Markeshia Ricks Photo
DuBois-Walton: We’re ready.
The owner of the crumbling Church Street South housing complex asked New Haven’s housing authority to take charge of finding new homes for up to 50 families — and received a yes in principle.
The request came during a meeting with Housing Authority of New Haven Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton; Serena Neal-Sanjuro of city government’s neighborhoods anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI); and two officials from Northland Investment Corp., the Massachusetts-based company that owns the 301-unit subsidized housing complex across from the train station.
The meeting took place Thursday at the 195 Church St. office of the quasi-public Economic Development Corporation.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Some of the Church Street South families temporarily crammed into hotel rooms at La Quinta Inn & Suites.
There, Northland told DuBois-Walton that it intends to accept an offer from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to give up to 50 Church Street South families Section 8 vouchers they can take elsewhere to live. (Update: HUD confirmed Friday that Northland has communicated that message.)
HUD currently gives Northland up to $3 million a year in Section 8 rental subsidies to house Church Street South familiies. But the complex has become unlivable for many families: As of Thursday LCI has condemned 13 apartments and ordered Northland to put the families living there up in hotel rooms, and the city has issued orders to fix or replace 17 out of 19 of the complex’s roofs as well as dozens of other orders to make emergency repairs.
The growing consensus among all parties is that the compex is too far gone to be repaired, that instead it should be razed and rebuilt as a mixed-income, mixed-use development.
In the meantime, as many as 50 or even 100 or more families may suddenly need a place to live.
DuBois-Walton told Northland Thursday that the authority can handle the job and is willing to do it.
“That’s a service we know how to do,” she said in a subsequent interview.
But HANH needs details before it can negotiate a price for the job, including whether it will seek temporary vouchers for families while their apartments get fixed up; or permanent vouchers so families can relocate indefinitely.
Short-term, families would probably want to stay within a few New Haven neighborhoods and parts of Hamden and West Haven, DuBois told the Independent. Based on experience, she speculated that permanent vouchers would offer families an “opportunity” to “go Charlotte N.C.,” say, or “back home in Puerto Rico.”
The biggest challenge will involve finding four or five-bedroom apartments for the biggest families. Church Street South was one of the few places in town with a significant supply of such apartments.
HANH would begin with the 13 families living in hotels, and hold a community meeting at Church Street South, DuBois-Walton said. Then it would interview the families, assess their needs, learn their preferences for new homes.
Then HANH would look for landlords with whom to place the families. The authority’s own developments are pretty much full, DuBois-Walton said.
Mayor Toni Harp expressed confidence in an interview Thursday on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” that the city will bea ble to find new homes for all the families — though perhaps not all within city limits.
Northland Chairman Laurence Gottesdiener late Thursday afternoon praised “the constructive spirit that HANH brought to the meeting today.”
He said Northland intends to work promptly with HUD to accept the offer of the 50 vouchers. He said the company prefers the permanent rather than the temporary vouchers.
“We do not want families sitting in limbo, and we are not trying to preserve the subsidies for our benefit (even though we understand that they are valuable),” he wrote in an email message. “We are going to immediately engage HANH to help us improve the health, safety, and comfort of the displaced families, and any other families that need to be relocated for health reasons.”
Thomas MacMillan FIle Photo
The latest developments elicited cautious approval from Amy Marx (pictured), a New Haven Legal Assistance (NHLAA) attorney whose actions on behalf of tenants brought HUD and Northland to the table.
She called discussions have started “moving in an extremely positive direction” and “have come a long way” since her agency’s initial fights with Northland.
She stressed the importance now of Northland communicating clearly “from the corporate level” to tenants about plans for relocation, giving tenants time and the needed help to relocate, ensuring they receive “quality housing in safe neighborhoods with adqueate acess to their life needs, including their children’s schools, their bus routes, and their family connections.” Marx also said tenants should have the right to return to a rebuilt Church Street South.
She argued that 50 vouchers won’t solve the crisis. Around 20 families are already in hotels, including some Northland moved at legal aid’s request. To date 50 Church Street South families have already contacted NHLAA for help.
“Every day new tenants contact us,” Marx said. “Many tenants refer to families and friends who will be calling.”
Previous coverage of Church Street South:
• Welcome Home
• Shoddy Repairs Raise Alarm — & Northland Offer
• Northland Gets Default Order — & A New Offer
• HUD, Pike Step In
• Northland Ordered To Fix Another 17 Roofs
• Church Street South Evacuees Crammed In Hotel
• Church Street South Endgame: Raze, Rebuild
• Harp Blasts Northland, HUD
• Flooding Plagues Once-Condemned Apartment
• Church Street South Hit With 30 New Orders
• Complaints Mount Against Church Street South
• City Cracks Down On Church Street South, Again
• Complex Flunks Fed Inspection, Rakes In Fed $$
• Welcome Home — To Frozen Pipes
• City Spotted Deadly Dangers; Feds Gave OK
• No One Called 911 | “Hero” Didn’t Hesitate
• “New” Church Street South Goes Nowhere Fast
• Church Street South Tenants Organize