Melissa Bailey Photo
After watching the Brookside projects next door get razed and rebuilt, Esther Pearson is hoping the same transformation can soon take place in her own remote public-housing complex.
“If I die before you get this done,” she told one housing authority staffer, “you’ll have to put my body somewhere!”
Pearson (pictured), who’s 75, is a tenant leader at the Abraham Ribicoff Cottages. The city housing authority’s Board of Commissioners has taken a step forward towards a long-discussed plan to tear down the cottages near Hamden’s border in the shadow of West Rock and rebuild a new development on that spot.
The board last week approved an application to the federal government to update its annual plan to include a proposal to tear down the Cottages and Extension and rebuild the dilapidated development from scratch. It also sent in a proposal to rehabilitate two small housing projects, the Valley Townhouses and Fairmont Heights.
The Ribicoff Cottages comprise 100 apartments for the elderly and disabled tucked way into the back of West Rock behind the Brookside projects, a much larger development that was already torn down and is now being rebuilt. The $45 million first phase of the redevelopment, 101 apartments is rapidly coming to a close; the first families are set to move back in there later this month. The city housing authority has long planned to redo the cottages after finishing Brookside and the nearby Rockview development.
For Beryl Karas (pictured), who has lived at Ribicoff for 15 years, demolition day can’t come soon enough.
“We’ve been asking them to do it for five years,” she said.
The single-story cottages were built in 1950. Drainage is a major problem: When it rains, “we get a flood,” Karas said. Tenants have long complained of mold and other problems. Two years ago, the authority was moved to action after news of overgrown weeds and bushes and clogged sewer drains at the complex.
Jimmy Miller, the housing authority’s deputy executive director, said the redevelopment would cost $300,000 per apartment, or $25 million to $30 million to rebuild.
“It was always our intention to redevelop Ribicoff,” Miller said. He said the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) is still trying to figure out if it’s doable.
HANH plans to issue a Request For Proposals next week seeking a private developer to partner with the authority on the project.
Miller said HANH is also doing a feasibility study on the project, including zoning and environmental issues. It will spend the next few months figuring that out, as well as identifying a property management company and general contractor willing to do the job.
By June, Miller said, HANH will have identified partners for the project and figured out “whether it’s feasible or not.” Then HANH would apply in September for state tax credits for the project.
“If all goes well,” Miller said, HANH would close a deal in the summer of 2013 and set to work tearing down the cottages.
Miller said HANH plans to explore the possibility of redeveloping — but not demolishing — the Valley Townhouses and Fairmount Heights along the same timeframe. The Valley Townhouses in West Rock, built in 1965, comprise 40 homes for individuals and families. The homes need new roofing, a new heating system, and new siding, Miller said. An investment of $7 million to $8 million would extend the life of the project by 40 to 50 years, Miller said.
Fairmont Heights is a 98-unit mid-rise senior/disabled development at 70/72 Fairmont Heights in Fair Haven. The complex needs a new roof and doors. It’s the lowest of the three priorities, Miller said.
While the other two complexes can make do with improvements, Ribicoff needs a complete overhaul, Miller said.
“We need to tear it down and do systemic improvements,” mainly because of sewage and drainage problems, Miller said.
Meanwhile, HANH is making accommodations for Ribicoff residents to move into nearby housing in anticipation of their homes being razed. One item the board approved at its monthly meeting last Tuesday gives Ribicoff residents dibs on open apartments at a senior housing complex being built at 122 Wilmot Rd, as well as at the new Brookside development.
Miller said families who used to live at Brookside were given first preference in the apartments. HANH reached out to all the families who used to live there, some of whom left as long ago as 1999. Only 40-some families expressed desire to return, Miller said. The first wave of them is set to move back in later this month, as soon as the city issues a certificate of occupancy on the first 15 to 20 units, Miller said.
After claiming spots for those families, HANH is reserving spots for Ribicoff residents seeking to get a start on their eventual relocation.
The group includes 68-year-old Karas, who has already signed up for a studio apartment at the brand new development next door. She said she hopes to return to Ribicoff one day.
Esther Pearson, president of the tenant council at Ribicoff, said she personally isn’t excited about moving into Brookside.
“I don’t want to go nowhere where there’s a lot of children,” she said. She did say she’s eager to see her complex undergo the same rebirth as Brookside did next door.
“We’ve been waiting a long time,” said Pearson in an interview in her kitchen this week. Pearson, who’s 75, been involved in countless meetings about the future of her home dating back for years.
She recalled joking with a housing authority staffer about the seemingly endless process: “If I die before you get this done, you’ll have to put my body somewhere!”
She said tenants need to get together to round up their ideas for the future complex and make sure they’re incorporated in development plans.
Cynthia Murray-Howie (pictured) said she’s skeptical of the latest timetable for the redevelopment. She said she won’t leave until she has to.
Even though the mold in her house triggers her asthma and emphysema, she said she’s happy where she is.
“I don’t want to move,” she said. “I love it here. It’s quiet, it’s country-like.”
“I would love for it to be redone,” she said — “so long as we can come back.”