City of New Haven photos
Before and after photos of the now-cleared former encampment.
The city cleaned up an abandoned homeless encampment off of Middletown Avenue Monday morning after the site’s sole former resident had a chance to retrieve any remaining belongings.
According to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller, on Monday morning, city homelessness services Director Velma George and outreach worker Shaunette James accompanied a homeless man in his 30s to the former encampment by Middletown Avenue and Foxon Boulevard, near I‑91’s Exit 8.
Speiller said no one had been sleeping at that site for several weeks. He said that the man had recently been using the city’s warming centers, and that he has now connected to a case worker and has accepted a bed at a shelter.
The man returned to the site on Monday with the city case workers to “gather and recover” remaining items of his before “the site was cleaned up of other debris.” Speiller said that a state trooper and state Department of Transportation employees also helped with Monday’s cleanup.
Housing should be a human right.
Instead it is a commodity. And some can't afford it.