by Billy Bromage, Sean Gargamelli-McCreight, Carter Shannon, Alexis Terry and Tammy Varney
The writers of this opinion piece are members of the Unhoused Activists Community Team (U-ACT), an organization of unhoused residents and housed allies fighting for the rights and dignity of unhoused people in New Haven.
(Opinion) From across the New Haven Green, Bo saw city workers closing in around the red Radio Flyer wagon that held nearly everything he owned. He had been away for only a few minutes to use a nearby public restroom, placing his things out of the way behind a bench.
Fighting the pain in his bad knee, Bo ran over to tell the workers that the wagon was his. It didn’t matter. They said it was trash and began tossing his belongings into the back of a garbage truck. Bo asked if he could at least get his backpack and tent. They said no. Once it was in the truck, a city official told him it was no longer his property.
Bo has been without a home since arriving in New Haven two years ago. He spent months searching for housing while also calling shelter after shelter seeking temporary refuge. When he realized that living outside was his only option, he began purchasing what he needed to survive. Those were the belongings—his clothes, tent, bedding, toiletries, food, and medications to treat his seizures and diabetes—that he kept neatly organized in his wagon. Now they were all gone.
Bo is not the only resident of New Haven to face this harrowing experience. The city routinely conducts operations called “sweeps” or “cleanups” that result in the seizure and destruction of unhoused people’s essential possessions. Bo described the above sweep as taking place on the Green last year.
The city must end these sweeps, and it must end them now.
New Haven’s sweeps threaten the health and safety of unhoused people. A recent U-ACT survey found that locally, 41 percent of unhoused individuals who experienced a sweep lost vital medications like asthma inhalers, blood pressure pills, and Narcan. Almost all reported the confiscation of tents, sleeping bags, or blankets. Many lost irreplaceable items, like family photos and loved ones’ ashes.
The U.S. Constitution limits when and how the government can confiscate someone’s belongings. The Fourth Amendment bars the government from unreasonably seizing and destroying personal property—even items left unattended in public—without any justification, warning, storage, and opportunity for retrieval. And the Fourteenth Amendment requires the government to provide due process whenever it takes a person’s property.
What happened to Bo and many others in New Haven appears to violate these constitutional guarantees.
Unhoused people across the country are organizing and fighting back against sweeps just like the ones in New Haven. They have gone to court to enforce their rights, filing lawsuits against cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Miami, and New York City. Though the facts vary, these cases recognize that unhoused people have a right to their personal property that the government may not ignore.
Here in New Haven, our community values dignity and the right to keep what we hold dear and need to thrive. Our unhoused neighbors are entitled to the same respect, opportunity to thrive, and legal protection as everyone else.
Unsheltered homelessness in New Haven has increased by 82 percent in the past year. With shelter waitlists regularly exceeding hundreds of people and service providers raising the alarm about inadequate funding, unhoused people will continue to have no choice but to live outside.
The federal government is making the situation even worse. The Trump administration is seeking to cut more than $69 million from Connecticut’s permanent housing programs, threatening the housing of 6,500 residents. And President Trump issued an Executive Order last summer promoting the criminalization of homelessness, instructing federal agencies to prioritize funding for municipalities that enforce bans on living outside.
Mayor Elicker has opposed President Trump on immigration, climate change, SNAP benefits, and other key issues. But on homelessness, the city’s sweeps are right out of the Trump playbook. Trump’s values are not New Haven’s values. Instead, our community should join the nationwide movement defending the property and lives of our unhoused neighbors.
As New Haven emerges from another harsh winter, the warming centers will close, cutting off temporary refuge for over 100 unhoused people. Our unhoused neighbors continue to fear that the City will seize the belongings they need to survive. The danger is real. Last year, at least 134 unhoused people in Connecticut died, four from the cold. Two people were confirmed dead in New Haven this winter, with providers estimating that 20 unhoused people have died statewide.
To uphold our community’s values, New Haven must prioritize the safety and stability of all of its residents. This means listening to what unhoused people say they need. That may take time. But there is one thing the City can do right away: stop seizing and destroying unhoused residents’ essential possessions.