Burgers, Not Bankruptcy,
For One Housing Co-Op

The Henry Knox Co-op almost went the way of other 1960s-era New Haven housing experiments: bankruptcy and foreclosure. Instead, it emerged intact, with some original neighbors still in the house — and flipping burgers together at a block party.

The co-op on Artizan Street, nicknamed ​“Friendship Apartments,” last had a block party in 1974. Judging from the one neighbors organized Saturday afternoon, they still remember how to throw a bash.

Organized by the co-op’s occupants and managing board, the block party featured music, dancing, dominoes, barbecue ribs, and inflatable games for children. The purpose? Just to get together and have fun.

“People just don’t do this any more!” board member Arayna Dixon said as she flipped hamburgers on a large grill.

The party brought laughter and good fun to one of Friendship’s green areas. The rest of the co-op consists of blocks of concrete apartments, fenced on one side by the railroad tracks off State Street and on the other by the fire department’s New Brutalist headquarters.

“We’ve been around for 44 years, and we’d only had one block party,” said Milton Carter (pictured below), who serves as vice-president of the co-op’s board. ​“We thought it was about time to do something to bring unity to the community and do something nice for people.”

Carter explained that the co-op’s previous board had been too busy fending off the threat of bankruptcy to focus on having a good time.

“When the old board came, we were about to lose the place,” he said. ​“They did their bit. They saved us from foreclosure.”

Now that times are better, it’s time for the new board to focus on making the community better instead of just assuring it survives.

A Success Story

The Henry Knox Co-op is one of several co-ops built in the 1960s amid hopes that government-backed co-ops could provide safe and affordable housing for low-income working families. For years that concept worked. Now, four decades later, many of those co-ops are gradually failing and falling into private hands.

Not so with Friendship Apartments. Thanks to the efforts of three generations of dedicated board members, the community is thriving.

That’s not to say that Friendship did not undergo its share of challenges. With buildings badly in need of repair and the treat of foreclosure in the air, prospects looked grim 20 years ago.

“Basically, we were in trouble,” said Carter.

Then a new board came in and got to work. Led by Treasurer Naomi Campbell — who still lives in the Co-op and still serves on the board — board members secured a six-figure loan and fended off bankruptcy. They hired a Cheshire company called Connecticut Real Estate to work as their management agent and do major repair and maintenance projects. (Alyssa Pillion, the company’s president-owner, declined to comment over the phone).

Two decades later, the fruits of the work are there for everyone to see. Thanks to the neighbors’ fees, the loan is almost completely paid and the co-op remains a co-op.

“We the people own the place,” said Carter, a note of pride in his voice. ​“There’s no big company that owns us.”

Carter, who joined the board two years ago, said the co-op’s recipe for success includes effective management, transparency — and, of course, co-operation.

“If co-ops want to survive, the people need to know what’s going on,” he said. ​“They need to be able to get in contact with the board. The people in our community know that they can call me any time, 24 hours a day, and that we will respond immediately.”

Carter said that he makes sure that every board member reads the co-op’s budget plans.

“I basically go through our budget and then send a copy of the report to every board member,” he said. ​“The finances are with the board, and the people know what’s with the board, so everybody knows what’s going on.”

The most important part, though, is to make sure that the board stays cooperative and doesn’t succumb to the kind of infighting that has sunk other similar projects.

“There’s no ​‘I’ in ​‘board,” said Carter ​“It’s always ​‘us.’”

Looking Forward

Friendship’s board members don’t like to talk about the past. They said that they prefer to focus on the future, because a lot remains to be done.

Take sidewalks, for example. CT Real Estate has done ​“a great job” in making repairs on the Co-op’s buildings, board members remarked, but the same cannot be said about the city’s work on surrounding streets. Carter said that Friendship is currently in the middle of a ​“huge fight” with the city about that matter.

“We just want to get the same treatment that the rest of the city is getting,” he said. ​“They are fixing sidewalks everywhere, but not in our street. They say they don’t have money. But we aren’t going to let them treat us like that just because we are a co-op.”

The board is also working closely with the police department to establish a cop watch program

Another big project is a major renovation of the co-op’s buildings.

“Check us out next year,” said Carter, ​“because the whole place is going to look different.”