The Progressive Action Roundtable mission is to inform the greater New Haven community about the activities of many progressive groups, so that people may learn about them and become involved in discussions and actions on issues for the common good, such as peace, health, racial equity, justice, clean energy and the environment.
Here you will find information about food pantries and soup kitchens in the Greater New Haven area: https://bit.ly/4u6SQwn.
We’re asking our readers to print copies of this two-sided page to leave at various public places and put on bulletin boards. The information is also online at https://bit.ly/4u6SQwn.
Please, when you give a few dollars to people on the street asking for money, also hand them a food resource page.
by Sasha Allen Jan. 16, 2026, DataHaven
Wealth and income inequality are projected to increase in Connecticut under President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” with high-income residents seeing average tax breaks of nearly $10,000 and low-income residents paying an average of $417 more annually.
According to a new study released by DataHaven, the legislation will exacerbate wealth and income inequality primarily through rollbacks on some Medicaid and SNAP qualifications and tax cuts favoring high-income Americans.
Some towns, including Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan, could see average annual tax breaks of more than $30,000 for high-income residents, according to the study.
The returns from the bill are heavily skewed toward high-income households. Greenwich will see an estimated $262 million in tax relief, Stamford will see $239 million and Fairfield will see $158 million. Greenwich has some of the highest levels of income inequality in the state, according to U.S. Census data.
Bridgeport, the most populous town in the state, will receive an estimated net change of $60 million, with $61 million in tax relief going towards high-income households. The bottom 25% in Bridgeport will lose — primarily through cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and other social service programs — more than $14 million, and low-income households are projected to pay an average of over $1,000 more annually.
Norma Martinez HoSang is the director of Connecticut for All, a statewide coalition of labor, community, and faith organizations. She said the state already has an “upside down tax system” that H.R. 1 will make worse.
“In Connecticut and across the country, over the last many decades, what we’ve seen is the very wealthy continue to get like tax breaks, definitely at the state level,” HoSang said.
[To read the article in its entirety, see https://bit.ly/3ZtCFe7]
Warming centers operate on a walk-in basis, 7 days a week, generally between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., with extended hours during extreme weather. For the homeless, this can be the difference between life and death.
A list of warming centers can be viewed here:
We hope our readers will print out the list and have copies on hand to give to people in need of a warm, safe place.
Jabez Choi, Dec. 6, 2024, New Haven Independent
A group of unhoused neighbors have taken to sleeping two or even three to a room inside unheated pre-fabricated tiny shelters that are still standing in a Rosette Street backyard.
“When we do bundle up, it’s tolerable being in there,” said Robert Harris, as he pointed at a row of white Pallet shelters. “But sometimes it’s colder in these because it can be like an ice box.”
There are currently 14 people living in six different under-100-square-foot shelters that have stood for over a year in the backyard of the Amistad Catholic Worker House at 203 Rosette St. in the Hill.
Harris, who has been residing in that Rosette Street backyard since May, said that all the residents have numerous blankets and sleeping bags to keep warm throughout the night. Currently, he sleeps outside in what is called the “hut.” If the cold becomes unbearable, he sleeps inside the Amistad house, on a chair.
A group of homelessness activists — led by Amistad’s Mark and Luz Colville and their neighbors and supporters — first erected these six single-room shelters last fall to provide a roof for people displaced from cleared homeless encampments and who otherwise had nowhere else to go.
In July, the city called on UI to turn off the power in these shelters, following the expiration of a 180-day state permit allowing electricity to the backyard, thereby rendering those shelters “illegal dwelling units.” (The shelters do not have individual kitchens and bathrooms. As part of a suite of zoning relief granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals in March, the Amistad Catholic Worker House has to make available the main home’s bathroom and kitchen to the backyard residents.)
In the intervening five months, people have continued to sleep inside these six tiny shelters — which have only become more crowded with the onset of winter weather…
read the entire article at https://tinyurl.com/yck8s6yv
Please take note of the insert about warming centers (also available at https://www.newhavenct.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/16742/638370255582500000).
We hope our PAR readers make copies of the flyer to carry around and keep in their car. People who need help and ask for money need to know how they can access resources. In addition to giving those in need some money, you can give them information about these organizations and agencies that can help sustain them in a more consistent way.
Information about soup kitchens and food pantries can be found at https://www.getconnectednewhaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Food-Assistance-Resource-Guide-ENG.pdf).
by Thomas Breen, Nov. 12, New Haven Independent
Last Thursday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined a half dozen members of the Blake Street Tenants Union, along with leaders of Connecticut Tenants Union, to announce his co-sponsorship of that proposed federal legislation. … As Blumenthal explained on Thursday, the proposed bill would support tenants union organizing in the following ways:
* By explicitly prohibiting landlords from retaliating against tenants who participate in or try to organize such unions.
