People experiencing homelessness in New Haven are speaking out against what they call inadequate cold-weather services offered by the city after a man was found dead on the New Haven Green.
The city says the body of 65-year-old Abdulah Kanchero was found Friday morning, and that an investigation is underway into what caused his death.
Kanchero’s death came on a night that the city of New Haven’s designated warming centers had turned people away due to the centers being deemed at capacity.
Sean Gargamelli-McCreight of the Unhoused Activists Community Team, or U-ACT, said more than 20 people were turned away from the warming centers. In an effort to keep warm, that group entered New Haven City Hall.
Gargamelli-McCreight said that police responded and threatened to arrest the group for trespass. “After hours of negotiation,” he said, the city agreed to open the municipal building at 200 Orange St. to serve as an additional warming center.
“We definitely took a stand for the people that were – I don’t know if you want to call us ‘leftovers,’ but we took a stand for basic human rights,” said U-ACT member Giovanni Castillo, who participated in the action and took shelter with his service dog, Sky.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said that the city opened additional warming center capacity Thursday once it had a grasp of the issue of people being turned away.
“[When] it became clear that the capacity of the two warming centers that we had was not enough,” he said the city “quickly opened up 200 Orange St. … and we kept that building open over the weekend to ensure that people were safe.”
Gargamelli-McCreight says the fact that the city’s warming centers hit capacity and turned people away during a predictably cold New England winter is indicative of New Haven’s failure to keep unhoused residents safe.
“It shouldn't have to take that kind of Herculean effort to just get the city to take care of its residents who are most vulnerable,” Gargamelli-McCreight said. “The fact that the city consistently doesn't have a plan to ensure that everyone has a guaranteed right to shelter throughout the winter is completely immoral.”
Gargamelli-McCreight said Kanchero, the man found dead on the Green the following morning, was among the individuals originally turned away from entering a city warming center due to capacity issues.
Elicker said Tuesday that Kanchero’s death was still under investigation. He stressed that the city he leads “[does] more than any other city in the state” in providing services for those experiencing homelessness.
“We have seven homeless shelters,” Elicker said. “We have several drop-in centers during the day. We have had two warming centers that have been open during the winter. In addition to a lot of other services, we put over $1.5 million of our general fund budget into supporting individuals experiencing homelessness, and, on top of that, we're building a lot of housing, including affordable and deeply affordable housing, to support folks.”
But the mayor notes that “there’s always more that we can do.”
“With the nationwide crisis of people that are struggling with housing costs and homelessness, in addition to a lot of struggles nationwide around substance use and mental health challenges, New Haven's no different, and we're struggling with those issues,” Elicker said.
Elicker said that the city wishes to work with advocates on solutions, but added that “the folks that you're talking with have consistently been aggressive and antagonistic towards the city.”
“When you look at what we're doing compared to any other city in the state, and highlight what the surrounding towns are doing versus New Haven, we're going well, well above what any other municipality is doing, and on top of that, we are working hard to do even more,” Elicker said.
U-ACT members say that’s of little comfort to people without shelter.
“Just because you're doing more than nothing doesn't mean that it's enough,” Gargamelli-McCreight said. “If someone is still at risk of dying on the street, then it's not enough.”
Castillo, who took shelter with his dog, agreed. He noted that Connecticut is a wealthy state.
“New Haven, Greenwich – some of the richest places that stand in the United States of America,” Castillo said. “What's going on here? How? How are we not able to prevent this tragedy?”
