Lily Belle Poling, Contributing Photographer

Despite seven arrests and the city’s removal of unattended belongings on Nov. 5, a small group of unhoused individuals remain camped together behind United Church on the Green.

Many individuals still sleeping on the Green explained that they feel they have nowhere else to go amidst the recent cold weather, not to mention that the Unhoused Activists Community Team is still providing them food and other basic supplies. 

“We’re going to stay here for now,” Cano, a volunteer with U-ACT who declined to provide his last name due to fear of retribution from the city, said. “There are people here who are starving, and that’s who I put first. That’s what I do.”

Cano, who currently resides in one of the Rosette Village tiny homes, has recently been bringing food and necessities, such as blankets, to encampment participants on a nightly basis. Last week, he brought a pair of brand-new sneakers to a woman on the Green who said her own pair had been stolen. 

Cano said he is also making nightly trips to Union Station, where another group of homeless individuals has been sleeping. 

Carmelow Falanga, who has been sleeping on the Green with his wife Amy for the last week or so, said that approximately 15 people have been out there each night, a decrease from the initial 30 or so people camping together when the encampment was first established. 

Falanga said he and his wife began camping on the Green after being told to leave the shelter established at the former Days Inn motel. According to Falanga, another man at the shelter repeatedly made sexual advances at his wife, and when the couple told the staff they wanted to call the police, they were told to leave. The shelter could not be reached for comment.

The Falangas’ experience at the shelter mirrors the sentiment of many participants in the encampment and activists for the homeless, who say that shelters are not a “catch-all” solution for homelessness because many people are not well-suited to live in those types of environments.

On Nov. 5, a crew from the Parks Department collected abandoned belongings on the Green and discarded them. According to the New Haven Independent, the encampment received a warning at 11 a.m. that any unclaimed belongings would be removed, but at that point, most individuals participating in the encampment were gone for the day. 

While Mayor Justin Elicker said that individuals camping on the Green would not be removed so long as they don’t establish structures, such as tents, he emphasized that the city would keep intervening if people maintain significant belongings on the Green. 

“The Green is not meant for people to have large piles of things,” Elicker told the News. “The Green is for everyone to feel welcome, and when there’s certain people that claim an area of the Green, that’s not okay. They’re not allowed to have more than they can carry, and we’ll continue to engage to make sure that that policy is upheld.”

Since its inception, the encampment has been calling for the city to designate a piece of land for homeless individuals to use as they see fit. However, Mayor Justin Elicker has said that this is not an option the city will consider. 

The city has frequently sent outreach officials to the encampment to offer homeless individuals beds in one of the city’s shelters. While some have accepted the offer, others have continually refused. According to Elicker, shelters still have beds available for those who want them. 

The encampment, which was swept on both Oct. 17 and Oct. 28, when police initially declared that participants must remove tents and again when police arrested protestors who would not dissemble their tents, has also stood in protest of the city’s sweeps of homeless encampments, including one that was established on the Green this past summer. 

The current encampment was established on Oct. 16.