Debate Q: The Lesson Of Tent City Was …

a) The city responded well in its controversial dismantling of the West River homeless encampment.

b) The city needs to amp up the pressure for greater state and federal funding for rental subsidies. 

c) The city needs to convert more publicly-owned property into affordable housing, and promote the same on private land.

d) The city needs to collect better data on how many people are actually experiencing homelessness in New Haven.

e) The city never should have shut down the encampment at all.

That multiple choice set’s worth of perspectives came through as five mayoral candidates hashed through housing policy, and sought to differentiate themselves from the pack, during the first citywide candidate forum this mayoral election season.

Dozens of community members tuned in to the latest meeting of the East Shore Community Management Team Wednesday night for a question and answer session with incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker, former cop Shafiq Abdussabur, lawyer Liam Brennan, and ex-McKinsey consultant Tom Goldenberg, all of whom are Democrats vying for the city’s top office. Independent candidate Wendy Hamilton also joined Wednesday’s meeting, which took place online via Zoom.

Over the course of three hours, the mayoral incumbent and four hopefuls made personal pitches for their respective candidacies while fielding questions from members of the audience around issues like chronic absenteeism in the public schools, community blowback to placement of methadone clinics, the environmental impact of an expanding Tweed New Haven Airport, and homelessness.

One audience member, Patricia Kane, asked the candidates to describe their stances on the recent bulldozing of a 10-person ​“tent city” situated just off Ella Grasso Boulevard. She also asked for their opinions on how to confront chronic homelessness in the city. Read more about Tent City’s demolition here. Read more about the Elicker administration’s work relocating and providing social services for outdoor campers here.

Unlike many other questions asked Wednesday, the prompt elicited distinct responses from each of the five candidates, illustrating not only their preferred policies but broader political strategies. (Mayce Torres, who has also filed to run for mayor as an independent, did not participate in Wednesday’s forum.)

Mayor Justin Elicker was the first to respond to Kane’s prompt.

“The city of New Haven does more than any other municipality in the state of Connecticut for the unhoused,” he said, pointing to a $1.4 million line item in the budget to address homelessness. Overall, he said, the issue of homelessness is ​“something that’s very important to the city and we should be proud of the city’s track record here.”

As for the encampment, he argued that the city did its due diligence in giving members of the encampment written warnings to clean up their act prior to the eviction itself, but that continued observations of human waste on the premises as well as propane heaters used in flammable tents demanded the encampment be taken down.

In addition, he noted that the city brought social services providers to the scene to work directly with each resident and offered every member of the encampment a bed at the homeless shelter Columbus House.

“I presume the other candidates are gonna say how awful and unethical this was, but to say those things when Velma George and Shaunette on our homeless advocacy team work day in and day out to help support people because they’re passionate about their jobs is just not right.” 

Most others did not call the bulldozing unethical.

Shafiq Abudssabur said that he visited the encampment and was disturbed by the experience of ​“sliding through the mud, your shoes sinking down three to four inches,” and observing individuals sleeping in tents during below freezing weather. ​“They were struggling, it was painful,” he said, though most of those who lived in the encampment were vocal about their desire to stay on site.

He said the city needs to ​“revise our homeless policy,” though he did not explain what ​“policy” he was referring to. He also said that while there are people seen asking for money on nearly every corner of the city, the city still needs to formally identify how many people are in need of housing support across New Haven.

“It’s not just on Mayor Elicker,” Goldenberg said. ​“This requires statewide and national attention.”

“The encampment is not an answer… it’s not humane.” He said that the city’s role in the issue should be to pressure the federal government to increase funding for the housing voucher program, to allow more families to access financial support for their monthly rent.

Candidate Liam Brennan, meanwhile, said that the underlying issue in New Haven is simply a lack of housing stock (read about an independent critique made by Brennan of Elicker’s handling of the bulldozing here).

He said that as mayor he would devote time and resources to ​“overhauling” the city’s zoning code to relax rules about density, parking, side-yard setbacks, mixed-used prohibitions, and accessory dwelling units to allow for more housing construction across the city and to increase the total number of apartments available to residents.

While more housing subsidies and social services are also key, he said, growing housing stock should be any mayor’s top priority.

Only independent candidate Wendy Hamilton expressed support for the encampment.

“There is currently no affordable housing and no hope for the homeless,” she said. ​“Many of you in the East Shore will not be happy to hear that I support tent cities,” she stated.

She said the encampment was ​“organized, and those were non-criminals.” She added that she ​“spent about $2,000 on two of them, including bus tickets so they can get the hell out of here.”

She did not say whether she would have moved to formally legalize the encampment or propose any other means by which to reduce homelessness.

The bulldozing, she concluded, was ​“a big mistake for the mayor.”

Airport Promise Broken?

In addition to the questions about homelessness, another attendee, Morris Cove’s Lisa Bassani, asked a question more specific to the East Shore and specific to Mayor Elicker. Elicker ran on a promise to be environmentally accountable, she said. So how could he rationalize Tweed Airport’s expansion?

First, Elicker said that a plan to build a terminal on the East Haven side of Tweed’s property, which has received significant pushback by East Haven neighbors, would double the area of protected wetlands and improve water retention in Morris Cove while relieving traffic issues that have coincided with the airport’s expansion.

Then he argued that the environmental implications of air travel could not be understood as ​“an island,” and that New Haven has seen significant strides in climate care during his three years as mayor.

He pointed to $5 million in American Rescue Plan funds going towards climate concerns, including the funding of a new Climate director. ​“We’re electrifying our vehicle fleet, electrifying our buildings.”

“It’s incorrect to say there hasn’t been a focus on the environment,” he asserted.

Watch the full debate here. The password for the Zoom is nT!Shj6K