From Homeless to Hartford - Time to Take it To The Streets

Some of you may have read that dozens of Brooklyn residents set up tents to protest a homeless shelter. This is actually a physical structure to be set up. These protesters set up shelters covered in American flags with protest signs. See NY Post

Here in Connecticut, we’re not even building shelters, which are a humane and a logical way to temporarily address these issues as we determine permanent residence or places of permanent shelter.

Instead, our genius state has raised Bill Number 7033 which prohibits “any municipality from imposing any penalty on homeless persons for performing life, sustaining activities on public land.” This got out of the Housing Committee of 20 with 14 in favor, 4 in opposition (Courpas, Sampson, Jensen, Weir) and 2 Absent - It could hit the floor and with a Dem controlled Statehouse - your summer areas of recreation could become tent cities.

Source

What is public land?

Well it’s “any property that’s owned or lease by any state or local government entity or any property where there’s an easement for public use and held open to the public on any federal land where local law-enforcement has jurisdiction to enforce loss including courtyard, public lot, sidewalks, public transportation facilities, and services, public buildings, shopping centers, underpasses, and land adjacent to roadways and parks.”

GREAT - SHOPPING CENTERS ARE NOW PUBLIC EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE PRIVATELY OWNED AND MAINTAINED

This is as ridiculous as watching the senior couple in the movie Caddyshack as his wife hits a golf ball into a pond and the husband gives her an attaboy and utters “That’s a peach hon.” There’s nothing peachy about this bill.

As far as life sustaining activities, this includes “ moving resting, sitting, standing, lying down, sleeping protecting out from the elements, eating drinking and storing such personal property as needed to safely shelter oneself.”

What’s also allowed is “to be free from civil or criminal sanctions for soliciting sharing, accepting or offering food water, money or other donations in public places.”

It also assesses a civil penalty on any person or municipality, which would include the police for any offense. And the AG can institute a civil action. Another opportunity for AG Tong to hit the soapbox at his next Indivisible rally.

You ask what you can do?

If you have a State rep or State senator that lives in your district and they have a sidewalk in front of their house, maybe it’s time as the Doobie Brothers said to take it to the streets - Maybe you set up camp in front of their house.

Also - Share this with every supermarket you know and and shopping center owner - let them know. They will get a lot of the traffic from this as the panhandling will also be easier there.

Our legislators and our communities are so distant from the legislation that they allowed to be passed that they have no sense of reality into its actual effect.

Several weeks ago I wrote about using a gender neutral restroom, which contain urinals with multiple women walking in. This was example where these progressives experienced their legislation in action for the first time with such restrooms. Im sure they will love their beaches and parks and supermarket sweeps from the unintended consequences of this legislation.

If New Yorkers are protesting a homeless facility, which at least has running water facilities services, etc. Connecticut again gets it wrong by failing to learn from its New York neighbors that are always ahead of this progressive curve.

Why cant we learn from those mistakes and the ones from California which is three years ahead of us in horrendous legislation with unintended consequences.

Real solutions and assistance is needed here and advocates to end homelessness asked for $33.5 million for the homeless crisis in CT in which the Coalition to end Homelessness indicated there were less than 1000 people living outside (as of February 2025). This request is to fund eviction prevention rental assistance, homelessness response services in case management for permanent supportive housing.

While the endgame of this legislation is unclear, some of the homelessness in this state is a result of un affordability in housing and in other aspects, especially utilities, which continue to be on the rise (with a minor break coming).

Connecticut has some of the highest utility rates in the country with ample access to sufficient energy generation.

Yet this public benefits that we continue to discuss is a major source of some of these housing costs to our Connecticut residents.

Connecticut has to become more affordable.

Just watch as this homeless debate becomes something to expand the discussion into more transit oriented development, massive expansion of 8-30g and public housing plans that are poorly designed to meet the actual needs of a community.

In the meantime, get active stand up be vocal and write your local state reps and senators and Governor Lamont. Without change and activism, these poorly designed plans will continue to cripple the Connecticut economy.

If you haven’t registered to vote, make sure to do so if you wanna help people register to vote, please click the link to join Vote Early CT to help us in this effort to register new voters so that your vote counts at the ballot box this November and for many Novembers to come. This is the politicing we need in the non-congressional years while we support the local municipal election scene.

Go to the website, sign up and join the Facebook page - WE NEED BOOTS ON THE GROUND!

OUR TIME IS NOW TO Fight Back, Take Back CT and let’s get some new voters.

Thank you for your continued support and please reach out for assistance. Please subscribe and spread the word as we need your support to grow this message.

Dr. Michael Goldstein & Jonathan Goldstein

The father-son team continues on so please spread the word and lets really rebuild CT and this country together in a meaningful way.

The Bill is below