I think this is like kind of it is a last resort.

- Today we've got to dig the trench to make sure that the electrical conduit gets all placed correctly in the ground so that the units could actually get hooked up.

We're hoping, you know, really optimistically by the end of next week, but I think realistically in a couple more weeks, which is a couple more weeks of folks freezing.

- I am blessed by the fact that I don't look like I'm 70, but if I stay here long, I'll look like I'm 90.

I have to have industrial strength mittens because the arthritis, my fingers are all swollen and ugly today, but I slept in the cold and that will be what happened.

If it warms up or I keep my hands warm, the swelling will go down.

We are going to pause, ladies and gentlemen, for a commercial break.

- [Interviewer] So what's it like to be in New Haven now?

- I thought it was lovely.

I mean, but then again I started on the green, which is lovely and if that was indicative of all of New Haven.

What I'm living in now is something the locals called The Hill, and it's like a neighborhood.

There are lots of people trying very hard to hold onto their homes and they made lovely decorations for Christmas.

So that has been nice to look at, but looking at it is not living in a home.

- [Interviewer] When you say trying to hold their homes, what do you mean by that?

- People are having problems 'cause the mortgages are going up.

I just listen to people, you know, having a problem.

Oh, and there's like at least three people living where I am who were drummed out of their houses because the landlords have been a lot... My tongue is cold.

Allowed to raise the rents and they couldn't make those payments.

Now we're entering the package store.

Hello.

Where I'm going to buy a bourbon nip.

What happens here is the poor stealing from the poor, and normally in the name of drugs.

I think that that's part of the homeless problem in New Haven that most of the people who are homeless all around me I've observed are either seriously drug addicted or mentally ill. And then you have the ones that are drug addicted and mentally ill. We had one yesterday morning that was laying and putting her head in the fire.

It's just too much to worry about.

So many people don't do their chores.

Many of us who do do chores are doubled up on chores.

It's unfortunate, but it's true.

See, I don't know what that says.

I don't have my glasses on, but I see my name.

I know where my name is.

So I did the hut on Tuesday and it seems that I'm gonna have to do it on Saturday as well this week.

Here is my morning medication.

It's going in my hot chocolate.

This is against the rules.

Make it clear that I'm breaking the rules on purpose because I'm a grown woman and if I want a shot of bourbon in my hot chocolate, I should be able to have one.

I'm not an alcoholic, and this'll be all the bourbon I have all day 'cause I'm not a millionaire either.

After a while you just become so disheartened, so unhappy yourself that you can't be bubbly and care about the next man because you're too busy trying very hard to survive on your own.

I don't really have much more to say because it's just grousing.

I'm grousing, grousing, fussing, bitching, moaning.

It doesn't make sense.

This is not basically my personality, but it is now.

- [Protesters] No heat, no peace, no heat, no peace.

No heat, no peace, no heat, no peace.

- We need the heat on now.

We don't need it on, you know, 30 days from now.

That might be too late for some of us.

- The electrical work has been done.

We've jumped through all of the hoops that they've asked us to jump through in terms of making sure that, you know, we've made commitments to shovel the snow when it snows.

We've installed link smoke detectors, we filed for a BZA variance application.

You know, all these things that they've said are gonna be required before they can actually turn the power on, we've done.

- You guys can leave one person there.

Everybody else, come on.

- And we need the village residents to come in.

Okay, all right, let's find a seat.

We are asking specifically today that the heat gets turned on.

The electrical work has been completed this week, and we are looking for a timeline.

The fact is, is that again, there's an arctic blast coming.

It's gonna be in the teens next week.

We've tried to engage in this process collaboratively, and you've said in good faith that you would like to work collaboratively.

So we are requesting formally that the heat gets turned on, that the permit gets closed, the inspection happens, that UI gets called, and that this modification management plan list that has been sent down from the state gets shared with us as we've requested several times over the last two weeks.

- My understanding is that yesterday we received guidance and a punch list from the state as to what needs to be taken care of in order for us to be able to have enabled, or the state to enable us to approve the electricity being turned on, and so my understanding is that our team reached out to you to try to set up a meeting, trying to do it this morning.

We're happy to talk about it right now if you'd like.

There's a punch list of things.

Fire extinguisher in the building.

- [Volunteer] They all have fire extinguishers and they all have.

So everything is all up to code.

- We can stay here as long as you want and talk through all this and we wanna get it done, but there's a number of things on this list and, you know, Bob can go through this list now and then we can make sure again.

So this is a list that we got yesterday from the state.

- And we requested it multiple times.

We were seeking to review this list so that we could come with some sense of how to respond for this meeting.

- I do wanna clarify too that we were able to establish a quorum of the board members for the Board of Zoning appeals for a January 30th meeting.

So that's a special meeting just to hear this this application.

- It's really important to emphasize that we've- - In two weeks?

- Next week we're having an arctic blast.

It's supposed to be below 12 degrees.

We have disabled people, we have elderly people, we have people, we have human beings living in this situation.

