In the midst of a hot and damp summer, about a dozen unhoused Islanders who were living in tents in the woods in Tisbury were displaced after a collaborative effort among town officials and housing advocates, an occurrence that is renewing calls for more holistic services for the Island’s most vulnerable.
The local unhoused population came to public attention last summer after decades of behind-the-scenes efforts by some local groups to mitigate risk, but discussions were at the forefront again this week during an effort to resettle a campsite near the Park and Ride in Vineyard Haven, after unhoused individuals made multiple reports of violence to the police.
The displacement is a move that local advocates say underscores a growing need for a year-round shelter, and a comprehensive effort for assisting the population of locals without housing.
As witnessed by this reporter last Wednesday, the encampment included six tents spread out across a wide swath of land off walking trails — the bright orange and light gray canvas stark against the green brush.
The people who lived there — an estimated 10 to 12 residents, including longtime Islanders — were told a few days ago to be out of the area by Wednesday, July 23. Tisbury police asked Harbor Homes, a nonprofit that assists the unhoused population, to go with them to the sites and offer resources.
As of Monday, the campsites were mostly cleared out. The only evidence left after their relocation were charred, unrecognizable items from small fires, clothes draped over trees, empty containers of vodka and Smirnoff nips, shoes, cigarettes, a lone suitcase, and a torn notice asking residents to leave the area.
“Six or so tents were erected there, mostly housing individuals known to the town,” Mike Bellissimo, executive director of Harbor Homes, wrote in a statement. “The Tisbury Police contacted us proactively last Thursday, and asked for our assistance in resettling the population.”
While local officials said they have been somewhat tolerant of the activity there, especially since it’s been easier to enforce safe practices if they’re completely aware of where people are living, recent violence reached a breaking point. Unhoused people in some tents called the police on other unhoused individuals who were fighting amongst themselves and using illicit substances.
Police said there were screams that alerted the callers to the fighting. Visible and graphic injuries were documented by authorities, and the campers’ safety was in question, as well as the safety of officers who went out to the woods for those late night calls.
“As of late, there have been quite a few fights and dangers to our officers who have gone out there in the midnight shifts,” said Sgt. Max Sherman of the Tisbury Police Department.
Sherman also noted that he and his fellow officers were wary about the clearing last summer in the State Forest that displaced unhoused people on a large scale, orchestrated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). According to Sherman, they’re making an effort to deal with any current and future issues differently.
“Anything we do, we think about them as humans,” Sherman said. “It’s not a tent. It’s not a statistic. These are people.”
The displacement comes amid new reports from Harbor Homes that show that 66 families and 314 individuals across the Island are unhoused, defined as those without a residential address. According to the nonprofit, this campsite is one of many that are hidden off side roads, deep inside forests, and largely out of sight.
The new demographic reports show the number of Islanders who receive services from Harbor Homes each month has ranged from 29 people in June 2024 to a peak of 87 people in October of that year. This summer, services have ranged from 48 people served in May to 31 individuals in June. And the majority are employed — 143 locals who are unhoused have a paying job.
“The unhoused issue on this Island is a community problem,” Tisbury health agent Drew Belsky said in a statement. “It is the culmination of many systemic Island challenges, some of which may have affected people in your life. These challenges include the housing crisis, substance [use], and mental health. And the resources we do have available on-Island are overburdened or underfunded.” He said the recent resettlement is a reminder of the importance of a year-round shelter.
Harbor Homes offered their services to the unhoused individuals who were living by the Tisbury Park and Ride.
“To those who may want to make a connection to the clearing out of the State Forest last year, this action was nothing like that,” Bellissimo said. “We were given advance notice, we had the opportunity to assist and offer help to individuals affected, and everyone has been, and continues to be, treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve as fellow Islanders.”
While there’s no current year-round shelter for unhoused people on the Island, Harbor Homes has connections with shelters on the mainland, and frequently offers to resettle people there. Their search for a permanent location has been widely documented, after options fell through in the past few years, leading them to rely on the hospitality of local churches.
Harbor Homes staff also send qualifying individuals who need substance-use services to the Red House, a local recovery center, and house people as needed, sometimes in hotel rooms if stays are short-term and on an emergency basis, such as in cases of domestic violence.
