Great Barrington—It’s hard being homeless.
David Magadini, Town Moderator candidate and homeless resident who calls the gazebo behind Town Hall home, had most of his portable belongings confiscated by town workers and police Friday (May 8), after several requests last month from the town to find another place for his things.
“I saved one wire shopping cart and I got my Bible that I had inside the gazebo,” Magadini wrote The Edge, after his things were removed at around 8:30 a.m. “My CVS bag with all my research about homeless people as a protected class was taken — that I took everywhere with me.”
In mid-April Magadini, who has adopted a homeless condition of living, said that in response to requests by the town, he had “filled two trash cans in the gazebo, and packed up and moved three wire shopping carts filled with things which I had sorted and dried out at the laundry during the early morning hours.” Selectboard member Sean Stanton, who Magadini said was acting on behalf of Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin, had asked him to move his things.
Tabakin confirmed that the items Magadini had accumulated at the gazebo had been removed, but she declined to comment on the matter.
Magadini, 69, complied, and then said he “returned my three shopping carts to the gazebo,” on which he placed signs that said “PRIVATE PERSONAL PROPERTY. KEEP OUT. NO TRESPASSING.”
Magadini said that Stanton asked him if he were “still camping at the park.” Magadini said he replied that he was not camping, but “residing” there. He said that he and Stanton agreed to disagree on the matter.
The cascading effects of homelessness continue to trip Magadini up. In January he applied for a post office box using the address “334 Main Street, Gazebo,” and was refused for lack of “proper physical address” along with lack of “proper identification.”
“The address on the application does not receive mail delivery,” wrote Great Barrington Postmaster Michael Witkowski. “The ‘Gazebo’ is physically there but is a public space.”
“This is why I need a post office box,” Magadini explained to The Edge.
Winters are hard. Magadini was convicted on September 29 for seven violations over the previous year in Great Barrington that occurred during the cold months, and later picked up two new charges, one at the Great Barrington post office, the other at the Day’s Inn on Main Street and Taconic Ave./St. James Place.
Magadini’s was placed on pre-trial probation, with the condition that he abide by no-trespass orders at the above named hotels and the properties he was convicted of entering, and that he enter the post office only on “official post office business.”
Magadini placed an article by petition on the annual town meeting warrant that sought to a homeless bill of rights for the town, but was unable to get to the meeting at Monument Mountain Regional High School. He tried to get a taxi service, but he was refused, he said.
As a result, the article was passed over and not given consideration.
As candidate for Moderator, Magadini says he is committed to the parliamentary process of the open town meeting, and says he will “encourage all citizens to participate,” as well as to “find new ways to enable more citizens to be able to vote at Open Town Meetings.”
Magadini says he wants to “make everybody feel welcome to express his or her opinion on any matter considered.”
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