Why can't we erect this kind of camp on the grounds of John Cooper's Rock Ridge estate?

Rock Ridge putting green

Not to single out John, of course; there are many other suitable sites for hobo camps, including David Rafferty’s Riverside manse, and Christ Church’s front lawn. Where there’s a liberal, there ought to be a way(farer)

Advocates call for heat at tiny home encampment in New Haven

City officials cut off electricity and heat to Rosette Village, citing zoning and building code violations

Advocates at a New Haven homeless encampment of tents and tiny houses, known as Rosette Village, are asking elected officials to do more to help them work through government regulations to get their heat turned on before the weather gets colder this winter.

Local officials had cut off electricity, which powers heating in the encampment, citing zoning and building code violations. 

The encampment is situated in the backyard of a house on Rosette Street in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood. The village’s organizers, Mark Colville and his wife Luz Catarineau, live in the house. It’s similar in concept to other communities that have been created around the country, including one called Dignity Village in Portland.

Cheer up, John — that’s not a jukked-up junkie wino pissing on your kitchen floor, it’s just a new neighbor you hadn’t met yet, until just now.

“The idea is to shift the culture around homelessness and think of unhoused people as neighbors rather than problems to be dealt with”, Colville said.

But the program has come into conflict with the city. 

When Rosette Village installed the tiny homes in October 2023, they did so without building permits. City officials said they were violating regulations and cut off electricity to the development in 2023.

The village has since gotten easements from the city Board of Zoning and Appeals, but it then ran into conflict with the state building code. That code requires that dwellings have kitchens and bathrooms. The tiny homes have neither. Residents use the kitchen and bathroom inside Colville and Catarineau’s house, said Colleen Shaddox, a volunteer with the organization.

Advocates pointed out that many college students live in dorms, which also require residents to walk a few yards to use a bathroom or the kitchen. 

…. Lenny Speiller, a spokesperson for the city, said the state Department of Administrative Services and Building Inspector have said the structures don’t meet minimum safety requirements including structural strength for wind and slow loads, fire resistance rated walls and sanitary provisions. The homes were issued permits in summer 2024 as temporary structures, which are only supposed to be up for 180 days, Speiller added.

On Monday, progressive members of the state legislature spoke at a press conference with the Rosette Village Neighborhood Collective. State Reps. Josh Elliott and Laurie Sweet, both Democrats from Hamden, said they want to pass legislation that makes it easier to replicate the model of addressing homelessness used at the encampment and introduce other protections for the unhoused population.

Rev. Gini King of the First Congregational Church of Guilford said her church wants to see the power turned back on. The congregation has helped support the village for years.” [the huts went up in October ‘23, so … 2 years?]

“Our faith calls us to justice, and having electricity turned off was not justice. It was a betrayal of justice,” King said.

During this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers proposed bills that would have allowed temporary tiny homes on property owned by places of worship and keep police from arresting people for sleeping outside. Both passed committee but weren’t called for votes on the House or Senate floors.

“I worry that we missed the opportunity to change laws for Rosette Village,” Sweet said. She is vice-chair of the newly formed Homelessness Caucus.

She said when the legislature reconvenes next year, she wants to address arrests for people sleeping outside, which has become a nationwide issue following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer. She also wants to look into ways state building code can be adjusted to allow housing like Rosette Village.

“We need to create and pass bills to change state statues so that neighborhoods like Rosette Village can have heat in the winter and continue to provide dignified housing year round,” Sweet said. 

Anyone checked out Greenwich Country Club’s 165 acres? There’s bound to be room for, what, 70 shacks? 100? Look for a strong letter to Greenwich Free Press’s editor from Cooper or Rafferty or both in support of just such a project, “but not in my backyard, please.”