by | Sep 21, 2023 9:00 am | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen file photo
The former Doyle's dry cleaners at 203 Alden Ave.
A contaminated ex-dry cleaners and an abandoned ex-school are steps closer to transforming from neighborhood eyesores into over 60 new apartments.
by | Sep 20, 2023 9:11 am | Comments (15)
Laura Glesby photo
Alder Adam Marchand: A land bank allows city housing initiatives to "compete."
Alders unanimously voted to form a land bank, issuing the final seal of approval on a long-brewing plan to create a quasi-public nonprofit designed to purchase blighted houses, rehabilitate them, and sell them at below-market prices to owner-occupants.
by | Sep 19, 2023 12:07 pm | Comments (16)
A rendering of the 4 new homes slated for Hazel St.
Eight potential homes and four more homeowners could be coming to Hazel Street — if a local nonprofit gets zoning relief to build denser-than-usual housing at a discount for buyers.
Continue reading ‘4 New 2-Family Houses Planned For Hazel St.’
by | Sep 15, 2023 2:43 pm | Comments (39)
Thomas Breen photos
Mandy Management CEO Yudi Gurevitch, at 399 Whalley main office: "We want our tenants, our residents to be happy, to feel safe, to have a good home. ... [W]e want them to feel that we're responsive, that we're there. Because we are."
At the warehouse, with a handful of plumbing supplies.
Inside a Wallace Street warehouse filled with refrigerators and stoves and plywood and snow blowers and water heaters and closet doors and toilets and sheetrock, Yudi Gurevitch engaged in the latest step of retooling, and rebuilding the reputation of, one of New Haven’s largest landlord empires. He wedged himself in between two shelves overflowing with plumbing supplies and lifted up one of dozens of plastic-wrapped SharkBite fittings.
“The goal is to have everything you could ever need for a property management company in stock,” he said. That way, when a Mandy Management property needs repairs — big or small, day or night — his company has the right parts ready to go.
Continue reading ‘"We're Not Sharks": Next Gen Mandy Aims To Do Better’
by | Sep 13, 2023 2:30 pm | Comments (13)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Ocean's Shmuel Aizenberg and attorney Ian Gottlieb in court Tuesday.
A state judge turned down a megalandlord’s request to have a potential criminal record scrubbed clean — after determining that the head of Ocean Management did not qualify for “accelerated rehabilitation” because he is likely to get in trouble again and end up back in housing court.
by | Sep 13, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (10)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Photos of Petrulis on display at his memorial service.
Organizer Billy Bromage calls for more people to pick up Petrulis' fight by joining U-ACT and supporting the groups' demands.
The brother of the late homeless rights advocate Keith Petrulis sent a message from California to a church full of grieving New Haveners — thanking a community of unhoused activists for serving as family to the sibling he never knew, and calling for cross-country housing justice to prevent more people from dying alone on the streets.
Continue reading ‘Memorial Uplifts Activist's Fighting Spirit’
by | Sep 11, 2023 4:23 pm | Comments (34)
Laura Glesby photo
Developer Yves Joseph and Mayor Justin Elicker at "Canal Place."
“We are building, building, building,” Mayor Justin Elicker declared before the rising metal skeleton of what will eventually become 168 mixed-income apartments, in a part of the city rendered nearly unrecognizable by a flood of new housing construction.
Continue reading ‘168 More Apartments On The Rise In Dixwell’
by | Sep 8, 2023 3:29 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen file photo
At a recent protest against Ocean's Blake St. eviction filings.
A megalandlord has walked back on threats to evict 16 tenants and agreed to negotiate on lease security, rent stability and living conditions — after members of the city’s first legally recognized tenants union used public and legal pressure to hang on to their homes.
Continue reading ‘Ocean Rescinds Eviction Notices After Union Pushback’
by | Sep 7, 2023 10:34 am | Comments (35)
Thomas Breen file photo
A tent on the Green in late August: On which public lands, if any, should homeless people be allowed to camp?
Two candidates for mayor and two candidates for Westville alder waded into an ongoing homelessness crisis as they sought to answer the same question posed on different nights by different debate moderators to different candidates running for different local elected offices.