- [Official] I so respect that, I respect that.

- But it doesn't seem like you do because you sleep in a warm bed every night and we don't, and we're cold, and we're sick and, you know, honestly, we're past the point of being nice anymore because it's frustrating.

It is so frustrating, and I grew up in this city, I've lived here for 45 years and this is how you treat me.

- We have a very clear pathway to get this thing done.

We're glad the application is in.

We can go through this punch list right now right after this meeting and help you, talk you through how to make sure that these things are done.

Once these things are accomplished, the electricity on nearly immediately after.

- [Sean] If you say immediately, what if that punch list is already tended to?

- Because most of the stuff you said on there was already done, - Which is great, which is great.

Let me just, we're making a little progress here.

So we've been consistent all along that our priority is following the rules and making sure that people are safe.

This is something that the state building code just does not contemplate and does not allow, and so I think that's the main thing.

Secondarily to that, we have a zoning code in the city that doesn't allow someone to put a lot of structures that people living in the back of their yard.

And so we have a process that is quite clear that everyone in the city has to follow to get approval from the state.

If there's something outside of the state building code that they're trying to get approved.

And in addition, submit paperwork to the city to get a variance.

Big picture, the city of New Haven is doing more than any other city in the state of Connecticut on housing, on supporting individuals experiencing homelessness.

We can't solve these things alone.

We need the support of the state and a lot of our suburban partners to do their part as well.

And while it's important for residents to always push us to do more, I also think that there really needs to be an acknowledgement of just how hard our team works to ensure that we're responding to a crisis that cities around the nation are experiencing right now.

(gentle music) (smoke alarm beeping) - Fernando, how you doing?

Fire Marshal's office.

How we doing today?

Fernando.

- Fire Marshal's office.

- Good morning.

- How are you?

Mando Ramirez, Fire Marshal's office.

(people chattering) - [Resident] We just thought it would be better.

- And four silos?

- You got any coffee?

- So what is it?

We passed?

- We passed.

we passed.

(cheering) - We passed!

- Stop making so much noise.

The neighbors are gonna call.

- It's not all bad.

- [Interviewer] How does it feel Luz?

- Oh, a hard question to answer right now.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- It's emotional, very emotional.

- We gave them 180 day structure with no extension to come into full compliance with the building code.

It's been a challenge because the pallets delivered do not meet the building code because there is no sanitation, there is no kitchen.

So that itself is difficult.

Again, there is some benevolence obviously into the homeless or the unhomed, and you wanna try to make sure people don't freeze to death.

But I think it was a good step forward and I'm hoping that they can come into full compliance.

I think the biggest lesson for everybody is that there is a mechanism on a state level, not on the local level.

That there's something called the building code, and that people should probably get together with the legislation 'cause it gets adopted every three years, and they should get involved if they want things to change what's an acceptable method to house people during the winter months.

And that's pretty much it.

- [Interviewer] Do you anticipate, I don't know, this feels like- - More of these?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- One of one.

- [Interviewer] You think so?

- Do I think so?

Yeah, I'm one.

It's one of one.

- [Interviewer] Yeah, why do you say that?

- I just think it's a unicorn on Rosette Street.

- I really do, I think we did a lot and I dont know that we - Its a religious house Although it wasnt recognized through RLUIPA It was a very unique situation.

These were put up prior to us giving them a building permit, prior to going to zoning, which is the complete opposite of what you would normally have.

We wrote violation letters against it and then we tried to work with them to get 'em to where we are today, which still isn't all the way, but at least we'll have some heat for some people who desperately need it.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) - Every night, well have people stack up eight high, sleeping - [Resident] So when's the next reading?

- So today we're talking about 25 to 27?

- Yep, and the next thing is like strategizing on page 30 the next section.

- Structuring teams, key concepts.

Teams are critical to organizing in part because they deepen relationships that help us commit to action.

Effective teams requires shared purpose, interdependent roles, and illicit forms.

Explicit norms.

Excuse me.

- You know, the culture in the backyard is, you know, the longer we stay together, the more it develops in a healthy way.

I mean, both physically and mentally.

So, you know, again, time is our friend.

- I'm in the process of packing to move.

I'm moving in on the first, I get my keys.

$25 for keys.

I thought New York was bad.

Huh, New Haven's trying to catch up with New York for being completely inappropriate financially for poor people.

I went to see three different places, that's it.

You know, and you have to meet the landlords and go through an interview process.

I got lucky, I met an Italian so we were simpatico immediately and I'm lucky, very lucky.

It took a lot of prayer.

I wore out my rosary beads.

I gotta buy a new set.

Yeah, I prayed.

Prayer and voodoo.

(chuckles) Go.

Don't wiggle your nose at me.

I'll miss you actually though.

You're one of the things I'll miss.

I believe there's only three things.

I'll miss not being able to go to the bathroom when I want to, I'll miss listening to men talk crap while I'm in the shower.

I'll miss.

I won't miss anything, and I'm grateful to God, like God Almighty, I don't even know how this happened.

