Volunteers broke ground last Saturday at the Rosette Neighborhood Village Collective, clearing wheelbarrows of damp earth to lay the foundations for six tiny homes that will be operational by Thanksgiving.
The tiny homes will provide shelter for between eight and 12 unhoused people currently living in tents at 203 Rosette St., located in activists Mark Colville and Luz Catarineau’s backyard.
According to Suki Godek, who has been living in a tent at Rosette with her husband since last spring, there will be two larger tiny homes intended for couples, as well as four smaller units.
“I thought [installing tiny homes] was a great idea because it gives you back your sense of privacy and dignity — things that you’ve missed out on when you’re in a homeless situation,” Godek said.
To clear space for constructions, the Collective moved tents previously erected in Colville and Catarineau’s backyard, which have been there since 2022, to a community garden directly next to the house. Volunteers from various organizations including Amistad Catholic and Benicasa Community gathered Sunday to construct the foundations.
The Collective also installed a 10-foot fence last week, which will provide privacy for residents of the tiny homes.
According to Godek, the Rosette Collective fundraised around $80,000 for the tiny homes project. The tiny homes will be installed by Washington-based company Pallet, and the total value of each unit is estimated to be around $10,000.
Colville and Catarineau are now interviewing Rosette residents looking to move into one of the tiny homes. The decision, the couple said, will be made based on individuals’ needs, level of interest in the tiny home and commitment to the Rosette project. Colville said that he would prefer people to commit to living in one of the homes for around three months.
Godek and her husband told the News that they hope to be among the first people selected to move into one of the tiny homes. The couple moved to Connecticut during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they became unhoused after losing their dairy farm. Godek and her husband decided not to enter a shelter because they would have had to live separately. Additionally, shelter curfews were incompatible with their work schedules, which left them juggling multiple jobs at odd hours. Godek and her husband were living at the tent city in West River until the city bulldozed the encampment last March, and the couple have since been living in a tent at Rosette.
Colville said he has been in communication with the City Planning Department and is currently working with the city to secure permits for the tiny homes. Colville said the city has expressed support for the tiny homes, which he sees as “the first real substantive cooperation that the city has expressed towards this movement.”
Luz Catarineau described the tiny homes initiative as a “pilot program,” the success of which she said she hopes will lead to more widespread construction of tiny houses funded by New Haven. She also noted that a benefit of tiny homes is eliminating the need for unhoused people to “downsize” their living spaces, which entails getting rid of possessions in order to fit all their belongings into a single tent.
According to Colville, maintaining the relationships with neighbors in tent cities is essential to establishing peaceful and cooperative encampments. Colville said that Rosette seeks to advocate for public use of city land by providing an example of what a “supported tent city could look like.” Much like the community at Rosette, a supported tent city would include government-provided access to services including running water, heating and electricity.
“[Tiny homes are] one piece of an overall project that we’ve been involved in now for over ten years,” Colville said. “And that is countering and resisting the criminalization of homelessness.”
Colville started helping set up makeshift tent cities in 2014. In 2020, during the outbreak of the pandemic, Colville helped form the West River encampment. Colville is an advocate for the legalization of encampments on public land. He told the News that he would ultimately like to see the city build tiny homes on public land.
Godek estimated that Rosette currently has 13 tents with 26 residents, although the number of residents has fluctuated in the past year, ranging from 10-60. Besides herself and her husband, Godek said that roughly three or four other residents of the bulldozed tent city still reside at Rosette.
Shane Santiago, another resident of Rosette, moved into his tent two weeks ago. Santiago, who has a disability that makes it difficult for him to move, said people at Rosette had been “very helpful” in accommodating him. Residents cleared space for him to use his walker and also installed a temporary ramp for him to use near the lockers, which were added to the space last spring for community members to store personal items.
Sean Gargamelli-McCreight, a volunteer from Benincasa Community, said that people formerly living at the encampments that were bulldozed lost a community in which “people are living alongside each other, supporting one another.”
Rico, a resident at Rosette who told the News that he preferred to be identified by his first name only, expressed support for the tiny homes project. He referred to the project as a potential solution to homelessness that seems to be more permanent than transient forms of housing like shelters.
“When you’re homeless and you have all your belongings with you, you’re looked at — no matter how clean you are, you’re looked at,” Rico said. “This right here gives someone a chance to sit back and feel a little different about themselves.”
The Rosette Neighborhood Village Collective is located in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood.