Thomas Breen photo
David Gregor: Waiting on what's next, on State Street.
Beneath a canopy of tree cover on a State Street triangular mini-park, David Gregor sat in the shade, popped in his earphones, listened to Rascal Flatts, and waited for the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) drop-in center across the street to open — so he could grab one more coffee before pushing forward in his bid to find a stable place to live and get his life back on track.
Gregor found that brief respite Tuesday morning on a tree-lined median at the intersection of State Street, State Street North, and Crown Street in the Ninth Square.
This reporter swung by that Urban Renewal-originated triangle Tuesday to try to talk with whoever had set up the blue tent perched atop a diamond-shaped concrete patio in the middle of the roadway greenspace.
No campers were at home.
But Gregor had just taken a seat nearby.
Gregor, a 34-year-old Brooklyn native, has been without a home for two years, ever since his marriage fell apart.
“My divorce really kicked my ass.”
He said he’s currently without a job, living off of disability, recovering from an injury he suffered at a previous job.
He now spends his nights at the same church he goes to on Sundays, Upon This Rock Ministries on Grand Avenue, which he said has opened up an overnight shelter for church members in need. It’s comforting being around “my church family” as he tries to get a place of his own.
That’s a goal he’s steadily getting closer to achieving, he said with hope in his voice.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gregor said, he was at Fellowship Place on Edgewood Avenue, a social services hub for people with mental illness. He said they’re helping him get a copy of his birth certificate, which in turn should tee him up to apply for a rental assistance program, which in turn should help him get back into an apartment of his own.
Gregor wants his own place to live not just so that he’s off the street and no longer as reliant on his church. He said having more stable housing is also a prerequisite to spend more time with his three kids, who are currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and whom he now can visit only a few times a week.
“If I get my stuff back together,” Gregor said, he’ll be reunited in a more sustained way with his kids, whom he saw earlier on Tuesday too. “I’m just waiting on my birth certificate. Then I can get my own housing.”
What was up for the rest of today?
“I’m gonna sit here, chill,” listen to Rascal Flatts, get a cup of coffee when the DESK drop-in center opens in the early afternoon, and then take his girlfriend out for lunch at the Buffalo Wild Wings at the Milford Mall.
What would he like his fellow New Haveners to know about what it’s like being homeless in the city at this moment in 2023? And what needs to happen to make his life and the lives of those who frequent DESK like himself a little bit easier?
“I’m a good person,” he said, “but I’ve done some fucked up shit.” He said he recognizes the mistakes he’s made in his life, and is now trying to do right by himself, his kids, and those he shares a city with.
As for big-picture interventions, “the city needs to take homelessness more seriously.” He said the homeless population is only growing. And with the recent clearing of Tent City — an encampment by the West River that he never lived at, but knows others did — displaced people without housing are now looking for new places to stay. He said a contingent that used to stay at Tent City is thinking of setting up something similar on the Green. He said he thinks it’s a bad idea.
A good idea to address the homelessness crisis, he said, would be for the city to open up empty buildings across New Haven to those who would otherwise be sleeping out on the street or in a shelter.
“There’s a lot of abandoned buildings,” Gregor said. The city needs to act now and quickly so that homelessness in New Haven doesn’t become like what it is in California or New York, he said.
“To me,” he added, “it’s not that bad” living without a home, if you can stay out of trouble. At the top of his priority list is getting to a place where he can see his kids more regularly. Which means first getting an apartment. Which means first getting his birth certificate. Which means a bit more waiting — with the help of a cup of coffee, and Rascal Flatts.
See below for more recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter.
• DESK Preps For Temp Relocation, Major Renovations
• Parking Chief: Homelessness At Union Station Is A Housing Problem
• Closing Time At Union Station
• City Housing Plight Brought To The‘Burbs
• Tent City Exiles Re-Camp On Rosette
• Debate Q: The Lesson Of Tent City Was …
• Homeless Youth Housing Plan Revived
• 6 Crisis Beds OK’d For Winthrop Ave
• Non-Cop Crew Cruises To Crisis Calls
• Don’t Like Encampments? Fund Solutions
• Brennan Slams Elicker For“Cruel” Tent City Sweep
• Why & How We Took Action At The Encampment
• DuBois-Walton: Tent City Reflects Broader Housing Crisis
• Tent City Bulldozed
• Tent City Campers Start To Clear Out
• “Tent City” Hit With New Move-Out Order
• “Tent City” Survives City Cleanup Order
• Competing Visions Emerge For Homelessness $
• Surprise Drop-Off Turns Bottle Man East
• State Lands $18M Homelessness Lifeline
• Tent Citizen By Choice Builds Community
• Shelter Sought From Cold-Weather Emergency
• Homelessness Advocates Brace For“Tidal Wave”
• Breakfast Delivery Warms Up“Tent City”
• Warming Centers Open, While City Looks To Long-Term Homeless Fixes
• “Human Rights Zone” Grows In Hill Backyard
• Homeless Hotel Plan Scrapped. What’s Next?
• Election Day Rally Casts Ballot For Housing
Maybe if the NHI staff weren't all a bunch of left-coast hippies, they'd know the band is "Rascal Flatts," not "THE Rascal Flatts."
(Kidding, obviously. Thank you for this well-reported, humanizing article.)
[Reporter’s note: Ouch, just corrected, thank you!]