Blue and red lights flashed on the white curtains of the front windows in the darkness of early dawn as I left for my shift at Saint Rafael’s Hospital.
While emergency service vehicles are not uncommon on my downtown block, the square of sidewalk delineated by caution tape was unsettling. Even more so was the body in the center, covered only by a thin, stained white sheet. Based on the contour of the body, I immediately knew who it was: the young man who regularly slept on the stoop of the building next door.
Through the news media following his death, I learned he was a cook and bouncer who lost his job, then his housing during the height of the COVID pandemic. Once living on the streets, he became a recognized advocate for those experiencing homelessness in New Haven. Though there was never a specific cause of death named, the police eventually believed it was secondary to a medical condition…