Editor’s note: The select board will discuss the issue during a meeting on Tuesday, April 22. The meeting is scheduled for 4:30 pm.
Many Islanders and commuters are voicing frustration with the Tisbury select board’s decision to remove covered benches at the Vineyard Haven Steamship Authority terminal bus stop, which was made in order to discourage loitering and stop fights that have broken out in the area.
The town has received more than half a dozen written complaints about the decision as of last week, ranging from concerns that the elderly will have nowhere to sit out of the weather, and that the removals show a general disregard for travelers and the unhoused population. Some have also questioned why Tisbury Police, with its headquarters across the street from the bus stop, don’t patrol the area more, instead of removing the benches.
“I am writing as I am a 79-year-old resident who often takes the bus,” Joanna Fairchild, an ambassador to the M.V. Chamber of Commerce, wrote to the town. “There are times I have to wait for 20 to 30 minutes for a bus. It would be difficult to stand. Not to mention all our visitors who come in the season.”
Courtney Orwig of Tisbury asked what could be done to accommodate homeless people rather than simply removing the benches. “I believe we need to address the homeless population and drug problem with more empathy and creative solutions,” Orwig wrote. “Do we have a year-round homeless shelter, and what resources are available to drug addicts?”
The select board made the unanimous decision to remove the benches on March 31 after hearing police and transportation authorities’ concerns about passenger and driver safety. The vote also followed a January request for help from the VTA. The benches were taken away the following week, leaving only uncovered seating and the nearby Steamship Authority Ticket Office building.
Criticism has largely fallen on the town select board and police department, but police and the transit administrator behind the decision say the removals address serious concerns at an area that’s seen a year of worrying and even dangerous incidents.
Tisbury Police has kept a spreadsheet logging 25 reported incidents at the bus stop since April 2024. The document offers snapshots of police interactions with people struggling with housing issues, mental health issues, and drugs.
“Wanted free ride to overnight shelter. [Tisbury Police Department] provided transport,” one incident description reads; “one of the unhoused parties sick on private property,” reads another, with another describing someone “yelling and pushing and shoving. No willing victims for A&B.”
In one of the more serious incidents, police reported that a homeless man was yelling at and kicking the vehicles of passengers waiting to board a 6 am ferry. He was later arrested.
The spreadsheet also shows town police’s heightened attention to the area, noting 332 property checks, patrols, or calls there from April 2024 through March 2025. Leading up to the select board’s vote, police also mentioned complaints from nearby apartment dwellers about behavior at the stop.
Angie Gompert, administrator of the Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA), which runs the stop, said that the VTA values its homeless passengers in a statement to The Times. But the stop has long been a concern for drivers and passengers. “The VTA welcomes all members of the community, including those experiencing homelessness. Many of our unhoused neighbors use the bus system respectfully and without issue, and they are just as entitled to ride as anyone else,” she wrote. “However, over time, the specific location saw a pattern of chronic gatherings that, unfortunately, resulted in repeated incidents of verbal abuse toward our vehicle operators, people punching and kicking property, and behavior that left riders and vehicle operators feeling unsafe.”
When it comes to impacts to the terminal area at large, the move has also raised safety concerns for the nearby Steamship Ticket office, which has a covered entrance and ample waiting area inside. The Steamship told The Times that they have been working with the police department and Harbor Homes on a strategy concerning unhoused people around the terminal, and that the ferry line’s employees have been directed to enforce their policy against loitering at terminals.
But while Gompert and police hope the removals will encourage loiterers to move on, they acknowledge that homelessness will continue to be an issue on Martha’s Vineyard.
Tisbury Police Chief Chris Habekost says the removals will address safety concerns, short of constantly patrolling the stop. “The idea [behind the removals] was to still provide shelter, but discourage people from lying down and sleeping in there, which is not illegal, but tends to dominate the benches, which may preclude other people from using the benches,” Habekost said. “We already have a very strong and frequent presence in this area, but we are currently understaffed, and are unable to provide a constant presence there, due to other duties, responsibilities, and calls for service elsewhere in town.”
