Allan Appel Photo
Carr has lived at Farnam Courts for 22 years, Ransom for 46.
If the housing authority succeeds with a plan to demolish and redevelop the World War Two-era townhouses at Farnam Courts, Nezzie Ransom plans to return to plant a backyard garden of tulips, daisies, and roses.
Today she has neither garden nor yard. For her dream to come true, the authority needs to win a $30 million federal grant, one of only five to be awarded nationwide.
Ransom and her friend Ida Carr are respectively treasurer and sergeant-at-arms of the tenant council at Farnam Courts. They were among 30 tenants who gathered in the community room last Thursday night to fill out a “needs assessment” form and to declare if they would want to return to a reconceived and rebuilt Farnam or move into to-be-created off-site locations.
The tenant meeting is a requirement for a $30 million federal Choice Neighborhood Implementation (CNI) grant, which the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) is seeking in order to transform from the ground up an aging development.
“This is Obama’s version of Hope VI,” said Shenae Draughn, the authority’s executive project manager, who chaired the meeting.
The key idea is not just new bricks and mortar but transformation of a neighborhood. Click here for an article about problems that have plagued Farnam, including being isolated by the double whammy of I‑91 and the Mill River light industrial zone.
Farnam tenant Zuleika Aponte said that while the Grand Avenue D bus comes every 10 minutes and takes her generally where she needs to go, the only stores walkable from Farnam are Ferraro’s Market and the Hollywood Package store directly across Grand Avenue.
The authority has used Hope VI-style grants to create Monterey Place on the grave of the old Elm Haven projects in Dixwell, and the scenic Quinnipiac Terrace in Fair Haven. They replace old-style “projects” for largely low-income people with affordable housing, market-rate rental, and privately owned homes, as well as stores and social services.
Although plans are still in the very early stages, the new Farnam is being reimagined as a far less dense development with these features, said Draughn.
Among the main elements of the plan:
• The current densely packed 240 one-to three-bedroom townhouses will be replaced with only 120 houses on the site itself; that will make possible those yards and gardens Nezzie Ransom referred to.
• Of the 120 on-site units, 70 percent will be affordable, 30 percent market rate.
• Because the authority must at minimum and by law replace each unit demolished, the plan calls for an additional 50 units to be provided somewhere in Fair Haven.
• An additional 100 units will be provided not in Fair Haven but somewhere within Greater New Haven. These units, often referred to as “scattered site housing,” have to be in areas not “impacted by poverty or minorities,” said Draughn. No specific sites have bene mentioned.
• These “non-impacted” areas must be no more than 25 miles from Farnam. (Hello, Woodbridge?)
Draughn said the locations and types of units off-site can’t be pinned down until a co-developer is brought in to partner with HANH. That co-developer will bring to the table land and buildings or at least options on properties where the off-site units can be created.
Draughn said that the city of New Haven itself has very few “non-impacted” areas.
“That means opportunities for residents outside of Fair Haven” and even the city, Draughn added. The authority has sent out a request for proposals from potential co-developers.
Another requirement for the CNI grant is that $4.5 million of the total go toward social supports for tenants. Those could include low-cost car loans for transportation to a job, early childhood care, and employment training.
Aponte and Vazquez.
That is good news to Lorna Vazquez. She aspires to work in an office setting with computers. To improve her English language and computer skills, she travels in a HANH van to the agency’s computer and learning center on Wilmot Road at its West Rock developments. Those services would be closer to home in a new Farnam.
She has been living with her daughter at Farnam for 11 years. She said she’d like to return but not to Farnam itself even when a transformation is complete. She prefers one of the off-site locations to be nearer to her mom on Lombard Street.
Her friend Zuleika Aponte wrote on her needs assessment form that she’d like to return to Farnam proper because her mom wants it that way.
Eventually when she’s able to get her own place, Aponte said, she is moving to East Haven. “New Haven’s too wild for me.”
Draughn said that while the grant is highly competitive and the submission deadline is fast approaching in April, HANH’s track record in winning such transformational large grants is good. So she’s optimistic.
Another community meeting is scheduled for March 8 at the Columbus Family Academy at Grand and Blatchley.
HANH should get results in the fall. If the authority is successful, officials foresee needing a year to design the building and another 16 to 18 months to construct.
Nezzie Ransom huddled up with Wooster Square Alderman Michael Smart, who was also in attendance at Thursday night’s meeting. Farnam Courts is in his ward. Then she said she is going to get herself on the tenant steering committee to contribute design ideas.
She looked off into the distance. “I picture it my head: Move all the seniors near Grand. I see a community room close to the seniors. Fewer steps. My own little backyard.”