Vanished Homeless

The Vanished Street People of Waterbury

Hartford Post: February 12, 2006 front top of Sunday edition

A Special Investigative Report – Part Two

By correspondent Robin K. Sloane



St. Vincent DePaul Society
Homeless Shelter

[Photo of St. Vincent DePaul Society Homeless Shelter]

The street people and the once vibrant street life have vanished in most urban areas of the state. This report in a continuing series explores the situation in Waterbury.

As in Hartford, the focus of our first report, the dwindling services for the homeless and downtrodden testifies to the decreasing population of these individuals.

“We no longer work with the homeless to provide them shelter, because they just are not around”, Mary Mauriello told this reporter while shaking her head.

The manager of the St. Vincent DePaul Society Homeless Shelter continued stating, “Some moved to other places, but too many just disappeared. There is ample evidence that many met unfortunate demises.”

There are indeed ample reasons to support this explanation of the disappearance of the street people in the Brass City. This reporter was told many stories about bodies being discovered over the years and especially within recent months. The tales come from health providers, such as ambulance personnel, and members of the Waterbury Police Department. Oddly, these deaths are rarely investigated. Most are put down to inclimate weather even during months with mild conditions.

Although requested for comment most city officials declined to speak on the record. Several spoke off the record and confirmed that there is little interest in spending time and money to look in dept into this deadly phenomenon.

“We believe the number of dead is exaggerated with many of the so called street people just moving on to places with better climates and sunny beaches”, stated Deputy Mayor Dennis Sandiford.

Random interviews with residents on Main Street out for a stroll and lunch one recent sunny day showed little concern for the problem. Indeed many disputed the problem.

“I’m glad these homeless and dead-beats are gone. Let them go elsewhere and leech off someone else”, snarled elderly resident Seymour Glass.

“They smell and look frightful in their dilapidated clothing”, sniffed one well dressed lady in disdain. She requested her name not be printed.

“The underbelly of society has always met indifference, apathy, and downright hostility.” lamented Carroll Brown, executive director of the Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries, continuing “The poor, ill and weak are easy prey to those who haunt their world.”

Thus the unasked question stands out starkly. Who haunts the world of the destitute in Connecticut? It is an elephant in the room that very few will discuss on the record if they even acknowledge exists.

One who speaks on the record is Kenneth Osgood a staff reporter for the Waterbury Republican American newspaper. He has seen things that can not be explained by what is normally considered to be true.

“There are too many exsanguinated bodies found with odd injuries. There are too many strange disappearances of hikers, hunters and people going off to commune with nature in our area woods. And certainly there is too much effort put into ignoring these events.” stated Osgood with intense conviction. He writes a column called the Osgood Observations and has a show on local radio station WATR 1320 AM that deals with bizarre happenings in the area called Osgood On the Odd.

“There are things out there that have killed many of the street people and that is the principle reason you no longer find them about. This is true for Waterbury, Hartford, New Haven and New Britain.” emphatically proclaimed Osgood.

Many scuff at his notions, but offer no credible explanation for the absence of street people in the urban centers of this state.