Nora Grace-Flood photo
Marcus Williams at the recently cleaned, soon to be cleared Tent City.
The Elicker Administration plans to clear out a three-year-old West River encampment this week — leaving outdoor residents like Sudi Godek committed to “standing our ground,” while also uncertain as to where they will soon be spending their nights.
Godek, 39, spent Monday morning picking up litter along Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, as she does nearly every day in exchange for $10 to $20 from the Redemption Centers of America off the Boston Post Road.
A threat hung over her head as she walked to the redemption center: City officials had sent notice that they plan to evict her and 15 others experiencing homelessness from their encampment along the West River this upcoming Wednesday due to “serious health and safety conditions” on site.
"Tent City" resident Suki Godek: Standing her ground.
An eviction notice plastered on one of the West River encampment's tents.
Godek and others found that notice posted on their tents on March 10, just a week after the city first threatened to shut down the camp if residents didn’t clean up the space and comply with a set of rules governing what structures and practices were allowed along the river.
In keeping with city orders, the community tossed out a shower shed, grills, heating devices and loads of debris. City officials told the Independent at the time that they would withhold from dismantling the encampment due to the residents’ responsiveness. Read more about that here.
However, the city later revoked that stance, asserting that subsequent inspections found evidence of sustained open burns and “permanent structures” in the process of construction on scene.
As of 1 p.m. last Friday, the city informed residents in the form of a “Notice and Order to Remove All Personal Property” that they had 72 hours to vacate the premises or the city would throw out their homes. That notice was not signed by any city officials. It did urge residents to call city homelessness services coordinator Velma George or the Columbus House outreach team to get help.
“Given the serious health and safety conditions that persists at this site even after numerous warnings, you must vacate these premises and remove all your belongings from this site,” that city-issued order reads. “All items left behind will be removed 72 hours after the date and time posted above.”
Mayor Justin Elicker told the Independent on Monday that the Tent City residents have until Wednesday at 1 p.m., stating that the notice was posted on Friday afternoon and the weekend did not count in the 72 hours allotted for move-out.
“We have made regular, ongoing efforts in recent months to try to come alongside and support every individual at the West River Memorial Park in whatever ways we feasibly can in a thoughtful, respectful, and compassionate way — and we continue to stand ready and eager to do so and we want to help connect each person to assistance and resources that help address their housing and other needs,” Elicker wrote in a statement to the Independent.
“At the same time, despite repeated conversations and notices, there continues to be numerous serious, ongoing public health and safety violations, including open burns and fires, large amounts of trash and debris, defecation, and the building of permanent structures in the park and wetland areas, among other violations. Given these ongoing public health and safety issues, the City has required individuals at West River Memorial Park to vacate and remove all personal property from the site by Wednesday, March 15th at 1 pm. Outreach workers have offered all individuals at the site access and placement at an indoor location, either at a shelter or warming center, or to assist them with relocation and finding a long-term housing unit.
“We sincerely hope each person will avail themselves of these opportunities and, as a city, we will continue to come alongside and support these individuals in every way we can.”
"We're Still People. We Still Care About Our City"
In a Monday morning interview on WNHH’s “Word on the Street” program, Godek described the situation as an “injustice.” Watch the full interview below.
She and her husband have lived at the encampment since last July. The couple worked as dairy farmers on a family property in Wallingford until the business went under in 2020. She said they jumped from hotel room to hotel room without a solid place to stay until this past summer, at which point they found their way to the encampment.
While Godek’s husband works odd jobs in construction, she spends her days walking from the Boulevard to Legion Avenue through Yale University onto Congress, completing her “loop” until she has enough empty Poland Spring, Budweiser, and Bubly Soda bottles to afford what it takes to get through the day: A sandwich, a coffee, some cigarettes.
“I feel good about what I do because it’s good for the environment, it’s good for the city of New Haven.
“I wish that they could see that,” she said of the administration in office. “We’re still people. We still care about our city.”
As Godek walked from her tent along the river to the redemption center, she said hello to her usual friends: A man who lives out of his car in a nearby parking lot, the cashier who sells her Newports when she can afford them at El Quetzal Deli & Grocery, the workers who run the recycling facility.
Godek sets out to sort plastics, glass and cans.
Depositing the bottles.
She walked this reporter through her typical routine: Hauling the bags of cans and bottles into the site in her black wagon; grabbing an extra cart to sort plastics from glass; depositing the items into the least fickle of the machines spanning the borders of the center — some of the machines, she noted, are more likely to regurgitate the recyclables than others; and taking her receipts up to the front desk to get her cash back.
Monday’s total was $19, thanks to a fourth receipt she found in her pocket from a few days ago. If it was over $20, she’d treat herself to coffee. Instead, she said she would use the day’s cash to buy her husband medication for the pneumonia that settled in his lungs two weeks back.
She said she has had opportunities to move into a shelter, but she passed on them to remain located with her husband. The city also offered herself and her husband bus tickets to return to their home in Georgia, where they lived prior to moving to New Haven.
Update: City Spokesperson Len Speiller said that Godek and her husband initially sought support from the city to find transportation back to Georgia. “These individuals volunteered that they would like to relocate there. We said that if that’s something you want, we’re happy to help facilitate that.” Speiller said that when individuals experiencing homelessness can identify resources or family in other areas, the city will support the financial costs of such a move so long as they can validate that a new location will offer a stronger support system.
Despite considering taking off for the South, Godek said she and her husband are “standing our ground.”
“We’ve made a home here. We’ve made relationships here.”
Of tent city, she said, “we really are a community. If we go down, we go down together.”
Godek returns with an empty wagon to tent city Monday.
See below for more recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter.
• “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
Um,
The Elicker Administration is trying bus the homeless out of state? Damn, that’s some real Desantis BS right there.