5 City Sales Seek Affordable Homebuyers

The city plans to sell four vacant lots and one blighted, empty house to a trio of local affordable housing developers, who plan to build five new owner-occupied homes in Newhallville, Beaver Hills, and Fair Haven.

The City Plan Commission voted unanimously in support of recommending those five planned city-owned property sales during last Wednesday’s regular monthly meeting.

The votes came several weeks after the city’s Property Acquisition and Disposition (PAD) Committee also unanimously recommended approval of the five proposed sales. The prospective land deals received another set of unanimous votes of support Wednesday from the Livable City Initiative (LCI) Board of Directors before. They now move on to the full Board of Alders for a final vote later this summer.

The five property deals in question would all require that the subsequently developed houses be sold to owner-occupants for a combined period not less than five years.

All three the prospective developers—Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, Beulah Land Development Corporation, and Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven—have long track records of building affordable housing in New Haven and encouraging first-time homeownership in predominantly working class communities of color.

NHS: Shifting From Rehab To New Construction

The three proposed city land sales to NHS are all located in Newhallville. (Note: City Plan Commission Vice-Chair Leslie Radcliffe abstained from the NHS votes, and even temporarily signed out of the commission’s virtual meeting during deliberations on these items, because she is the chair of NHS’s board.)

According to NHS’s PAD applications and City Plan Commission staff reports, the city plans to sell a 9,584 square-foot combined lot at 98 – 102 Bassett St. to NHS for a total of $2,000.

The city last appraised the two underlying lots as worth a total of $74,600. NHS plans to build a new two-family house on the currently vacant site.

The city also plans to sell a 5,227 square-foot vacant lot at 44 Lilac St. to NHS for a total of $1,000.

The city last appraised that property as worth $37,700. NHS plans to build a new single-family house at that site.

And the city plans to sell a 4,356 square-foot vacant lot at 260 West Hazel St. to NHS for $2,000.

The city last appraised that property as worth $38,200. NHS plans to build a new two-family house at that site.

“With the goal of improving, upgrading, and eliminating blight and decay, I believe that NHS’s acquiring the above referenced vacant lots will revitalize and enhance homeownership opportunities in the Newhallville community and in our city,” Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn wrote to LCI Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo in a Feb. 11 in support of the sales.

Newhallville Community Management Team Chair Kim Harris also threw her support behind the land deals in a Jan. 28 letter sent to the city. ​“NHS’s objective is to build 3 new houses, making them both suitable for modern living and affordable to low- and moderate-income families,” she wrote. ​“They have a commitment to historic preservation, energy efficiency, and quality construction for long-term sustainability. We greatly value homeownership in our neighborhood and we wish to support organizations that will promote homeownership in our community.”

NHS Founder and CEO Jim Paley said that each of the three planned new houses will be sold to an owner-occupant making 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI).

He said NHS is applying for city HOME funds as well as for state low-income housing subsidies to help cover the construction costs for these three developments. He said each of those funding sources limit sales to owner occupants making 80 percent or less of the AMI.

Paley noted that the U.S. Census tract in Newhallville where NHS focuses its work (that is, Census Tract 1415) has a median family income of 38.71 percent of AMI. That is, while the Greater New Haven/Meriden AMI is closer to $90,700, families living in this section of Newhalville earn closer to $35,110 each year.

“I like to consider that by limiting it to 80 percent or lower, that we’re still providing socioeconomic diversity in this neighborhood,” Paley said about the 80 percent AMI cap for these three new projects. ​“We feel strongly that economic diversity is important for neighborhood stability.”

Paley also said that these three prospective developments represents a shift in NHS’s work from historic, energy-efficient rehabilitation projects to new construction on formerly city-owned lots.

He said that NHS has rehabbed roughly 30 homes in Newhallville since the Great Recession. He said his nonprofit has transformed formerly vacant, abandoned eyesores into new, affordable homeownership opportunities.

“Now we have to deal with the economic realities” that subsidies and funding for rehabs just aren’t available at the level that they used to be, he said.

Which is why NHS is now moving towards new construction rather than rehabilitation in its continued efforts to boost local first-time homeownership.

Paley said that the planned 260 West Hazel St. two-family house would be the first new construction project NHS has engaged in. He said construction should start in October and last roughly a year. He said NHS next round of new construction would take place at 44 Lilac St., 98 – 102 Bassett St., and 83 – 85 Butler St., the last of which NHS also hopes to buy from the city for the sake of building new housing.

Paley said NHS has already taken a deposit from a prospective owner-occupant who hopes to move into 260 West Hazel St. He said NHS has also taken deposits on two other houses at 161 Ivy St. and 266 West Hazel St. that the nonprofit is currently working on rehabbing.

There is plenty of demand for new affordable homeownership opportunities, he said, even during the economic uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. ​“This is a rebuilding,” he said about NHS’s work in Newhallville. ​“And homeownership is at the forefront of the rebuilding effort.”

Single-Family Houses Planned For Beaver Hills, Fair Haven

The other two proposed city property sales that received unanimous recommended approvals from the City Plan Commission are for parcels located in Beaver Hills and Fair Haven.

One is a 4,356 square-foot lot at 124 Carmel St., which the city plans to sell to Beulah Land Development Corporation for $1,000.

The city last appraised the property as worth $105,300. And Beulah plans to build a new single-family property at the site, which currently holds a dilapidated and vacant house.

Beulah Land Development Corporation COO Darrell Brooks said that that house will be restricted for a buyer making between 60 and 80 percent of the area median income.

He said that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the city’s affordable housing crisis, and increased the need for more projects like this one on Carmel Street as well as new affordable rental housing Beulah plans to build on Munson Street.

And the last proposed land deal is for a 4,792 square-foot lot at 70 Woolsey St., which the city plans to sell to Habitat for Humanity for $1,000. The city last appraised the vacant lot as worth $45,600. Habitat for Humanity plans to build a new single-family house at the location.

On Dec. 19, Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks wrote a letter to Neal-Sanjurjo in which she enthusiastically supported the prospective sale to Beulah.

“As you know, New Haven is facing an affordable housing crisis which is negatively impacting the local economy, the natural environment, and most importantly the thousands of households that cannot reasonably afford housing in today’s market,” Marks wrote. ​“The development pressure for market rate products has led to the difficulty of identifying suitable sites for affordable housing. With this in mind, urban areas such as New Haven must encourage and support homeownership opportunities.”

This proposed Carmel Street sale would do just that, she said.

“This project will serve to increase the supply of quality affordable housing available to low-to-moderate income households, as well as establishing and maintaining a suitable living environment.”

Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills Community Management Team Chair Nadine Horton was similarly supportive of Beulah’s plans for the site, in a May 15 letter she sent to Neal-Sanjurjo.

“Pride of place and neighborhood cohesion is something that homeownership brings to those who are fortunate enough to achieve it, and Beulah Land Development Corporation helps to make that happen, in particular in neighborhoods of color,” she wrote.

Horton cited Beulah’s Orchard Street Townhomes redevelopment as a ​“stellar example” of the local affordable housing nonprofit’s work to stabilize communities by creating new homeownership opportunities.

As for the planned Fair Haven property deal, neighborhood management team co-chairs Diane Ecton and Michelle Lee Rodriguez voiced their support for the Habitat for Humanity deal. ​“We thank you for keeping the community engaged and informed about the positive contributions your organization is bringing to our neighborhood,” they wrote.

Habitat for Humanity plans to sell the newly developed house to a low-income owner-occupant for $95,000, with a 0 percent interest mortgage. According to Habitat for Humanity’s PAD application, the nonprofit has completed building more than 115 homes for local low-income families since 1986.