Thomas Breen photos
Blanchette, on the Green Tuesday: "It's kind of a weird energy being in the middle of everything."
Three tents standing as of Wednesday morning.
Tim “Mohiks” Blanchette needs a car — to sleep in at night, and to help him get back on track with a music studio apprenticeship in West Haven during the day.
But his current wheels are tied up in Norwich, leaving him waiting until the first of the month for his latest Mohegan tribal member per capita payment to come in so that he can afford to buy a new ride and, by extension, a new place to live.
So for now, the hip hop artist and powwow dancer has pitched a tent on the Green — one of three tents to recently emerge behind United Church — where he spends his time people watching, playing with dogs, reading the Bible and books on self-esteem, trying to keep peace with others living outdoors, and doing what he can to keep from getting too bored.
Blanchette, 37, has been sleeping in an orange tent beneath a towering oak tree on the upper Green for about a week.
The Independent spoke with Blanchette on Tuesday afternoon after this reporter first noticed his tent, as well as another, larger tent pitched a few dozen feet away. As of Wednesday morning, there are now three tents, including Blanchette’s, set up in that area of the downtown public greenspace.
Blanchette by his tent.
At around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Blanchette lay shirtless half in, half out of his tent, his head poking just through the tent’s front flap and almost onto the lush green grass. His Air Jordan sneakers rested on a flattened piece of cardboard beside his tent so as not to track dirt and muck inside where he sleeps.
Blanchette is a musician and dancer and member of the Mohegan tribe. His musical performer name is Mohiks Eagles Fire. He told the Independent that he’s currently “pursuing an apprenticeship at a music studio in West Haven” called Horizon Music Group. (On Wednesday, Horizon’s owner, Vic Steffens, told this reporter that Blanchette did indeed spend some time at Horizon, but he hasn’t been back in a while. “He can come in here any time. I like him. He just can’t live here,” Steffens said.)
Originally from Middletown, Blanchette has bounced around Connecticut in recent years, from the Mohegan Reservation in Uncasville to Naugatuck to West Haven to a rooming house on Bishop Street in East Rock. He said he moved to New Haven after “a mechanic put a wrongful lien on my vehicle” near Uncasville. In New Haven, “housing got complicated” when a dispute with his roommate ended with Blanchette getting hit with a restraining order, a legal matter he’s currently trying to contest.
He doesn’t have enough money to afford a security deposit or rent on his own, Blanchette said. So, starting in early August, he moved into the New Haven Inn motel on Pond Lily Avenue, where “my neighbors were dealing cane” but at least he wasn’t homeless. After that he moved down to the Green to sleep with two bags under a tree.
Last week, he found a tent outside of Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen nearby on Temple Street. He decided to set up camp near another tenter on the Green. “I think he might be on meth,” Blanchette said about his neighbor, who wasn’t in his tent on Tuesday afternoon at the time this reporter came by. “But he’s a friendly guy.” His neighbor has also been helpful in warding off some of the “perverts” who occasionally pull down their pants and take out their private parts in public downtown, Blanchette said.
The Independent briefly spoke with Blanchette’s neighbor on Wednesday morning, as he smoked a cigarette inside his tent while sheltered from a light rain. He said his name is Alberto, and that he’s 61 years old. He said he’s lived in New Haven for about a decade, has slept here and there, and spent most of the time before he set up on the Green “walking around.”
Thomas Breen file photo
Blanchette's Air Jordans, outside his tent.
Blanchette said he’s “blessed to have a cushion” in the form of monthly per capita payments made to members of the Mohegan Tribe.
He said he hopes to get off of the Green when his next check comes through on Sept. 1. Ideally by buying a car that he can drive around and sleep in.
For now, he’s staying outdoors on the Green — a spot he’s found conveniently located near the Temple Street and Olive Street soup kitchens (“they are life savers,” he said) and the public library, where he can rest indoors and charge his phone. He also said that social workers from Liberty Community Services regularly come by to check in on how he and others sleeping outdoors are doing.
This is the first time Blanchette’s been homeless. So far, he said, it’s been ok. All things considered.
The best part of sleeping on the Green is “to see and meet people” and to play with their pet dogs, he said. “I’ve got a tennis ball” in here that he regularly uses as a dog toy, Blanchette said.
The hardest part of sleeping on the Green, he said, has been finding a safe and clean place to go to the bathroom. He said he almost got in “two altercations” on Monday alone while heading to and from the porta potties on the Green.
Blanchette’s apprehensive that more people may do what he’s doing and pitch a tent on the Green as homelessness rises citywide. He said one couple recently tried to do just that, but they subsequently moved at his and his neighbor’s urging because “the girl was strung out and zombified.” Blanchette hadn’t heard of the now-cleared encampments on the Boulevard or under a Lamberton Street bridge, nor was he aware of the ongoing backyard encampment on Rosette Street in the Hill.
He also mentioned how spending so much time on the Green can feel quite strange. “It’s kind of a weird energy being in the middle of everything.” But by the time the sun sets and the Green quiets down every evening, there’s something oddly “beautiful” about the lights and sounds of car traffic on Elm Street.
Blanchette takes solace in his tattoos — including of Uncas, the “first sachem of the Mohegan Tribe,” and of a wolf, the translation of his chosen name Mohiks — as well as in reading such books as “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and the Bible.
He planned to spend the rest of Tuesday afternoon reading and lying in the grass and in his tent until 5 p.m., when he would grab dinner at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen on Temple Street.
Then he’d try to find ways to not get too bored, likely by looking out over the Green and seeing who’s coming, who’s going, and what’s happening next.
“People watching is the best.”
Blanchette's tent (right), not the only one, on Tuesday afternoon.
Three tents, as of Wednesday.
See below for more recent Independent articles about homelessness, activism, and attempts to find shelter.
• Unhoused Activists Mourn One Of Their Own
• Homeless Activist Found Dead Outside Soup Kitchen
• Opinion: Don’t Sweep People Away
• Union Station Clears Out
• 50 New Homeless Shelter Beds Open In The Hill
• Tuesday In The State St. Triangle With David
• 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
The Green is not a campground. I hope the city and the proprietors encourage those trying to camp on the Green to move into shelters or other supportive housing.
The Green is also very visible place to stay overnight and may make these unhoused folks targets of mischief, and leaving your shoes outside your tent will get them stolen. Clearly this young person from this story has difficulty getting along with others in close quarters, but he might do well in a studio apartment in supportive housing and with access to therapy to address his issues.
I wish we had more SROs, hotel suite rooms, group homes and tiny/mini homes to accommodate the variety of needs of unhoused folks like these who need a private, safe and secure, stable and affordable place to call home and access mental healthcare and addiction recovery care.