A New Haven advocate for the unhoused appeared in court Friday after his arrest for refusing to leave the site of a tent encampment that was bulldozed by the city earlier this month.
With dozens of supporters and Mayor Justin Elicker looking on, Mark Colville, of the Amistad Catholic Worker and the Unhoused Activists Community Team, or U-ACT, spoke at a rally in front of the Elm Street courthouse downtown.
“The reason that I chose not to leave and to risk arrest is because sometimes you have to do that in order for this public conversation that we’re having — it needs to happen in there,” Colville said. “You need to go into court and justify what you did.”
Another speaker said the mayor was a criminal for ignoring the needs of the homeless. After the rally Elicker spoke with protestors and shook hands. Elicker also agreed to attend next week’s meeting of U-ACT, adding it was the first time he’d been invited.
Elicker later said the city is “working every day” to support New Haven’s most vulnerable, unhoused population.
“Many of the comments at the protest insinuated that our team does not care at all and that the city is doing nothing when it is actually just the opposite,” Elicker said in a statement.
The group demands that there be no evacuations from public land or trashing of people’s possessions. They want the city to install a permanent public bathroom with showers for all to use.
Meanwhile, Colville spoke with the prosecutor, who presented a number of options, including reducing the charge from first degree criminal trespass to simple trespass. Colville said he would resist having the charges dropped altogether. He’s due back in court April 13.