In the midst of a long-standing crisis in the availability of affordable housing in New Haven, Connecticut, the Amistad Catholic Worker community welcomed unhoused persons to set up tents in their backyard, offering their own kitchen and bathroom to provide basic amenities. Late last year, after raising funds, they installed six permanent tiny houses to shelter eight individuals. A community then sprang up, called Rosette Neighborhood Village, in which the formerly unhoused were equal participants with neighbors and other supporters.
As winter set in, and after confrontations with the administration of New Haven’s Democratic party Mayor Justin Elicker, city and state officials allowed electricity to be turned on for 180 days to provide the shelters with heat in the cold weather, and air conditioning in the summer. But because the shelters didn’t meet state housing code, the mayor ordered residents to be evicted and electricity to be cut off in mid-July, after the 180 days expired. A lawyer representing the Amistad community is now appealing the decision to cut off power.
The day before the electricity was shut off Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Joel Nieves, one of the occupants of the Amistad house shelters. Nieves uses a CPAP machine to breath when he sleeps, which requires electricity. Here he explains why he considers the backyard shelter his home and worries about his future.
JOEL NIEVES: I’m gonna be honest, this is the first time since being anywhere, even in the drug program, where I feel like I’m at home. This is more to me like a home. We’re a community. We help each other out. We actually, we do work here every day, every morning. We feed the whole community. It’s not just us, it’s people. Random people anywhere are invited to come and break bread with us, which gives me a sense of pride, because now I’m performing something, I’m helping out. I’m wiping a table down, you know, or whatever. But it gives me pride to be a part of something. And you feel like home. We have meetings. We sit down sometimes, you know, in the evening, once the day’s down, we have our little giggles moments. And it’s great.
What I wanna tell the mayor and anyone else who’s listening, you know, this is what I want to say. Am I not human? Do I not deserve to have someplace safe? Do I not deserve to feel like I belong somewhere? A sense of community? Am I not human like anybody else?
I’m not asking for a free handout. I understand, you know, this is America. You strap your bootstraps and do what you need. But one thing Americans have always done was help. Where’s our help? You know, we’re not evil people. We’re not bad people, we’re just trying to live.
MELINDA TUHUS: Before you got into addiction, did you have a job? Or a …
JOEL NIEVES: Oh, yes. Yeah.
MELINDA TUHUS: Tell me about that.
JOEL NIEVES: I had a fabulous career. My life was great. I did personal security work for most of my life. I got to travel the world. I guarded actors, musicians, diplomats. Yeah, it was a great, great life. Made a little money on it. Unfortunately, I got shot in the line of duty, so I had few spinal surgeries. I had a bowel reconstruction. I’ve had a abdominal mesh across my stomach because I, I just keep getting hernias. I have fusions on my disc now also.
MELINDA TUHUS: Is that what led to the addiction? Was it pain meds? And from there?
JOEL NIEVES: I developed PTSD and anyone who has any knowledge with PTSD, some of us have developed nightmares. It’s horrific nightmares. You don’t wanna sleep. So I started a cocaine addiction not to go to sleep. I’m not a doctor, but I figured out something that worked.
And, that’s when my cocaine addiction started — was for me trying to stay up for four or five days until I crashed. My PTSD hit and then the addiction on top of that, I was uncontrollable.
So I ask anybody, any citizen, any politician from the state, from the city of New Haven, we break bread every morning at 9 a.m. Come down and see what we do here. See that this is an honest place. If you come by and see how I live in this shed and what they call in this shed, I don’t consider it bad. I have everything I need.
I have a shower, I have a place to cook my meals. I have a place to store food. I don’t think most campgrounds have what we have. And I think this is a much safer environment than those campgrounds because of the elements. We’re here, we’re safe; we’re able to lock doors with a key. You know, so any critters, any animals… We’re okay. We have light, electricity. I’m able to stay communicated with the world on my phone. I can do everything as a normal person. And I invite anyone to come down and say, if I’m suffering. I don’t think I’m suffering, Mr. Mayor.
MELINDA TUHUS: So the mayor has said that people here are suffering.
JOEL NIEVES: Well, the mayor said that he wants to make sure that this is a safe environment, where the structures are not somewhere where we’re safe inside. I don’t know, Mr. Mayor, I feel more safe in there than I do hanging out at the train station.
For more information, visit Amistad Catholic Worker House at
amistadcw.wordpress.
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