Habekost is also well aware of Vineyarders’ calls for more humane treatment of people at risk, and that routinely arresting people does not solve homelessness. “Many people say publicly that they want the government to be kinder and gentler with these individuals, but then say that they want them to be arrested by the police when they enter ‘their’ spaces … Homelessness is a community issue that is not going away anytime soon, and repeatedly arresting people is not a long-term solution,” he said.
“Ultimately, this is a complex issue — one that touches on broader societal challenges, including affordable housing and mental health resources,” Gompert wrote. “We remain committed to working with our local partners to find compassionate, community-focused solutions, while also maintaining the safety, dignity, and comfort of all VTA passengers.”
Pushback from the community over the board’s decision has been swift. By April 9, the select board had received nine letters from Tisbury and other towns, all challenging them to defend their vote. News of the removals also garnered about a hundred Facebook comments as of last week, largely critical of the town and transit authority. Vineyarders on the Islanders Talk group were concerned about exposing people to the elements, where else homeless people would go, and doubts that the removals will stop misconduct.
“As someone who was born and raised in Vineyard Haven and started using the [transit authority] at a young age, I am disappointed at this blatant lack of regard for more vulnerable members of our community who rely on basic accommodations, such as a place to sit, in order to access public transit and the community more broadly,” Lena Hanschka wrote, asking the town to reconsider.
It’s not just public commenters who want a better bus stop. Cindy Trish is the executive director at Healthy Aging M.V., a Tisbury-based elder advocate organization. Her group is a member of the Island’s Older Adult Transportation Coalition, of which the transit authority is also an active partner. Speaking to The Times, Trish didn’t recall any mention of the bench removals among the coalition, and she hopes attention to the bus stop will yield more accessibility for seniors Island-wide.
“It’s not always the best solution to be waiting outside without a bench, or even outside [in general],” she said. “This could be a great catalyst to think about how across the Island we can work together on this topic.”
The bench removals also come at a difficult time for at-risk Vineyarders, as the Harbor Homes group is looking for a new, permanent shelter location, and the Red House addiction support center has gotten notice that it will lose its lease.
A question to ALL: words like “empathy” and “compassion” and “innovation” mean WHAT? Are we saying that public safety and a semblance of public decorum are secondary to to a miscreant? Solutions please.
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Hello,
Why not put a camera looling at bus stop at PD dispatch if they see an issue than send unit to deal with it. A good color pan tilt zoom (ptz) should not cost that much. Instead of punishing the law abiding citizens and visitors. Thank you
A simple solution would be to install benches with a center arm rest which prevents anyone from lying down.
Good idea!
The number one priority of law enforcement is to assure that public accommodations are safe and accessible to the public that they serve, especially those who are most vulnerable such as the disabled and elderly. Striping the public of public accommodations while kowtowing to a small minority of miscreants instead of enforcing laws goes against their mandate, the public’s safety and the community’s greater good. VH law enforcement, We support you fully. Please do your job.
Put in seating that isn’t open benches. If there’s an armrest between where every derriere goes, then nobody can lay down, but people can sit.
Instead of addressing the actual problem they decide to hide the problem and punish the people they wish didn’t exist. Typical!
We need more benches, not fewer.
The Vineyard Haven Police Department should have regular foot and bicycle patrols downtown and the Steamship Authority. Visibility is the best deterrent not removing comfort for the elderly and regular users of the transit authority.
This report seemed to be almost entirely focused on the “problem” of homeless or others (mis)using the benches but more or less totally ignores why the benches are there: for the relief of the traveling public waiting for buses. We need more benches and shelters from the hot sun. In fact, in the summer the temperature is sweltering inside the bench structure. Do VTA officials ever actually travel the VTA?
And think about creating an area in the Town parking lot, near the Police Station, where homeless people can hang out in the daytime. There is plenty of space there to do something like that.
Follow the advice to install benches with arm rests.
Put up webcams to monitor both areas.
Do real problem-solving.
A brief article about the electric ferries of Norway… https://www.awe.international/article/1906941/norways-first-electric-ferry-marks-10-years-success
Why is it that police departments always cry They are understaffed when they’re just supposed to be doing their job. The police department across the island have multimillion dollar budgets and it is just mind blowing when they use understaffed as an excuse.
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