Aliyya Swaby Photo
Yomaly Rivera has to hustle to get three of her kids to the bus stop 1.5 miles away from where she now temporarily lives, before driving a fourth to pre‑K and then heading to work.
When her Church Street South apartment was condemned more than two weeks ago, she moved into Premiere Hotel & Suites on Long Wharf — but school bus drivers haven’t gotten the memo and are still picking students up and dropping them off at the apartment complex.
As city officials scramble to find permanent new housing for dozens of displaced or soon-to-be-displaced tenants from the crumbling 301-unit apartment complex, families are still dealing with basic day-to-day struggles — like getting their kids to school.
Normally, parents who want to change the location of their kids’ drop-off or pick-up make arrangements with school officials.
Four of Rivera’s kids go to two different schools — Roberto Clemente and Conte/West Hills School. The district does not arrange transportation for pre‑K students, so she has to drive her daughter to Conte/West.
Rivera said she called the schools Tuesday to arrange for a different pick-up location, and then filled out paperwork at Conte/West Thursday. Likely, buses will begin to stop at Premiere next Monday or Tuesday, she was told.
“I gotta wake them up early, to make sure they get breakfast, take them to the bus stop,” she said. The bus takes her oldest child to Clemente at 8:10 a.m., then her twins to Conte/West at 8:36 a.m. Then she drives her youngest to Conte/West by 9 a.m.
“By the time I get to work, I’m tired,” she said with a laugh.
(Listen to her talk about her morning routine in the below audio file.)
Natalie Gonzalez and Roxanne Bleau, who each have four children going to different locations, have struggled to make those arrangements in the last couple of weeks. Bleau said she called officials from her children’s schools, who bounced her back to the bus company.
“I tried to call the bus company and they said they didn’t do it. The school said they don’t have nothing to do with it, that I got to call the bus company. I tried to call like three or four times,” she said.
(Listen to them talk about that starting at 45:42 in the below audio file.)
Neither has regular access to a car. Gonzalez and her children take a taxi the one and a half miles between the hotel and her former home.
Teddi Barra, the district’s director of transportation, said she tried to contact the Housing Authority of New Haven so the district could make those arrangements centrally. “Certainly we don’t want children out of school,” she said.
But the housing authority does not manage Church Street South, and officials did not know exactly who was staying in which hotel and what schools their children were attending, she said.
“In a lot of cases, we already have buses in the area, so it’s simple enough to just add that stop,” Barra said.
Parents can either call the schools or call her office directly at 203 – 946-8418. They “shouldn’t have to wait more than two days,” Barra said.
Previous coverage of Church Street South:
• Church Street South Getting Cleared Out
• 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