Reentry Plan Hits Zoning Snag

Believe in Me Empowerment Corporation (BIMEC) provides supportive housing services to ex-offenders. Now, it wants to transform part of its headquarters into a custodial care facility to provide even more services.

But it will have to pass muster with the Board of Zoning Appeals and the City Plan Commission first, and possibly overcome a recommendation to scale back its ambition.

BIMEC founder James Walker appeared before the BZA during its last meeting of the year Tuesday night to ask for special exceptions for parking and variances to permit 34 residents were a maximum of six are allowed. City Plan staff recommended approval, but with conditions that envision a scaled-back facility.

Walker told BZA members that the variance would allow BIMEC, a not-for-profit which has its headquarters at 423 Dixwell Ave., to become a custodial care facility serving men, 18 and older, with substance, mental health and behavioral problems, who have been released to the community by the state Department of Corrections.

This summer BIMEC cut the ribbon on a restored headquarters. The community center, known for providing summer programs for kids and tax preparation services for adults, had previously caught fire.

BIMEC has been providing supportive housing and case management services in the Newhallville community since 2008. Walker said the expanded occupancy would allow the organization to enter into more contracts with the state. He said the plan calls for leaving the two commercial spaces as they exist now on the first floor, while the second and third floor would consist of nine rooms on each floor. Each of the rooms would be occupied by two men. The upper two floors previously contained four apartments, and a conversion was permitted because the program served people considered disabled and thus covered by federal housing law. The change in scope of services landed BIMEC before the BZA, according to a staff report.

BIMEC said it needs, in addition to a special exception for parking, variances on the number of people who can occupy the space; a variance for a lot area of 5,227 square feet where 5,400 are required; allowance of 5,227 square feet where 24,000 is required for minimum lot area per resident; allowance of a custodial care facility within 1,200 linear feet of an existing facility; and allowance of 1,575 square feet where 3,400 is required to meet minimum exterior open space.

“The men are currently being released to our community without supports and in many cases without stable housing situations,” Walker said. ​“The program will provide the tools to assist reentering individuals to become more productive citizens.”

And there is a need for such services.

“The facility will provide a valuable and much needed service to the community,” Project Fresh Start Director Clifton Graves wrote in a letter of support. ​“BIMEC provides services in the Dixwell-Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven, a neighborhood which accounts for a disproportionate number of the city’s incarcerated population. Despite this neighborhoods disproportionately high need for reentry services, asset mapping efforts …s how that the Dixwell-Newhallville neighborhood has one of the lowest concentrations of community resources and service providers in the city.”

Joseph Parente, vice president of programs for Easter Seals Goodwill Industries, echoed Graves in his letter of support, pointing out that more than 1,000 people return to New Haven neighborhoods from incarceration every year, a disproportionate number to the Dixwell-Newhallville section of the city.

“The need for transition and permanent housing options for individuals with a criminal background far exceeds the available housing opportunities,” Parente wrote. ​“This creates an enormous gap in meeting a person’s needs.”

The project also has the support of Newhallville Alder Brenda Foskey-Cyrus.

“Approval of the custodial care facility … will benefit our community,” Foskey-Cyrus wrote in a letter. ​“In addition to assisting in the population with treatment, employment and housing the program will also aid in reducing recidivism, crime prevention, reduce victimization and create a less violent and safer community.”

Walker said conditions suggested by City Plan staff could very well derail the plan, as any contract with the DOC could be contingent upon the ability to house and provide services to a maximum of 34 residents. He said that the number of residents ebbs and flows currently to as many as 22 people.

Deputy Zoning Director Tom Talbot wrote in his report that the desire to significantly increase the number of occupants isn’t enough hardship to warrant the granting of such variances. But he didn’t completely kill the idea by recommending disapproval. Instead he advised granting the approval if the maximum occupancy is reduced from 34 to 17, providing one room for each resident. It would be up to the City Plan Commission to make a recommendation on the parking exception.

“If the proposal were for 17 residents rather than 34 all requested relief (including parking) would be reduced, some even possibly even eliminated,” Talbot wrote. ​“Certainly, some of the interior accessory spaces shown on the plan would be sufficient to accommodate a reduced number of residents. It is on this basis that staff would recommend approval for no more than a 17 resident facility.”

Walker said that he was troubled by the recommendation because the rebuild of the BIMEC was done keeping in mind the desire to create a custodial care facility with more capacity than the original building. He said he’d had assurances from city officials that he would be able to achieve that given the design.

The BZA is expected to make a decision some time in February since it does not meet in January.