Things were so bad for so long.

I've forgotten what it's like to feel good.

- I think its a new phenomenon - We've had lots of calls from different mayors from different towns.

Asked us, "How did you get those tiny homes?"

Our coming up with this idea was to say, "Hey, let's be a pilot program for New Haven.

Let's show the mayor, the existing Mayor Elicker, that this is possible."

Our desire was we create this pilot program, show how it works, the city would give us land.

We would move all the tiny homes to that land and they take it over.

You know, this is a lot of work.

It's a lot of work, you know, and it wasn't my desire to have this much work at this age.

But we're here, we're still here.

- Permits such and such for temporary pallet shelters has expired.

Shelters must be removed and no further use is permitted.

Power to shelters will be shut off.

This constitutes a violation of the 2021 International Residential code as incorporated into the 2022 Connecticut State Building code.

So it was hand delivered by the state marshal on the 15th, which was Monday, and it's from Robert Dillon who's a building official at City Hall.

- Okay, no problem.

Okay, bye.

Okay, with the existing infrastructure of the power outlets that we have outside of the house that were built by the electrician, we can double up if we do 12 gauge extension cords to the tiny homes and we power fan boxes.

If we are going to try to use the AC units that's in there right now, 14 gauge, and that might trip the fuse in the house with all six of them running at the same time plus the tents.

What more do they want?

Our house has 24/7 access for people to walk in off the street from tiny homes, from tents in order to use the bathroom, in order to get access to the kitchen, in order to sit in a main room that has an AC.

Okay, I don't know what else do they want?

Because we are not gonna build toilets or kitchens in each of one of these units.

These are prefab transitional housing units, so we need to figure that out.

- There's nothing right here.

- Lemonade, water.

- Markers, pens.

Gonna make some signs.

I moved out for someone else's sake.

I'm trying to get there as we speak, but they're full.

There's a list too.

But other than that, I got into school.

Finally going to school for human services.

Try to be a counselor for the homeless.

Still trying to find a place to live.

I am at the train station right now currently.

You can't tell or probably can't tell.

I'm trans, and it's very hard to find housing if you're transgender or a part of the LGBTQ community.

- Ordered the power turned off for 8 formerly unhoused people in our backyard without ever having visited the property.

- There she comes, the queen of the hour.

- Hi, it's just another Rosette Village success story.

Hi, my name's Kathy, Kathleen McKenzie, and this is another story for the books with Amistad Village, Rosette, whatever it's called.

And this is my moving day.

I was there at Amistad since last year at the end of August, and now it is the beginning of June and I have an apartment.

You can't complain about that, that's for sure.

I am a success story in the making.

Not quite all the way there, but I will be.

Is everything out really?

Look at this, it's like magic!

- It's not very good.

So, everything's going downhill.

I got arrested for violation of probation, which I wasn't on.

By the time they found it out, when they found out about it, they just said “you can go.” I was in there 17 days, and no apologies.

Otherwise than that, it is what it is.

Tomorrow if I get out early enough, I go to city hall and said what happened?

You said you were gonna call me about going to the shelter.

No call, no phone call, no nothing.

So what more can I say?

- [Interviewer] What has it been like out here?

- Cold.

That's about all.

I can make it any other way.

As long as I ain't cold, I can make it.

- What's up?

- What's up?

- How are you?

- Alright alright Hey, how you doing?

- Excuse me.

- I dunno where the forks at.

Excuse me.

They put everything over here.

- Yep.

- [Interviewer] What are your hopes for the next year?

- To be able to do this every day and find joy in it, and money to pay our bills.

- Here, let's put your plate on here.

This is a party, man.

You guys should have dressed up.

You didn't dress up.

- Two families that we've helped were evicted last week, and Barbara, who lives down the block, who we've known for the whole 30 years we're here was also evicted.

And now maybe we need to transition from individuals to families into these tiny homes for next year.

What happens to the undocumented family who has to separate because of who's in power right now?

So that might be where we're headed towards.

Who knows?

- Yeah and I, I hear your question and I think I immediately put my organizer hat on.

I immediately put my organizer hat on.

My community organizer hat on.

And Im starting to do that less and less.

- My thinking in many ways as an organizer and a neighbor here has transformed into, you know, yes, we want the city to change its policy and we want the misery that people suffer on the street to be reduced.

And yet that seems the way the country's going, it seems less and less likely that the kind of policy changes that would achieve that are coming.

And so to me it's become, the work has become just defending people.

You know, we've been talking about Amistad as a community that maybe as an organization it's running its course.

Maybe, you know, maybe the house isn't meant to or the organization of Amistad isn't meant to continue, but certainly the community is.

And the beauty of what we've tried to do here is we try to follow where the neighborhood leads us, okay?

And so I guess the short answer after this long answer to your question is we wanna follow next in the coming year where the neighborhood leads us.

(solemn music) - Support for "Where Then Shall We Go" is provided by Connecticut Housing Partners making home happen for 35 years.