Tag: Elicker

U-ACT and the Amistad/Rosette Neighborhood Village Community Demand that Homelessness in New Haven Be Decriminalized

by Mark Colville, U-ACT and Amistad Catholic Worker

Every Friday from 12-1 p.m., the Unhoused Activist Community Team (U-ACT) hosts a community lunch and public speak-out on the New Haven Green, directly across from City Hall, 165 Church St. Our purpose is twofold: 1) To reach out with direct hospitality to our unhoused neighbors who are forced to take refuge on the street each day, and 2) To give a loud public voice to the misery and unnecessary suffering imposed on them by Mayor Elicker’s continued inaction and the policies that criminalize low-income people. The speak-out is often joined by public health experts, street medicine caregivers, tenants’ rights groups, immigrants’ rights collectives, anti-violence and anti-police brutality organizations, and Palestine solidarity folks, all demanding justice and decriminalization.

Central to U-ACT’s demands is a moratorium on police sweeps of tent city encampments. These are a direct violation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which authorizes economic refugees to take up residence on unused public land when the state fails to provide them with adequate and affordable housing. We further demand that the city come into compliance with the UN—to which it is bound by congressional treaty—by designating one or more parcels of public land for the development of a supported emergency encampment for our un-housed economic refugee neighbors.

Rosette Neighborhood Village, located in the backyard at the Amistad Catholic Worker at 203 Rosette St., is a private initiative that is currently providing a working model of what a supported encampment looks like, and how the city could eliminate homelessness by replicating it on a larger scale. We demand that this form of emergency shelter be immediately and permanently legally zoned before another deadly harsh winter descends. Instead, Mayor Elicker shut off the power to this vibrant backyard micro-neighborhood in June, during the hottest days of the year so far. This cruelty must stop. This mayor must be stopped.

Please come join us for lunch and speak-out every Friday and stay for U-ACT’s weekly organizing meeting from 1-2:30 p.m. in the public library across from the Green at 133 Elm St.

For more information please contact Mark Colville at 203-645-5417.

THE EMERGENCY IS TONIGHT!
“The only solution is love and love comes with community” – Dorothy Day

Climate activist launches protest write-in campaign for mayor

by Anastasia Hufham, Yale Daily News

Environmental activist urges New Haven residents to vote for the land in the city’s mayoral race.

Gabriela Campos, a lifelong environmental activist, has joined New Haven’s mayoral race as a write-in candidate, urging residents to vote for “The Land for Mayor” in protest of the city’s response to the Tweed New Haven Airport expansion and other environmental issues.

Campos’ campaign focuses on respect for the environment and New Haven neighborhoods. She proposes “listening circles” in each neighborhood, wherein heads of city departments would meet with community members on a regular basis to hear concerns and confront other issues. Her proposed agenda also emphasizes the need for food forests — similar to robust community gardens — sustainable architecture, pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, ranked-choice voting and a coastal-resiliency plan in New Haven.

“I don’t even want people to vote for me, just to vote in protest,” Campos said. “Write in ‘the land.’ If we care for the land, our needs are met. If there are enough of us who vote for the land, they’ll have to listen.”

Campos grew up in Peru, where her environmental activism began. She remembers scolding a boy in her neighborhood for hurting caterpillars and recalls her family’s emphasis on respecting the earth. Her family immigrated to the United States in the 1980s, first to California and then to Connecticut.

Read the rest of the story here Climate Activist Launches Protest Write-In Campaign for Mayor