Roosevelt Watkins has been living in the woods in New Haven for more than a year. Off the public radar, the community around him has grown.
Watkins (pictured) is one of dozens of men and women, who, for a variety of reasons, won’t stay in a homeless shelter. Their numbers have increased with the economic crisis to include formerly middle-class families from the suburbs.
Watkins said he’d love his own apartment. Failing that, he’d rather camp out than go to a shelter.
Kenneth Driffin, an outreach case manager with the Columbus House homeless shelter, keeps an eye on these folks, who are camping out in many parts of the city.
“We don’t want people to think we’re in the business of helping people set up camp in the woods,” he said. “Our goal is to help people become housed. But if they’re already out in the woods, what we do is a harm reduction model and try to provide them with survival supplies so they can stay safe.”
He brings people tents, tarps, sleeping bags, pots and pans, bottled water, blankets, and Meals Ready to Eat.
Watkins gave a tour the other day of his camp on a riverbank in the West side of town. Although it was a hot, humid day, his camp, nestled among trees, was breezy and cool. And quiet. Watkins called it “a piece of Heaven in the middle of hell.”
“This is a place of peace,” he said. “I can sit and watch the birds. I can sit by the river and read.” In the photo above he’s pointing to the repairs he made to his tent after it was ripped open — he believes by a raccoon — who smelled something good inside.
Watkins estimated about 30 people this summer are living scattered through the woods, which has increased the problem of theft. Even though he has minimal property, he’s lost a few possessions. He lives with his girlfriend, Brenda. That’s the main reason he won’t go to a shelter, where the genders are segregated.
Driffin said people have many reasons to eschew shelters. “For some, it’s due to mental health. Some people have phobias; some people don’t want to go by rules; some people are active in their substance abuse addiction.”
Watkins described himself as “an isolationist” who doesn’t want to deal with other people’s problems. He said he had a problem with cocaine, but he’s been clean for awhile. “As long as I stay away from that beast, I call it a success.” Asked what he needs most for life in the woods, he said, “First is water; [then] a willingness to do it; and know-how.”
His most recent job was bagging and delivering phone books; work “is hit or miss,” he said. Some days he holds a cardboard sign at a busy intersection (pictured) that reads, “Homeless and hungry — please help if you can. God bless.” He moved to New Haven three years ago from South Carolina, following Brenda here. He lacks a high school diploma. Finding work has always been a challenge.
Asked what the chances are of people like Watkins getting into a training program or finding a job, given the current economy, Driffin said, “New Haven has always been full of training programs. Most people, if they’ve been in New Haven ten years or more, they have seven or eight trainings under their belt. But steady employment — that’s the challenge.”
Asked if any children are living in the woods, Driffin said, “No, that would be a DCF [state Department of Children and Families] report immediately. Not even one night — I couldn’t allow it, no way.” “Just Me And My Old Man”
As he drove this reporter around town, Driffin spotted several other “campers” and invited them to chat. One of them was Watkins’s girlfriend, Brenda (who declined to give her last name).
Brenda introduced herself as an addict. She said she’s been homeless for eight years. She doesn’t like the shelter because she has anxiety and other mental health issues, she said. “If it’s just me and my old man, it’s better for me.”
She said she loves living in the woods. “It’s peaceful. Nobody bothers you,” although she added, “Sometimes it’s hard because of the weather.” She said it can also be a challenge finding places to eat, though she and Watkins often cook on a grill.
“Gathering water is a chore in itself.” She fills up bottles at a nearby laundromat. Still, the idea of an actual home thrills her. “I want four walls. I want to go in the kitchen and open the refrigerator.”
Bonnie Grenier (pictured on the left, with Brenda on the right) said she and her lesbian partner have been homeless for three and a half years.
“We live in a tent by the water. We love it,” she said. “Year-round we live there. Winter gets a little cold, but we manage. We get water from the soccer field or the graveyard. We wash clothes and hang them on a clothes line. We eat out of garbage cans — we do whatever we have to to survive. She and me do not like the shelter at all because people steal from us and all that.” She said she and her wife are both on methadone maintenance for heroin addiction. She has a pending disability claim, but doesn’t know how long the process will take or if she’ll be approved. If she is, she hopes to find an apartment.
She said it’s sometimes scary for two women living in the woods. “We take one day at a time, and we have the man upstairs watching over us.” Just in case, they also keep a couple of knives on hand for self-defense. She said four other people live nearby, and they all get along. “We watch out for each other,” she said.
She said her favorite part about living outside is the quiet, plus all the wildlife: “We see deers every day. We call them Bambi.”
Kathy (who also declined to give her last name, and declined to be photographed) said her husband was making good money as an executive chef, but he lost his job over a year ago — a result, she said, of both his substance abuse and the crashing economy. He’s in rehab, and she’s in the woods. In the past she had her own catering business and ran a deli.
But now, she said, “Jobs are hard to find. I’ll do anything — I’ll wash windows; I’ll scrub floors. I’ve applied for everything, and they’re just not hiring. I’m from Cheshire, and this is totally new to me. I had a $400,000 house; I had a built-in pool; I had trucks; I had toys; I had everything. And to go from $1,400 a week in my pocket to zero is like, devastating.”
She said she prefers camping in the woods to staying in a shelter. Better than both, she said, would be going home some day.
Driffin also helps people apply for permanent housing. As he bade farewell to Roosevelt Watkins, he reminded him to come to Columbus House to fill out paperwork in hopes of qualifying for an apartment.
One success story is Tom Sawyer (pictured), a Vietnam vet. Sawyer was living on an island in the river but who is now, he said, happily housed in Legion Woods, a supportive housing community on Legion Avenue under the Columbus House umbrella. In the photo, he’s pointing out his old stomping grounds.
THey used to call them Hoovervilles. THey are many on the West Coast already. We should call these Capitalisvilles or maybe Corporatevilles.
If you tellpeople from other countries that Americans live like this, they would not believe you. It is a scandalous disgrace. Leave them alone as long as they harm no one else and do not pollute the area excessively. And can't Bonnie and Brenda just be partners? Do they have to be lesbian partners? Lesbians can be homeless, down and out too, can't they??
I'm ashamed of our country.