Homeless residents at a long-standing Connecticut encampment expected to be evicted this week, but instead of sending in cleanup crews, city officials are exploring something new — a direct encampment-to-housing model that could revolutionize the region’s response to unsheltered homelessness. Since its debut in Connecticut at the start of 2024, the barrier-breaking model has successfully placed 18 individuals into permanent supportive housing in Hartford and New Britain, with eight more participants in the process of obtaining an apartment. Now, advocates hope to take the model to Bristol, where the pending sale of a city-owned parcel to a private owner has jeopardized an encampment.
For years, homeless residents have sought refuge beside a section of train tracks off Prospect Street. Last weekend, city officials told occupants that they needed to vacate the encampment by Thursday, July 18. But three days before the eviction deadline, at a meeting of the city’s Opioid Task Force, Bristol Mayor Jeff Caggiano said the city decided to pause disbandment efforts to explore implementation of the encampment-to-housing model.
Caggiano said the goal is to place the encampment’s residents into apartments where they can receive wrap-around services including health care, substance use treatment, therapy and job training. The model, which was first developed by the Clutch Consulting Group , has seen success in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas. The model has been pioneered in Connect.