The word got out fast — New Haven’s clearing out the Church Street South apartment complex. And landlords lined up to offer tenants new homes.
That was the upshot of a meeting Friday afternoon with officials from the Harp administration, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Massachusetts-based Northland Development Corp.
Northland owns the crumbling subsidized 301-unit apartment complex across from the train station, which the city has been gradually condemning.
Earlier this week officials agreed that rather than try to save the complex, they would seek to move all 288 families out within a year, then have the complex torn down. All the families have their rent subsidized by HUD’s Section 8 program.
Finding so many new homes won’t be easy.
Hence Friday’s status meeting. Officials reported that the city has identified 150 apartments potentially available where families can move, if they pass HUD inspection, according to HUD spokeswoman Rhonda Siciliano. The city confirmed Siciliano’s account.
New Haven’s housing authority has agreed to oversee the process of finding apartments and screening and moving tenants, though as of Friday it hadn’t yet inked a deal with Northland to begin doing that.
Siciliano said that Northland and HUD have found at least another 50 apartments where landlords are willing to take Section 8 tenants from Church Street South. The state Department of Housing and Connecticut Housing Finance Administration “sent messages out to their memberships and asked if they knew of any available units in the state,” Siciliano said. “The response has been tremendous from private property owners, nonprofit, from a number of organizations within the state.”
“Some are in New Haven. Some are in communities close to New Haven,” Siciliano said of the identified potential new homes for the families. Some of the others are in communities elsewhere in Connecticut, or just over the state line.
Northland Wednesday enlisted a local attorney to start making inquiries to landlords. Pike International, one of the city’s largest landlords, agreed “immediately” to house 30 Church Street South families, including 18 at a complex at 1314 Quinnipiac Ave., according to the firm’s principal, Shmully Hecht. Juan Salas-Romer, another major city landlord, also was contacted. “We have 14 apartments in the next 90 days that could be made available for families at Church Street South,” Salas-Romer said. The apartments are in Fair Haven, the Hill, and West River neighborhoods.
Siciliano said the relocation effort will proceed in two phases.
First order of business is finding new apartments for the 50 or so families either living in hotels or needing to leave their mold-infested, deteriorating Church Street South apartments as soon as possible. HUD has approved “pass throughs” to allow Northland to transfer those families’ Section 8 subsidies to new landlords elsewhere.
Then officials hope to place all Church Street South families in permanent new homes, either with “project-based” subsidies tied to their locations or portable subsidies they can take with them.
Click here to read a default notice HUD sent Northland on Aug. 31 declaring the company in default of its contract for more than $3 million in annual Section 8 rent subsidies for Church Street South. HUD released the notice along with copies of city condemnation notices in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The notice gave Northland up to 14 days to correct problems or risk losing the contract. Since then Northland has met with HUD to work out the plan to clear out the entire complex and find permanent new homes for tenants elsewhere.
As a result, HUD has not taken any of the action threatened in the notice after the deadline passed.
“At this point, the owners have constructively complied with the NOD [Notice of Default], and HUD and the owner are working cooperatively together to resolve the issues and move residents to housing that is decent, safe and sanitary,” Siciliano said.
Vandalism At Condemned Units
Meanwhile, two new short-term problems emerged this week: Relocated families being moved far from their kids’ school bus stops; and vandals apparently breaking into condemned evacuated apartments at Church Street South.
“Our management team is looking into it,” Gottesdiener said of the vandalism.
Previous coverage of Church Street South:
• 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