Sections

Neighborhoods

Features

WNHH Radio

Follow Us

NHI Newsletter

Legal Notices

Legal Writes

Drug Rehab Workers Seek Back Pay

by | Jul 3, 2024 3:11 pm | Comments (0)

Thomas Breen file photo

The now-closed addiction treatment center on the Blvd.

Late Retreat exec Scott Korogodsky: Sought to answer employees' questions, days before taking his own life.

A top executive at a for-profit drug rehab company sought to reassure hundreds of employees — including more than 160 in New Haven — who hadn’t been paid in weeks. 

They needed to hear from someone in charge, especially after the company’s CEO had just died by suicide, leading to the sudden closure of addiction treatment centers in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Florida. 

So he wrote everyone an email.

When will employees be paid? ​“We hope to have a definitive answer toward week’s end,” the executive, Retreat Behavioral Health Chief Administrative Officer Scott Korogodsky, wrote on June 23. 

What are the chances these employees would keep their jobs?

Retreat is committed to continuing the late CEO’s mission ​“to provide quality substance abuse care and mental health services to all our communities.”

Three days after sending that email, Korogodsky took his own life. The clinics and treatment centers stayed shut.

Now Retreat’s workers are turning to the courts to try to recoup lost pay.

Continue reading ‘Drug Rehab Workers Seek Back Pay’

Retreat Owes City $230K & Climbing; Deeper Financial Chaos Revealed

by | Jun 27, 2024 4:29 pm | Comments (8)

Maya McFadden photo

Happier days, before the collapse: site director Jarel Gallman, public relations director Jackie James, CEO Peter Schorr, Alder (and former facility employee) Ron Hurt, Mayor Justin Elicker at New Haven facility's 2020 ribbon-cutting.

A drug rehab company that shuttered its two New Haven facilities amid two executive suicides over the last week is nearly $230,000 behind in local real estate taxes — with its next $103,000-plus city tax bill due next week. 

That’s among the revelations that are emerging about years of financial woes and ​“corporate anarchy” that plagued for-profit Retreat Behavioral Health before its sudden collapse this past week throwing hundreds of patients and workers into the cold in three different states.

Continue reading ‘Retreat Owes City $230K & Climbing; Deeper Financial Chaos Revealed’

No "Inclusionary" Apartments Built So Far

by | Jun 25, 2024 2:39 pm | Comments (34)

Thomas Breen photo

"IZ" affordable apartments approved, but not built, at 50 Fitch.

Two and a half years after the city adopted a law designed to require affordable housing to be built as part of New Haven’s market-rate construction boom, the city’s ​“Inclusionary Zoning” law hasn’t yet created a single new reduced-rent place to live.

Most of the 50 ​“IZ” affordable apartments approved so far appear to be indefinitely held up by the high cost of borrowing money — even as other, non-“IZ” affordable developments move ahead.

Continue reading ‘No "Inclusionary" Apartments Built So Far’

Dixwell Row Homes Head To Auction

by | Jun 20, 2024 3:33 pm | Comments (9)

Arthur Delot-Vilain photo

University Row Homes resident Demeka Anderson: "We're the only ones that are sensing the urgency because it's our lives."

Thomas Breen photo

1 of 2 Henry St. auctions, scheduled for Saturday.

A row has broken out at row homes on Henry Street — leading to holes in the roof, allegations of mismanagement, ownership confusion, back-tax frustration, and two properties heading to the foreclosure auction block this weekend.

Continue reading ‘Dixwell Row Homes Head To Auction’

Condo Owners Vote To Pay Full Water Debt

by | Jun 19, 2024 12:13 pm | Comments (3)

Jay Appi file photo

Fixing the leak at Winters Run.

The members of a Fair Haven Heights condo association have voted to pay their entire $138,000-plus overdue water bill — and will now try to collect from the complex’s former property manager, whom they accuse of failing to promptly address the leak that left them in such a financial mess.

Continue reading ‘Condo Owners Vote To Pay Full Water Debt’

Funeral Carries Slain Officer Home

by | Jun 17, 2024 12:41 pm | Comments (5)

Jabez Choi photos

Minneapolis officers with Mitchell's casket on Monday.

Mitchell's cousin, Mamie Gardner: “He always had a pleasant smile. Always.”

(Updated) Police officers kicked their motorcycles into gear on Dixwell Avenue early Monday morning for the start of the funeral procession for Minneapolis officer and New Haven native Jamal Mitchell, who was killed in the line of duty last month.

Continue reading ‘Funeral Carries Slain Officer Home’

Murder Victim's Aunt: "It's Not Over For Us Yet"

by | Jun 11, 2024 1:52 pm | Comments (1)

Thomas Breen photo

James's aunt Teresa Clark (center) with Mayor Elicker and Chief Jacobson.

Teresa Clark wiped away tears as she thanked police for so quickly making an arrest in the stabbing murder of her nephew, Travis James — and she braced herself for the long road still to come as she prepares to see his alleged killer in court as she supports the prosecution.

Continue reading ‘Murder Victim's Aunt: "It's Not Over For Us Yet"’

Condos Drowning In Water Debt

by | Jun 10, 2024 2:09 pm | Comments (15)

Arthur Delot-Vilain photo

Rose Appi with the pod that's been storing her furniture since March.

A years-long leak has sunk a Fair Haven Heights condo association into $138,000 in debt — landing the group in bankruptcy court, and leading to a legal fight over whether the association’s water bill or urgent maintenance should be paid for first. 

Meanwhile, Winters Run resident Rose Appi has been living with all of her furniture in a storage pod since March as construction crews work to repair the source of the water problem beneath her condo’s kitchen.

Continue reading ‘Condos Drowning In Water Debt’

Judge: Thefts Fell Outside Landlord's "Control"

by | Jun 3, 2024 4:15 pm | Comments (2)

Judge Stone: Landlords can't control everything.

New Haven’s new housing court judge ruled that a Newhallville landlord isn’t on the financial hook for thefts allegedly perpetrated by one rooming house tenant against another — in part because the owner doesn’t have ​“exclusive control” over what goes on in a renter’s room.

Continue reading ‘Judge: Thefts Fell Outside Landlord's "Control"’

City Reaches $14.5M Fatal-Fire Settlement

by and | May 30, 2024 3:19 pm | Comments (29)

Laura Glesby Photo

Clarice Elarabi with a photo of her twin brother, Michael Randall, who perished in the fire (pictured below).

A lawsuit stemming from a fatal fire at an illegal Hill rooming house won’t go to trial after all — now that the Elicker administration has agreed to a $14.5 million settlement with the estates of the two men who died during that blaze.

Continue reading ‘City Reaches $14.5M Fatal-Fire Settlement’

Why Winfield Didn't Need To Keep Talking

by | May 22, 2024 11:09 am | Comments (13)

Paul Bass photo

Filibuster-ready if needed: State Sen. Gary Winfield at WNHH FM.

Gary Winfield was ready to talk. And talk. And talk. For hours and hours.

He let his colleagues in the legislature know that he was ready to talk and talk and talk.

So he didn’t need to end up talking. He got the message across — and mission accomplished.

Continue reading ‘Why Winfield Didn't Need To Keep Talking’