Mixed Signals For Church St. South Families

Two days after families at Church Street South received mixed signals about whether they’ll be able to move — and when — officials sought to reassure the public that plans are in place. Or will be soon.

Northland Investment Corp. — the Massachusetts-based company that owns the crumbling, hazardous 301-unit apartment complex across from the train station — is definitely planning to pay the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) to move all families out to permanent new homes elsewhere over the coming year, according to Chairman Larry Gottesdiener.

“The HANH contract is very expensive and very comprehensive. It covers 100 percent of the families at Church Street South and includes one on one assessments, assistance with locating suitable housing, and assistance with relocation,” Gottesdiener wrote in an email message to the Independent.

Karen DuBois-Walton, who heads the HANH, said basically the same when asked on Wednesday. She said that HANH and Northland have not yet finalized their contract. But her agency is operating on the assumption that the contract will cover all 288 or 289 families (the official number has varied in recent days) who either still live at Church Street South or have been temporarily moved to hotels.

“Yes, all of the families will be moved,” agreed Rhonda Siciliano, spokeswoman for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which pays the $3 million-plus a year for all the families’ Section 8 rental subsidies and thus must approve all moves.

And yet …

… for all that agreement about the general plan, crucial details have people confused. And concerned.

Because this is an extremely complicated process, moving hundreds of families stranded in a decrepit complex where mold, leaks and crumbling staircases threaten their health.

And because officials haven’t clearly explained all this to the families themselves, many left the most recent public meeting confused.

That meeting took place Monday night at Church Street South. It was the third meeting within a week that HUD, Northland, HANH, and city officials held with Church Street South families to explain next steps for their relocation. (The long-range plan is to clear out the complex, tear it down, and erect a mixed-use, mixed-income development in its place.)

The first two meetings took place last Thursday night at two hotels where some 48 families are temporarily staying. (Read about that here.) Those families are the first concern for officials planning relocations, because they need permanent housing. HUD has approved ​“pass-throughs” of their Section 8 certificates to be used at new apartments.

But that leaves a lot of families still at Church Street South with nowhere to go. Hundreds of those family members crowded into the complex’s community room for Monday night’s meeting. They heard officials say that not just families in hotels, but those with immediate medical needs, will get first priority to move. But when they asked whom they should provide with letters attesting to their medical problems, they were told Northland management, not HANH, which is handling the relocation.

That upset people because of Northland’s shoddy record as a landlord. It also upset them because there was no immediate process Monday night for families to begin arranging to find new apartments. They were further upset because their understanding was that HANH is in charge of relocations, not Northland.

HANH’s DuBois-Walton said that while her agency will indeed relocate all the families, it has to wait until Northland refers the families to the agency and HUD approves. That hasn’t yet happened with the majority of families still living at the complex.

Similarly, she said, it can’t make the call on people’s medical conditions qualifying them for first-proirity moves — because that call is up to Northland and HUD, not up to HANH. HANH is signing on just to handle relocation of approved families, once they’re approved.

“We are not the ones telling Northland, ​‘This person needs to move or not.’ That’s something they have responsibility to do with the city and HUD.”

Amy Marx, the New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLLA) attorney who represents 60-plus Church Street families (and counting), said the families received a ​“clear message” that HANH is on board at this point for only the first 50 relocations. She also argued that HANH, not Northland, should be receiving the medical letters and judging who needs prompt relocation. Any ​“meaningful” process” would operate ​“independent of property management,” relying on a ​“third party that will honestly asses families based on their needs, not Northland’s self-interest,” Marx said.

HUD’s Siciliano emphasized that HUD has approved ​“pass-throughs” for all the Church Street South families, not just the first 50, but that ​“right now the focus is on getting the families in the hotels and those with medical conditions into stable housing.”

2nd Tricky Question

Another cause of confusion and disappointment: Some families have gone out and found new apartments. But for now the subsidies HUD approved for Northland are too small to cover the new rents, especially for larger apartments in parts of town where fair-market rents are higher than in a crumbling slum like Church Street South.

HUD said it’s aware of that problem and is working on addressing it — presumably by getting higher rent subsidies approved.

Meanwhile, when tenants from the first two meetings have follow up with meetings with HANH relocation staff, they didn’t leave with new apartments to see, Marx noted. She said they should have — that it should be a one-stop process.

DuBois-Walton said until HUD resolves the higher-rent problem, she doesn’t have any larger apartments to show families yet.

HANH has identified some two-bedroom apartments where monthly rents fall within the $1,055 approved by HUD for Church Street South families, DuBois-Walton said. But not so for, say, five-bedroom apartments — for which HUD subsidies cover only $1,167 a month. The search, and the quest for higher subsidies, will continue.

Previous coverage of Church Street South:
• Few Details For Left-Behind Tenants
• HUD: Help’s Here. Details To Follow
• Church St. South Families Displaced A 2nd Time — For Yale Family Weekend
• Church Street South Getting Cleared Out
• 200 Apartments Identified For Church Street South Families
• Northland Asks Housing Authority For Help
• Welcome Home
• Shoddy Repairs Raise Alarm — & Northland Offer
• Northland Gets Default Order — & A New Offer
• HUD, Pike Step In
• Northland Ordered To Fix Another 17 Roofs
• Church Street South Evacuees Crammed In Hotel
• Church Street South Endgame: Raze, Rebuild
• Harp Blasts Northland, HUD
• Flooding Plagues Once-Condemned Apartment
• Church Street South Hit With 30 New Orders
• Complaints Mount Against Church Street South
• City Cracks Down On Church Street South, Again
• Complex Flunks Fed Inspection, Rakes In Fed $$
• Welcome Home — To Frozen Pipes
• City Spotted Deadly Dangers; Feds Gave OK
• No One Called 911 | ​“Hero” Didn’t Hesitate
• ​“New” Church Street South Goes Nowhere Fast
• Church Street South Tenants Organize