Laura Glesby Photo
Serena Neal-Sanjurjo: "Change will come" in housing market.
Rosette Village protesters at City Hall announcement.
A former city housing official will spearhead new efforts to convert blighted properties into affordable housing through a quasi-public land bank.
Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, the former director of the city’s anti-blight Livable City Initiative (LCI), announced that role as the executive director of the newly-formed New Haven Land Bank at a press conference at City Hall on Friday afternoon.
The Land Bank is a nonprofit organization closely tied to the city, with a board comprised of officials including Mayor Justin Elicker, Beaver Hills Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow, and City Plan Director Laura Brown.
The organization will purchase dilapidated buildings, fund their redevelopment into housing, and then transfer the properties to either the Housing Authority of New Haven or to local housing nonprofits (such as Neighborhood Housing Services or Greater Dwight Development Corporation) to manage the units.
The land bank has received an initial $5 million in funding from the state’s Urban Act Grant.
During her tenure leading LCI, Neal-Sanjurjo expanded the agency’s scope to include spurring below-market rental and homeownership development. Born and raised in Dixwell, she previously worked in community development in Baltimore and post-Katrina New Orleans.
“I love this city. It’s my home,” she said. “We will work tirelessly to ensure that change will come.”
Protesters Crash Presser
Varney to Elicker: Start with 240 Winthrop.
As city and state officials explained the new initiative aiming to build affordable housing, a dozen protesters with the Unhoused Community Action Team (U‑ACT) marched up to the press conference, bearing signs and heckling, “The emergency is now!”
The group showed up to pressure the city to stop cracking down on the half-dozen prefabricated “tiny shelters” in the backyard of the Amistad Catholic Worker house at 203 Rosette St.
The state had granted inhabitants of the backyard structures temporary relief from building code requirements for 180 days, which expired earlier this month. The city subsequently asked UI to turn off the electricity at the units.
“We want structures to be safe in the city,” Elicker said on Friday, noting that the state building code exists to prevent people from dying or sustaining severe injuries from dangerous living conditions.
“If we don’t enforce state code, people can sue us,” he added.
The protesters focused on the urgent circumstances of people who don’t have a designated place to sleep in New Haven.
“People are starving, sleeping on the street. Let’s pat each other on the back,” one person mocked during the press conference.
After the speakers concluded, Elicker spoke one on one with protesters — including 52-year-old Tammy Varney, who said she’s been homeless since 2013.
Varney said she waited a year and a half for a shelter bed before finally securing a spot inside a Columbus House shelter this week. “I did everything I was supposed to do,” she said.
“That’s in large part what this day is about,” Elicker said, explaining that the Land Bank was meant to help address New Haven’s shortage of affordable housing units.
Varney pointed to a former nursing home at 240 Winthrop Ave., a long-vacant building that caught fire in 2020. “Why can’t we build housing or a shelter there?” she asked.
“That’s a great example,” Elicker said, of what the land bank could potentially do. “There’s a real need.”