Blue and red lights flashed on the white curtains of the front windows in the darkness of early dawn as I left for my shift at Saint Rafael’s Hospital.
While emergency service vehicles are not uncommon on my downtown block, the square of sidewalk delineated by caution tape was unsettling. Even more so was the body in the center, covered only by a thin, stained white sheet. Based on the contour of the body, I immediately knew who it was: the young man who regularly slept on the stoop of the building next door.
Through the news media following his death, I learned he was a cook and bouncer who lost his job, then his housing during the height of the COVID pandemic. Once living on the streets, he became a recognized advocate for those experiencing homelessness in New Haven. Though there was never a specific cause of death named, the police eventually believed it was secondary to a medical condition.
His story is tragic but not unique: individuals experiencing homelessness die 30 years younger than those of us fortunate enough to have stable shelter. As a primary care physician at Yale New Haven Health, housing instability is as much a detriment towards my patients’ health as any disease.
Rosette Village offered New Haven a solution.
The Rosette Neighborhood Village began in 2022 as a protected space for individuals to set-up tents after the city began bulldozing tent cities throughout New Haven.
In October 2023, the community crowd-funded enough money to build six palette houses to shelter eight individuals; three months later, electricity was installed, allowing for heat, air conditioning, and the ability to power medical devices, such as a CPAP machine.
Unfortunately, despite Mayor Justin Elicker’s quotes that “Ensuring our residents have affordable, safe, and high-quality housing is a top priority,” he has actively attempted to dissolve the community since its inception. In July of this year, the mayor ordered power cut off for the community during a heat wave and issued an eviction declaration for the removal of the tiny houses.
Tiny house and pallet shelter communities for the unhoused have already proved successful in other metropolitan areas such as Madison, WI; Los Angeles, CA; and, Portland, OR as early as 2000. As of 2020, there were 91 tiny house villages, either open or slated to be opened, for those experiencing homelessness. New Haven can be added to this growing list with something as simple as a zoning law protecting these individuals and their homes.
In October of last year, homelessness was declared a state emergency, as it remains in a progressive housing crisis with a 14% yearly increase in the homeless population. In New Haven, 25% of residents live in poverty– 15 percentage-points above Connecticut as a whole. Similar data shows that New Haven apartment rentals and energy utilities cost an average of $750 and $125, respectively, more a month than the national average.
Given the ever-increasing demand, a shelter bed is hard to find in New Haven. Even if more shelter beds were available, it is common sense that a permanent residence, even if tiny, offers multiple benefits when compared to a shelter, such as having a safe place to store belongings, including medications, stay during bad weather (those staying in shelters must leave, with their belongings, during the day) or allowing married couples to make a home together.
Housing and healthcare go hand-in-hand, and when there is not enough housing, as is the case in New Haven, the healthcare system feels the strain.
My colleagues and I have many stories of caring for patients who present to the emergency room for a meal or a place to sleep. This is not a sustainable, nor cost effective way to manage homelessness. However, returning to the streets is not a viable solution, especially as violent crime against unhoused individuals is increasing in New Haven.
Yet, I emphasize again; instead of encouraging a system that has shown to be effective, the City of New Haven is trying to shut down Rosette Village, which would evict eight more individuals, friends, neighbors to the street. While the threat of another heat wave has passed, we all feel the chill of winter approaching and yet, three months later, electricity has yet to be restored.
We may never get Mayor Elicker’s support, but he is not the only person who can address this. To my state congress people and local alders, will you please create legislation that will protect Rosette Village as well as future tiny village efforts which could offer safe and sustainable housing solutions to the nearly 3,500 Connecticut residents experiencing homelessness?
Miranda Savioli M.D. is a physician at Saint Rafael’s Hospital in New Haven.