If you are entering Hamden off the highway, you may be greeted by homeless people. Hamden has seen a surge in homelessness recently. But, it seems as if there is a misconception between different types of homeless people in the area.
“There are a lot of sloppy homeless people who steal from us,” said an emotional Danielle Turner, a homeless woman in Hamden, who says there are good-hearted homeless people. “When people think of the homeless, they automatically assume junkies and bums, but there’s a few of us actually outside all day, getting money the right way, and not getting high.”
Turner has had a lot of difficulty dealing with that daily routine, and also claimed that one of the hardest aspects on top of being homeless are the hecklers driving by.
“I have one woman who drives here consistently telling us to get jobs,” Turner said. “She has no idea about our situations, what we have been through or dealt with, so it is very rude to assume that about all of the homeless.”
Despite having a few issues with homeless thieves who are on drugs, as well as a few civilians giving them a hard time, Hamden is a quality place for the homeless, according to homeless man John Kennedy.
“I used to be in New Haven, but they got rid of a lot of us there,” Kennedy said. “Being here is way better because the police are so nice and don’t give us a hard time. They even come by, say hello, and check on us.”
People like Turner and Kennedy feel misunderstood, since they explained how their situations have little to do with their actions. They partially deem their situations they were born into responsible, as well as trying to help family members and others close to them in need.
“I’ve had other people make a lot of mistakes for me which made it harder on me,” Kennedy said. “There were times I tried to help my grandmother, since my mom died and my dad left when I was born, and when I took out a loan to help her with the house when I already had little money, it put me in a tough spot.”
It is this endless carousel for those in Turner and Kennedy’s shoes that makes this routine exhausting. They do not have ID and cannot go get new ones for various reasons. They have no home address, no way to prepare for their job and nowhere to stay.
“Obviously we want to check on them and make sure they are OK,” Steve Teague, a Hamden police officer. “There is a difference between some of them, as you said they call them junkies, but those who are respectful, we make sure they’re doing well and see if they want a meal or something.”
For Kennedy and Turner, it will be crucial to stay separate from the “junkies” described.
“There’s only a couple people I can say I really do associate with,” Kennedy said. “I have a girlfriend and another friend, and the reason my girlfriend and I got together in the first place was because she got robbed. So I guess you could say things happened for a reason.”