The nonprofit holds hot lunches and dinners on some weekdays, and assists with shower access, laundry, and meals through a partnership with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and local businesses.
“Our mission is, as it has always been, to make homelessness on Martha’s Vineyard brief, rare, and nonrecurring,” Bellissimo said.
The number of people who are unhoused is rising countrywide, with housing issues at the forefront of political campaigns, state legislature, and local discussion. “This Island is very generous, and people are very kind — [But] we’re a microcosm of the country and the state. We’re not immune to the same issues of housing and homelessness,” Bellissimo continued.
While nonprofit services like Harbor Homes are honing their messaging and outreach, there is no substantial, regional municipal effort to assist the growing population of locals without a home. And the people who are living in sweltering tents, rained on, and exposed to the elements and tick-borne diseases, have very few places to go.
Attempts by The Times to reach those impacted were unsuccessful.
“It is unfortunate because some [camped by the Park and Ride] are doing well … [But] we can’t selectively enforce,” Sherman said. “This is obviously a bigger problem: a housing issue and access to resources issue. They feel a connection to this Island and feel like this is their home. And it’s not right now. [A tent] is not a healthy environment because it doesn’t have access to resources.”
If you or someone you know is unhoused or dealing with housing insecurity, contact Harbor Homes at (774)-563-3687. If you or someone you know is dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues, contact The Red House recovery center at (508)-693-2900, Community Services at (508)-693-7900, Health Imperatives at (508)-583-3005, or call/text 988 to reach the national crisis hotline.
There are some words and phrases in this article that some people here either do not know or will think that “unhoused” people deserve none of them; “a collaborative effort” ” more holistic services”
“most vulnerable” ” displacement” ” we think about them as humans,” “advance notice” ” assist and offer help to individuals affected” “dignity and respect” In addition “The nonprofit holds hot lunches and dinners on some weekdays, and assists with shower access, laundry, and meals through a partnership with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and local businesses.”
I will take this opportunity to commend the police and the dedicated people who care about this issue and other related one’s for their efforts. I fully expect to hear the vitriol from those who have a different point of view. It is my hope that this event will lead to a rational debate that may bring us closer to a viable and humane solution.
Different point of view is not vitriol. I have said repeatedly that the more you provide for the aimless idle morose and desultory the more you will have them migrate to the island from elsewhere. There are larger more comprehensive places in the USA who can deal with this. MV is not one of them.
Let other places deal with this? Not our precious island. But we already saw that when a plane load was quickly dispatched
Islanders supported unregulated immigration for the last 4 years
Now they have to deal with the fallout
The rest of the country sheds no tears for you
Andy– while we may agree that using a phrase like “the aimless idle morose and desultory” to describe a group of people may not be the classic definition of “vitriol” but it certainly comes close. If I ever described you or any of your friends with those words, you would certainly be offended. May I also point out how the article we are commenting on described many of the unhoused people — “an estimated 10 to 12 residents, including longtime Islanders “. I am not sure where you get the idea that any of them are ” migrate[ing] to the island from elsewhere” because they think they are welcome to put up a tent in the tick infested woods in Vineyard Haven. Sorry, Andy –this is a local problem that we are trying to deal with it. Perhaps this winter, as a truly humanitarian gesture ,we could raise some money and give these people free bus tickets to Melbourne Florida, and see how the fine upstanding residents of Melbourne deal with an unexpected busload of ” aimless idle morose and desultory” people who get dropped off at the bus stop a few blocks from your penthouse. And we could even inform them where they were going, and provide the return tickets in the spring if they choose to came back.
Mr. Engelman, you missed this part of the article: “And the majority are employed — 143 locals who are unhoused have a paying job.”
Calling people “aimless, idle morose and desultory”, sir, is just vitriol shrouded in flowery verbiage.
I’m confused.