The question: What should the city do when people who are living outdoors refuse to go to homeless shelters and choose instead to camp on public land?
by | Sep 1, 2023 3:19 pm | Comments (4)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
"Gypsy" Kathleen McKenzie — with her bag of overdose prevention materials.
“Gypsy” Kathleen McKenzie arrived at the Green for her daily walk with a purse full of nasal Narcan slung over her shoulder as usual — and wound up stocking that bag with Narcotics Anonymous brochures, fentanyl test strips, bracelets with phone numbers for addiction service providers, and more naloxone kits.
She took that stroll just days after another New Havener was found dead at 37-years-old of an overdose downtown and on the same day that the city hosted a parade of providers distributing information and resources for International Overdose Awareness Day.
Continue reading ‘Overdose Awareness Follows Another Life Lost’
by | Aug 31, 2023 8:30 am | Comments (55)
Thomas Breen photos
At Wednesday's anti-eviction rally ...
... and march from City Hall up Whitney Ave.
Powered by the vocal support of elected officials and labor organizers — and by their own cheers of “up with the tenants” and “down with the slumlords” — renter activists and allies took to the streets to protest a raft of recent eviction notices that they critiqued as union-busting retaliation.
Continue reading ‘Tenants, Labor Unite Against Eviction Notices’
by | Aug 31, 2023 8:11 am | Comments (10)
Laura Glesby Photo
Fair Rent Director Wildaliz Bermúdez meets Hope.
Fed up with waking up to the rancid stench of flooded sewage in her apartment building’s basement, Hope started knocking on some of her neighbors’ doors at 1275 – 1291 Quinnipiac Ave.
Within six weeks, Hope had joined with other organizers with the Connecticut Tenants Union to gather 21 signatures from residents of the building’s 20 units. They officially filed the paperwork to become New Haven’s third and fastest-to-form tenants union on Wednesday afternoon.
by | Aug 30, 2023 10:58 am | Comments (43)
Thomas Breen photos
Blanchette, on the Green Tuesday: "It's kind of a weird energy being in the middle of everything."
Three tents standing as of Wednesday morning.
Tim “Mohiks” Blanchette needs a car — to sleep in at night, and to help him get back on track with a music studio apprenticeship in West Haven during the day.
by | Aug 29, 2023 2:24 pm | Comments (18)
Thomas Breen photos
Lance Thomas, on Winchester Ave: "There's too much gun violence."
414 Dixwell, one of many Ocean properties up for sale.
Ocean Management affiliates sold another nine local rental properties over the past month — while Mandy Management affiliates sold six buildings of their own and bought one anew — as “For Sale” signs continue to pop up on front lawns across Newhallville and Dixwell.
Continue reading ‘"For Sale" Signs Multiply As Ocean Keeps Selling’
by | Aug 29, 2023 8:25 am | Comments (19)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Attorney Eppler-Epstein, with tenant Giovanniello: “Joining a tenants union and negotiating in good faith with your landlord ... are protected activities.”
A tenants union is challenging a series of megalandlord-spurred eviction filings in court, claiming that 16 move-out notices came as retaliation against residents’ organizing efforts.
by | Aug 24, 2023 5:17 pm | Comments (0)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
The new facade for the Edith Johnson apartments at 114 Bristol St.
Tenant Jackie Reilly puts her handprint on the wall to commemorate the renovations — and express her excitement for more fun to be had in the building's overhauled communal space.
Jackie Reilly is ready to play bingo, practice chair yoga, and hold Christmas parties in her apartment building’s new common room — now that a long-coming $5.2 million renovation of the nearly 50-year-old Edith Johnson senior public-housing development in Dixwell has wrapped.
Continue reading ‘Upgrades Unveiled At Edith Johnson Towers’
by | Aug 24, 2023 9:21 am | Comments (26)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
At Wednesday's anti-eviction tenants union rally.
Tenant Jessica Stamp: Union members know "we are not alone."
City officials, union advocates, and concerned residents gathered outside of Ocean Management’s Whitney Avenue offices to rally against recent action taken by the landlord to evict 15 members of a growing tenants union — and to promise to take action themselves if Ocean doesn’t reconsider.
by | Aug 22, 2023 10:10 am | Comments (5)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Fiona Firine's Narcan kit, number 13,504 distributed by the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance. They've now passed out more than 30,000 kits.
