Abiba Biao photo
CHFA's Lisa Hensley, NeighborWorks America's Eileen Anderson, Alder Steve Winter, Alonda Emery, U.S. Sen. Blumenthal, and LCI's Arlevia Samuel at Friday's groundbreaking.
Alonda Emery never thought she’d own her own home — right up until she stood with a smile, and a shovel, atop the very Newhallville lot where her future new house will soon be built.
Emery celebrated that dream-almost-come-true during a Friday afternoon groundbreaking and press conference at 260 West Hazel St.
The press conference marked the latest in the local affordable housing nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven’s (NHS) decades-long work of promoting homeownership in Newhallville for low-income families.
Alonda Emery.
Friday’s ceremony celebrated the start of construction for four new houses in the neighborhood — including Emery’s future home at 260 West Hazel.
The other three new NHS houses coming soon to the neighborhood include a single-family house at 44 Lilac St., a two-family house at 98 Bassett St., and a two-family house at 83 Butler St. Friday’s West Hazel Street presser took place right next door to a three-family house that NHS finished renovating and cut the ribbon on this summer.
“I am lucky that I didn’t have to travel too far to find my home,” said Emery, a New Haven native, Career High School graduate, and current employee at Yale New Haven Hospital’s St. Raphael’s campus. “And I’m glad I can stand where eventually it will stand.”
In addition to Emery, Friday’s event featured city Livable City Initiative Executive Director Arlevia Samuel, Newhallville/Prospect Hill/Dixwell Alder Steve Winter, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) Managing Editor of Homeownership Programs Lisa Hensley, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Mayor Justin Elicker, and NHS Executive Director Jim Paley, among others.
While NHS started out renovating aging and abandoned houses, thanks to just how costly that rehab work is, the nonprofit has recently shifted towards constructing new homes on vacant lots. NHS often buys those lots from the city, and then, after building a house, sells them to a low-income owner-occupant at a subsidized price.
Paley said on Friday that NHS expects to begin construction on two more vacant lots in 2023 thanks to recent approvals from the Board of Alders.
“And we are also looking to be able to expand the horizons and get more vacant lots from the city,” he said. “We are going to be able to produce them relatively quickly,” he said about these to-be-built new houses, “and we do need to subsidize them to keep them affordable to the people.”
U.S. Sen. Blumenthal.
Blumenthal praised NHS for promoting affordable homeownership at a time when Connecticut simply does not have enough housing. He then presented Paley with a “certificate of special recognition” in honor of NHS’s work. “Thank you, Jim, for all that you have done,” he said.
Shellina Toure.
Shellina Toure, a fellow New Haven native will own the new house at 98 Bassett St. thanks to the help of NHS, joined in on Friday’s tour of an adjacent new NHS-built two-family house on West Hazel Street.
Toure, 57, said that the homebuying process was simple in part because she had worked with NHS on helping to improve her credit to allow her to secure a mortgage. She described the most memorable part of her homebuying process as when received the blueprint and layout for her new house.
“And they told me between four to six months, the house should be totally built, and I will be able to move myself and my family. So I am excited,” Toure said.
Toure serves as director of housing services at the local homelessness services nonprofit Christian Community Action. She said she hopes to use her position as a new homeowner to offer housing to families in need.
“It’s a two-family home, and I’m going to be a landlord, so that I will be able to offer rent at a moderate rate,” she said.
The vacant 260 West Hazel St. lot, right next door to a newly renovated NHS home.
Emery shared those same sentiments as Toure, attributing her success in homeownership to her family’s support and guidance of NHS.
“The instructors, they work as like an infinite well of knowledge that you can just peer into and use the tools that they gave you to build your future,” she said about NHS. “Their courses are so in-depth and beneficial that they will help you with your stability financially and eventually meet your goals to homeownership.”