* By providing federal “resources” — aka money — to support tenants union organizing. Per a draft version of the law, that would include no less than $1 million for a nationwide outreach and training program for tenants in housing covered by this law, as well as $40 per unit per year for tenant resident councils.
To read this article in its entirety, visit https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/tenant_organizing_2
by Thomas Breen, May 15, 2024, New Haven Independent
Anthony wasn’t sure where he and his fiancee would spend the night Wednesday. But he did know where they wouldn’t be: in a downtown encampment proposed and ultimately postponed by a group of unhoused activists.
“I’m not staying on the Green,” he said. “I’m not getting arrested.”
Pushing a stroller filled with blankets and spare clothing, all quickly soaked through in Wednesday afternoon’s rain, Anthony was one of around 50 people to gather on the Green by Church Street across from City Hall at around 4 p.m. The Unhoused Activists Community Team (U‑ACT) had initially planned on pitching tents and spending the night on the Green, in view of the mayor’s second-floor office at City Hall, to protest past clearings of homeless encampments. …
Brian C. asked the mayor point blank what would happen if the encampment proceeded on the Green as planned.“Somebody told me if we set up a tent tonight, they’re going to arrest us. Is that true?”
“You’re not allowed to set up tents,” the mayor replied.
“That’s crazy,” Brian said. But will people get arrested?
“If you sleep in a tent and don’t let us remove it, you may get arrested,” Elicker said. Sleeping outside won’t get you arrested, but setting up an unauthorized structure might. … Brian said … he was at The 180 Center warming center on East Street on Tuesday, but that center is now closed for the season. “I’m trying to get into an encampment,” he said, ideally the one on Rosette Street behind the Amistad Catholic Worker House, but there might not be enough room.
Mark Colville, who co-runs the Amistad Catholic Worker House, gathered attendees into a circle at around 4:30 to try to figure out as a group what to do next….
Ultimately, at Colville’s suggestion, those gathered agreed to continue organizing in the month ahead, including by going to U‑ACT’s weekly meetings on Friday afternoons at the downtown public library. In a month’s time, Colville said, an even larger group will come back to the Green for a subsequent action uplifting the basic human rights of those with nowhere to sleep but outside.
[Entire article is available here: newhavenindependent.org/article/unhoused_activists]
by Ginny Monk, Housing & Children’s Issues, CT Mirror, April 19, 2024
On Wednesday, a bill allowing the state attorney general to bring civil action against people who violate fair housing law advanced through the House of Representatives. House Bill 5419 would allow the attorney general to file lawsuits against people who violate fair housing rules and let them take the case to court in the jurisdiction where the actions occurred rather than forcing all cases to go to Hartford, lawmakers said.
H.B. 5419 would also aim to take some of the caseload off of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. The federal government also accepts fair housing complaints, although there is a backlog of cases that haven’t been through the system.
The bill, which came through the Judiciary Committee, had support from both sides of aisle. It heads to the Senate.
by Nora Grace-Flood, NH Independent, March 13, 2024
(Read the full article here: www.newhavenindependent.org/article/unhoused_get_relief_from_zoning)
Six backyard emergency shelters built without city approval won zoning relief. …The Rosette Village Collective, a crew of individuals experiencing homelessness and the volunteers helping to house them, made their case during the latest online meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals to legitimize
the six one-room shelters erected last fall … at 203 Rosette St., which first opened up to individuals in need of a place to pitch their tents after the city bulldozed a homeless encampment on Ella Grasso Boulevard last spring and left unhoused individuals unable or uninterested in finding regulated shelter spaces without a place to go. …
While Amistad House is working to pass state legislation that would create zoning pathways for emergency housing, they are, in the meantime, asking to live as an exception to stringent building code rules to let ten otherwise unhoused New Haveners remain in their so-called “tiny homes.” In order to do that, Amistad House requested retroactive zoning relief from the board. …
The application was approved with four conditions: First, only two individuals can reside in each structure at any time. Second, any potential resident is expected to be a direct family member of the first. In addition, no more than the six structures currently on site are allowed to serve as residences. All shelter occupants must maintain access to shared facilities inside Amistad House, including the first floor bathroom and kitchen. And lastly, an easement must be in place for structures that extend beyond the property lines of Rosette Street if Amistad House is sold down the line. …
The application was approved following extensive support from Hill community leaders, next-door neighbors of Amistad House, and testimony from those living in the shelters themselves. …
While the situation might be understood as neighbors doing a favor for Amistad House and those living behind it, those living in the Hill who spoke Tuesday pressed the reality that Amistad is doing a favor for the neighborhood at large. Teachers Union President and Hill resident Leslie Blatteau agreed: “They’re doing the work that community needs to do. They are showing us how it’s done.” …
Mark Colville, co-owner of Amistad House alongside his wife, Luz Catarineau, said: “I would ask the zoning committee to step aside and let this thing go. You need do nothing else but leave it in our hands.”
by Abigail Brone, Connecticut Public Radio
January 18, 2024.
