Emily Hays Photo
State Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno cuts the ribbon to the new Portsea Place.
The first renters have moved into a renovated blue-and-cream house in the Hill as part of a new approach to young-adult homelessness.
The nonprofit New Reach and local and state partners officially launched the project, Portsea Place, with a ribbon-cutting at the building on Tuesday afternoon.
The building at 223 Portsea St. hosts eight efficiency-style apartments for people between the ages of 18 and 24 who have experienced housing instability.
“We all can probably remember all the things we were trying to get right at that age,” said Karen DuBois-Walton (pictured below), who heads New Haven’s housing authority. “Then think about trying to do that while moving from place to place.”
Karen DuBois-Walton at the ribbon-cutting.
It was a theme multiple speakers touched on during the ceremony — how important having a home is to moving on with other parts of life.
The model at Portsea Place is permanent supportive housing, this time for young adults. Each renter gets a subsidized apartment to live in indefinitely, with the support of a case manager, while they transition out of homelessness.
The housing authority and the state have both chipped in to make that stability happen at Portsea Place. Previously the New Reach women’s shelter CareWays, Portsea Place got a makeover starting in March of last year.
The cost of the renovation was around $1.7 million and was covered by a grant from the Connecticut Department of Housing, according to New Reach facilities manager Erica Grigley. This covered new siding and new windows, as well as demolition within the building.
The one still-vacant apartment has bright cream walls, wood floors and three windows looking out onto the Hill.
The housing authority is channeling federal vouchers into the project so that rent can start at $0, depending on what each renter can afford. The city also awarded $10,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars to the project to cover the support from a case manager and peer mentor at the site.
Each apartment has a kitchenette, a closet and a bathroom as well as sleeping and living space. Seven of the eight renters moved in last week and received cleaning supplies, cookware and other gifts to help them get settled.
New Reach encouraged attendees of the ceremony to bring shampoo, soap and other gifts for the tenants. These supplies are not covered by food stamps, New Reach development specialist Andrea Cobin explained.
“If you don’t have money, you can’t get tampons or cleaning supplies,” Cobin said.
Cathy Hammie (pictured above) is the New Reach case manager stationed at Portsea Place. She said that she has already met seven of the eight renters and has spoken with the eighth on the phone.
She described the tenants, who are all out of high school. Some are working on classes at Gateway Community College, some have part-time jobs and some are not working.
They all have different stories of what brought them to New Reach. The stories often involve problems with their families, Hammie said. She said that one young woman was kicked out of her home at 14 and has been bouncing around in the seven years since then.
“They are good kids, quiet-ish, but they ask questions when they need something,” Hammie said.
Hammie refers tenants to resources like food pantries or mediates between them and previous landlords. Sometimes she is just a listening ear to the social problems of a young adult.
“I help them with navigating life — like a parent would be doing,” Hammie said.
Hammie sits down with each tenant to write out goals they want to achieve, from holding down a job to finding an apartment. The idea is to stabilize their lives with Portsea Place and then help them move on.
“Although we use the term permanent supportive housing, we don’t want it to be permanent,” said New Reach staffer Jocelyn Antunes, who runs the nonprofit’s supportive housing program.
The idea that young people would moving in and out of Portsea Place (pictured above) had worried Hill neighbors, who have pushed back against the concentration of social services in their neighborhood.
Hammie said that a recent question and answer session with neighbors seemed to ease that worry. Unlike a shelter, there will not be frequent turnover at the apartments, she said.
One neighbor at the event, Martha Wright (pictured above), is already ready to help out and get to know the new renters on the block.
Wright has lived in the area for at least 35 years. She knows most of her neighbors.
“Some were against and some were for it — you know how it is. I don’t have any objection as long as they are supervised,” Wright said.
Wright said that she used to work at West Haven High School.
“I don’t know if they need volunteers, but I would like to learn more,” Wright said. “I’m used to working with kids.”