Housing Backers Make Last Pitch For Covid $

Bolstered by personal stories and political calls to arms, over two dozen affordable housing advocates made their final plea for city government to invest tens of millions of dollars in federal pandemic-relief aid into more, better, and cheaper shelter.

They issued that call Monday night during the latest Board of Alders Finance Committee meeting, which was held in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

Monday night’s meeting was the committee’s third and final hearing dedicated to Mayor Justin Elicker’s proposed $53 million spending plan for pandemic-relief aid that the city is receiving through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

That $53 million proposal — which the mayor and top city officials first unveiled in January — represents by far the largest spending plan that the Elicker Administration has put forward to date for the $115 million in ARPA aid coming to the city.

The committee alders did not deliberate or vote on the mayor’s $53 million proposal before closing the public hearing and adjourning Monday’s meeting. 

As Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand explained, that no-vote will allow the full Board of Alders to take the matter up for debate, proposed amendments, and a final vote at its next meeting on Aug. 1.

As was the case at the two previous Finance Committee meetings focused on this proposal, Monday’s public hearing saw affordable housing emerge as a focal point of interest among the 31 people who testified before the alders.

Nearly everyone who spoke up praised the Elicker Administration’s proposed $14 million in investments in downpayment assistance, rental subsidies, homeownership development, blighted-property purchases, and other housing-related programs.

They also nearly all criticized the mayor and his team for not going far enough in putting once-in-a-generation federal funds towards an ever-worsening affordability crisis.

“Each time we come feeling more strong in calling this a political failure,” said Camila Guiza-Chavez, an organizer with the Sisters in Diaspora Collective, a group of local immigrant and refugee women that has called on the city to spend $62.5 million in ARPA aid on housing programs.

“It’s not a natural phenomenon to have such a housing crisis. It requires choices, and it will require brave decisions to get us out of this. We ask you to stand with us for the long term,” she said. ​“This is an issue that will require long-term effort.”

Will Viederman, the director of housing policy for the city’s public housing authority, said that the fundamental problem with the Elicker Administration’s proposals — which would spread $53 million across a hodgepodge of housing, vocational technical education, youth engagement, business support, and climate resiliency initiatives — ​“is how small their tangible impact will be.”

That is: Too little money spread across too many worthy programs. “$10 million can’t sufficiently fund these programs,” he said about the mayor’s proposed ​“I’m Home Initiative.” “$10 million is a drop in the bucket compared to these needs.” In 10 years, as asked, will we see substantive and lasting impacts of these investments, ​“or will we look around and wonder where all the money went?”

Elicker administration officials have argued in this process that the city faces many pressing needs, and therefore it makes sense to use the money to address more of them. Also, they see a path from using this pot of money to seed ideas that can grow into efforts that can leverage far more money later.

If the mayor’s $53 million spending plan is approved by the full Board of Alders, the city would have around $19.5 million in ARPA aid left, all of which would have to be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026. (Click here, here, here and here for articles about the roughly $43 million worth of ARPA-aid spending plans that have already been proposed by the Elicker Administration and approved by the Board of Alders. And click here to read a detailed slide deck presented by city officials at the previous ARPA-focused Finance Committee meeting.)

"Housing Is A Right"

Most of those who testified Monday night spoke about their own personal experiences struggling to hold down a safe, affordable, convenient place to live, as they made their case for increased ARPA-funded investments in housing.

Melissa Chambers said that she recently, reluctantly, bought a house in Meriden after finding it just too difficult to buy a place in New Haven, the city where she grew up and that still calls home.

“I say ​‘reluctantly’ because of the feelings of being forced out of the very city I love,” she said. ​“I wanted to purchase a home in my city where I went to school, where I made lifelong friends, and where my parents owned a home on Sylvan Avenue,” she said. 

But she just couldn’t keep up with rising home prices — and she couldn’t compete with private-equity-backed megalandlords flush with cash and ever expanding.

“I can think of 10 friends who have moved to surrounding cities because of the housing market in New Haven,” she said. ​“Practically forced out. I urge the board to provide as much money to the I’m Home Initiative and the Land Bank program to keep its loyal and faithful citizens.”

Dina Tareq spoke about moving to New Haven from Iraq with her family in 2014. They don’t always feel safe where they live now, she said, but ​“if we wanted to move to a safe place, it was impossible because we can’t afford it.” She said her family has been applying for the federal Section 8 rental subsidy program for the past seven years, so far to no avail.

“Even though my mom and I worked, it wasn’t enough,” she said. ​“Where is there to go? Housing is a right. Why can’t we have affordable housing?

Sarah Giovanniello spoke about the 30 percent rent increases she and her Blake Street neighbors faced earlier this year after an affiliate of the megalandlord Ocean Management bought their apartment complex. The landlord has dropped that proposed rent increase for now, after Giovanniello and her neighbors formed a tenant union. But the specter of much higher rents to come still lingers.

“We are a diverse group of people with good middle-class jobs,” she said. ​“We can’t afford to stay and pay a 30 percent increase, and we can’t afford to move. We are in a housing affordability crisis in the city, and city government needs to address that crisis immediately.” She called for a ​“historic investment” in affordable housing programs, as well as stepped-up efforts to ​“hold landlords accountable.”

And Javier Gonzales described how his family has often felt over their past seven years in New Haven like they’ve had to choose between ​“paying for gas in the winter and the rent. Obviously, we needed to stay under that roof, so we went with the rent,” he said. But ​“we went through a couple of rough winters.”

This is a unique opportunity New Haven has with all of this federal ARPA aid, he said. This is a chance to make a truly transformative investment in affordable housing.

Norm Clement, who works at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen’s drop-in center, said that he has seen the number of guests coming by for food, shelter, and ​“to get out of the elements a little bit” on the rise.

“What I’m seeing is more and more elderly people coming in,” he said. ​“People over 65 that do not have housing.” It’s heartbreaking, he said. ​“Can you imagine being 65 years old and not have a place to live? No shelter?”

“In order to get ahead of this,” he continued, ​“we need to put as much money as possible into affordable, safe housing for our citizens.”

City Affordable Housing Commissioner Rebecca Corbett agreed. 

Corbett described being evicted from her home as a young mother and sleeping in motels before her life was turned around for the better when she got a union job at Yale. 

“When good jobs are scarce and housing is as expensive as it is, families are just one paycheck away” from eviction and homelessness, she said. ​“Simply put, there are not enough affordable units in our city to meet the demand.” The city needs to use much of its ARPA funds to save families that stress by increasing the supply of affordable housing.

“I am tired of moving and uprooting my family,” Sheffield Avenue resident King Manns said towards the end of the night. ​“I have lived this, and I don’t want to stand by anymore. When people have to put all their money toward rent and the light bill, then they can’t afford other basics and might starve. Emotionally, my family has been torn apart by these challenges. I think it’s unfair.”

This one-time infusion of federal aid, Manns concluded, gives New Haven ​“the opportunity to provide a vibrant life for all children, starting with affordable housing. These funds are a step in the right direction, and I encourage the Board of provide as much support to affordable housing as possible.”