The first time Kaysie Mire saw someone overdose on opioids, she was alone, scared, and shaking. But she was also ready: She ran to her tent, grabbed a syringe, injected naloxone into her neighbor’s arm, and saved a life.
City officials and social service providers gathered on the Green for National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day to urge more members of the public to learn, like Mire, what to do in the face of mounting emergencies stemming from substance abuse and contamination.
Continue reading ‘Overdose Preventers Seek Fewer Lives Lost’
by | Aug 21, 2023 1:37 pm | Comments (19)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Friends Center teacher Karina Rojas, with fellow teacher Paris Pierce: “I have a goal to one day own my own home — and for my son to have his own room.”
Ian Christmann file photo
73 Howard, under construction last spring.
Early childcare provider Paris Pierce arrives to work on time and with a clear headspace — because her employer ensures the single mom has a safe home with two bathrooms, storage space, and a washing machine to care for herself and her three kids at no cost.
Continue reading ‘Free Teacher Housing Rises In The Heights’
by | Aug 17, 2023 2:20 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photos
Liam Brennan (right) with Keith and Yolanda Harper talking through ...
... fewer empty lots, more housing, on Starr Street.
Keith Harper can still remember the three-family house that stood a few doors down from his own family’s Starr Street home. It’s now a vacant city-owned lot.
Mayoral challenger Liam Brennan visited Harper’s Newhallville block to make his pitch for why a house should be standing there again today — and what rules need to be changed to make that denser land-use vision a reality.
by | Aug 17, 2023 9:50 am | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen FIle Photo
133 Hamilton: From storied factory to affordable housing complex?
The city’s public housing authority plans to purchase the New Haven Clock Company building on Hamilton Street and convert it into 100 mixed-income, mostly-affordable apartments — but only after the abandoned factory’s current owners rid the property of all remaining toxins.
Continue reading ‘Housing Authority To Buy Clock Shop For $4.5M’
by | Aug 16, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (21)
City of New Haven image
Sample land-bank deal as envisioned by city gov't.
Thomas Breen photo
City dev officials Dean Mack, Mike Piscitelli, and Mark Wilson on Monday.
A new affordable-housing-focused nonprofit that could compete with real estate speculators on the open market took another step closer towards coming into being — as alders endorsed creating a quasi-public “land bank” charged with buying, fixing up, and selling blighted properties before megalandlords get there first.
by | Aug 14, 2023 2:42 pm | Comments (34)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
The Lamberton encampment, now cleared by the state.
Between ten and twenty people living under a Lamberton Street bridge by the Metro-North train tracks in the Hill were sent packing Monday morning after the state declared the site unsafe and cleared the campers’ belongings.
by | Aug 11, 2023 1:47 pm | Comments (23)
Darlet Gordon's view of her 333 Blatchley apartment's bathroom ceiling, in July.
Thomas Birmingham photo
1476 Chapel resident Amanda Watts: “They really just think that they can just do whatever they want with us because of our tax bracket and our income."
The two-minute video begins with a shot of a home about to crumble.
“Look at my bathroom ceiling,” intones a pained voice. ”It’s almost going to cave down!” The narrator, a 56-year-old resident of Fair Haven named Darlet Gordon, points the camera toward the yellow-brown surface of her ceiling, folding and peeling like a day-old sunburn, as it steadily drips water down at her. All the while, she repeats to herself “Oh my god, look at it.”
Then, minutes later, boom. It came crashing down on top of her.
Continue reading ‘Expired Licenses: LCI’s Afterthought Leaves Tenants’ Homes At Risk’
by | Aug 10, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (7)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
A memorial made by passerby on the steps where Petrulis passed this week.
Kaysie Mire felt scared, alone and lost the first time she visited a homelessness drop-in center — until Keith Petrulis, who’d been without housing for two years, took it upon himself to tell Mire, “Hey, you’re okay.” He showed her around the space, offered her some snacks, and introduced her to her future boyfriend.
Eight months later, Mire and her partner have secured an apartment and are expecting a child together — while their best friend, Petrulis, is now dead, after his body was found on the State Street sidewalk where he’d been sleeping for the last two weeks.
Continue reading ‘Unhoused Activists Mourn One Of Their Own’