Why are the residents of an indoor “deathtrap waiting to happen” [see another MVTimes article this week] not really talked about at all–let alone with a similar vocabulary of compassion the way these folks are in this article? Was there a note at the end of that “deathtrap” article with info on getting help finding suitable housing for those residents stuffed into one house? Aren’t those who live all jammed illegally into a basement or house with jerry-rigged rooms and too few bathrooms, deserving of words like “most vulnerable” and “collaborative effort” to get them into safe, legal digs? They have jobs, too. In the other article you see phrases like “stricter enforcement”, “dangerous living conditions”, “dire”, “condemned”, “imminent harm”, “unpermitted”, “infractions”, “broken rules”, but no kinder, gentler words of compassion for the residents caught up there the way we see here. Could not these dangerous and dire words be applied to the illegal, fire hazardous, unsanitary Tisbury campsite? The Tisbury evidence shows that there were campfires, and combined with the found alcohol and nip bottles, this suggests that an alcohol-fueled careless recklessness, was also a disaster waiting to happen. Fire. Where do campers go to the bathroom when there isn’t a bathroom? I am glad we no longer use words like vagrant, down-and-outer, outcast, bum, hobo, etc. for folks without a permanent home. But doesn’t home-less describe people without a permanent home in a perfectly reasonable way? I don’t get it.
Kinder, gentler language seems popular when it suits a certain kind of political…. what’s the word… oh yes, correctness. It’s hypocritical to show compassion for these homeless but none for those jammed into some basement, who happen all to be in need of a safe place to live.
Jackie– the Times only allows one comment on one subject per day. I am not saying that I think unhoused encampments such as the one that this article is about are a good thing. What I am saying is that the issue needs to be addressed as does the issue of overcrowded housing . My point was and is that these “campers” are people who for various reasons have wound up in these circumstances. I appreciated the way this “displacement” was executed and that the people were treated with respect. The way the state handled the encampments in the state forest was in my opinion a disgusting display of hatred and indifference. Because I disapprove of the way that was handled does not mean I think people should be be able to illegally camp there, or anywhere else. I just think it’s better to deal with what we all agree is a problem with kindness and compassion rather that with vilification, derogatory labels and hatred. And yes, I think political correctness,– “woke” if you will, rather than “maga” —is a better way to handle nearly everything .
The measure of a community is how we care for our least fortunate. Thank you for your comment, Don Keller.
“charred, unrecognizable items from small fires”
These fires have to stop before there’s a major emergency that threatens public safety or even gets someone killed. While homelessness is an important issue, worthy of solutions, no one has a right to put others at risk.
The gentle, “woke” way of handling an illegal encampment where “fights” and “screams” take place, as opposed to stricter enforcement of regulations already in place but ignored by those whose job it is to enforce the regulations, the Tisbury police, is not working. The other paper reported that Tisbury police were aware of people camping and “conducted a thorough cleaning last November to remove refuse and debris including drug needles”. What is to stop others who are reading this article from setting up yet another illegal campsite in the woods, complete with fire, alcohol, and needles, posing a serious threat to life and property, when they know, if caught, they’ll be handled with kid gloves? If you let them build it, and enforcement surely did exactly that, they will come and start a fire.
My first comment in reply to this was not approved, so i will make this one shorter, and not ask you to rank my hypothetical solutions that I thought you might approve of to this issue. So I will just ask you what you think is the best way to handle the problem ?
Build a bridge to the mainland so they can commute.
Picking up from Don Keller: Let’s have an Island-wide referendum on what would be the best solution for unhoused/homeless people. There’s been discussion that more buildings will just invite more people to live here. Vilifying people who have no place to live doesn’t seem to have worked real well, either. All the generalizations surrounding people without homes should not be in the discussion — “morose”, “unemployed”, “drug-addicted”, “people with mental problems”, etc. Undoubtedly some do meet this criteria, but clearly not all. Every day I feel very lucky that I washed ashore here 50+ years ago and was able to buy a house. Not everyone is so fortunate. So let’s open our hearts and minds and find a solution for this problem.
No one said ”all” Sara, Most is the actionable word. It is not vilifying to point out a safety issue for the Island. Yes adjectives to describe the people are necessary so that one knows what to do. Yes they are drug addicted and mental problems–not all but most/many. An” island wide referendum” is a bad idea. Making decisions by committee never works. Not shutting down this kind of thing invites even more and soon. Look at Tenderloin district San Francisco which used to be a great place.