A community of tiny homes created to house homeless residents in New Haven now have electricity and heat after months of back-and-forth with the city.
Rosette Neighborhood Village, a community of six “tiny homes” in the backyard of a private residence owned by Mark and Luz Colville, was constructed in October.
For the last four months, Rosette residents and their advocates worked with the city of New Haven to bring the units up to code and get electricity connected. The electricity and heat were recently turned on.
Electricity was approved by city building and fire department officials Saturday, and connected Monday. The development followed an in-person meeting with New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and his team on Jan. 12.
Jacob Miller, son-in-law of the Colvilles, said they’re optimistic about the community’s upcoming Jan. 30, Board of Zoning Appeals meeting.
“Doesn’t seem like the type of thing that we’re gonna get a lot of pushback on when again, ultimately, what we’re providing is a privately-funded social service that’s filling a vacuum in a city that doesn’t have nearly the amount of resources to serve this community, ” Miller said….
The tiny homes are under a 180-day temporary permit, allowing them to remain standing. However, the structures are required to be disassembled when the permit expires.
Elicker declined to specify what repercussions Rosette Village residents and owners may face if the buildings aren’t removed by the deadline….
Read the full article at: https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2024-01-18/new-havens-tiny-home-community-gets-heat-and-electricityfbclid=IwAR0oda0Mpta1fhbdGJMO4tiW9_7CA0XzyGOQIySFM9ckXyBA_ayyIUWOe_M.
by Lisa Reisman, New Haven Independent, Nov. 20, 2023
(Updated with Mayor Elicker’s response) Sixty tiny-home supporters at a church in North Branford lifted their voices in song. It was about electricity and housing affordability, and aimed at New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. The occasion was “Home for the Holidays,” a brunch fundraiser held on Saturday, Nov. 11, at Zion Episcopal Church in North Branford to raise support for ongoing expenses toward sustaining New Haven’s Rosette Neighborhood Village, with its six tiny homes that house people who had been living in tents.
The event raised $10,000, according to organizer Colleen Shaddox, member of the Rosette Village Collective, and author of “Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending US Poverty.” …
Electricity is “the last piece of the puzzle” for the six shelters on Rosette Street, said Jacob Miller, a real estate professional and the son-in-law of Mark Colville, co-leader of the Amistad Catholic Worker House. The houses “basically meet all the baseline provisions for most building and zoning codes,” he said. … Beyond that, “we have the funds and a licensed electrician who’s ready to do that work with-in 24 hours. We just need the city to issue a permit to allow UI to turn the electricity on.”
“The stumbling block,” he said, is “a 100-year-old zoning code that doesn’t contemplate tiny houses.” That means Rosette Village is constrained “to follow the same drawn-out process as someone who’s redeveloping a 100-unit apartment building, leasing it out, and then selling it for $20 million,” he said, referring to the apparently stalled redevelopment of an apartment complex on Congress and Davenport Avenues.
Update: In a follow-up interview with the Independent Monday afternoon, Elicker said that city staff had a “productive meeting” with representatives from the Rosette Village group last week in his administration’s ongoing efforts to try to get these shelters into compliance with local zoning and state building codes. He also criticized the “hypocrisy” of residents of an affluent suburb criticizing New Haven for not doing enough to support affordable housing, when a third of New Haven’s housing stock is affordable while only 2.2 percent of North Branford’s is. …
Mark Colville called out the mayor for impeding the process. “His argument, that it isn’t fair to the other homeowners in the immediate area, doesn’t make sense,” he said.“All our neighbors have not only been informed, but consenting of this from the beginning and many have become active participants.” Regarding the electricity issue, “City Hall is telling us that these encampments are unsafe and unsanitary,” he said.“It’s essentially the same argument they’re using for not turning the electricity in our backyard in the tiny homes. Because they don’t have electricity, they’re not safe, so we won’t turn on the electricity.” … 
“I think all the time of the expression ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’” said Lucy LaRocca, Zion Episcopal’s assistant rector. “It doesn’t say neighbor just as the person next door or down the street.We need to love our neighbors wherever they are.” …
Thomas Breen contributed to this report.
[Read the article in its entirety: newhavenindependent.org/article/north_branford_church_calls_on_mayor_elicker_to_power_tiny_homes_in_song]