Melissa Bailey Photo
As the first wood rises on a new public housing complex in West Rock, attention turned to building not just housing but ties with a university — and tearing down a fence with the neighboring town.
That was the message as former tenants joined dignitaries Wednesday morning to celebrate the start of construction of a long-delayed project to rebuild the Brookside public housing complex at the base of West Rock Park.
The original Brookside development was razed in 2008 after housing families for 50 years. Plans to rebuild it as well as the neighboring Rockview development as a mixed-income neighborhood have been in the works for over a decade. Construction crews first broke ground last February on the project.
On Wednesday morning, a spectator pointed through the rain toward where wooden beams are rising from a cement foundation. That’s the beginning of what will be 101 apartments, comprising a $45 million Phase I of the project.
Those apartments plus 20 owner-occupied homes should be completed by February 2012, according to Jimmy Miller, deputy director of the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH).
Phase II of Brookside, another 101 rental units, should begin in the fall, Miller said. The construction is part of a $200 million West Rock Revitalization Project to redo the Brookside and Rockview projects. Rockview, across from 295 Wilmot Rd., was razed in 2002.
The housing projects lasted 50 years, which was “50 years too short,” said HANH Chair Bob Solomon. He said he expects the new community to last 100 years.
Mayor John DeStefano said the project has been “one of the hardest to build consensus around” in his 18 years in office. While downtown high-rises like 360 State St. get more attention, Brookside was a lot more difficult to put together, he said.
The work isn’t done, he cautioned.
“This project is not going to be successful, I believe, unless we do three things.”
First, DeStefano said, “we’ve got to get the roads open to Hamden.”
“This has got to become not a dead-end cul-de-sac, but a set of through streets.”
Workers secure the construction scene at the new Brookside apartments.
He was referring to a double-layer chain link fence that Hamden has kept up for decades to keep out West Rock housing project tenants in the name of avoiding potential crime. The fence also blocks a road and keeps out all the people living by the city-town border. For decades the fence has stood as a symbol of closed opportunity to project tenants: They have to take two buses, and sometimes travel hours, to get to jobs or shopping just past the fence across the town border.
DeStefano said he hopes the new complex will demonstrate that “the folks here are decent, and care about the same things as everybody else.”
“We’ve got to change some minds in Hamden,” he said.
HANH’s Miller said Wednesday he’s optimistic that if HANH builds a viable community at Brookside, Hamden will take the fence down. Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson said as much in an interview last year—click here and here for past stories on the controversy.
Second, DeStefano said Wednesday, “we’ve got to introduce some commercial activity” to the isolated area.
Miller said HANH plans to get going soon on a separate project that aims to do just that. The housing authority plans to replace an abandoned strip mall and three former churches at 122 Wilmot Rd. with 11,000 square feet of retail space, as well as 47 units of housing for seniors and people with disabilities. The housing authority plans to sell bonds to support the project and start work this summer.
Third, DeStefano said, to make Brookside successful, “we’ve got to get Southern [Connecticut State University] involved up here.” It’s the biggest undergraduate college in the city, and it’s right near West Rock, he noted.
Southern “is a powerful institution in our community,” he said. “Integrating Southern is in their interest, and it’s in this community’s interest to do that.” He didn’t say exactly how he foresees students getting involved.
Miller said Southern has already been involved in the planning process for the development: A university official sits on the board of the West Rock Implementation Committee, which has been hashing out the details of the project.
The city is paying $9 million in infrastructure costs to support the $200 million project, according to Miller. The city is building a network of new streets to lead to the new homes. Previously, there was only one road in and out of the complex — Brookside Avenue.
The streets will be named after West Rocker notables and other people who made the project possible — people like Catherine Hawthorne, a 35-year employee of the housing authority. While the project passed through the hands of a series of executive directors, Hawthorne provided continuity, said HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton.
DuBois-Walton honored her by unveiling a new street sign (pictured) for Catherine Way. She called Hawthorne a “quiet hero.”
The Watleys.
On the other side of the complex, near the Abraham Ribicoff apartments, West Rocker Yul Watley’s construction company is building 20 owner-occupied homes. Watley’s wife, Angel (at right in photo), and his daughters Barbara Watley (at left) and Yulonja Hoskie (standing) captured the moment Wednesday on video. For the Watleys, who used to live in West Rock, the redevelopment is a family affair. Following in the footsteps of her father, Hoskie is starting her own hot dog company at several public housing sites.