Thomas Breen photo
Ward 1 Alder Candidate Eli Sabin.
At just 19 years old, Eli Sabin already has a political resume longer than that of many people twice his age.
The rising Yale sophomore is now looking to add “Ward 1 alder” to his work history — not, he said, to bolster his political bona fides, but rather to fight for affordable housing and quality jobs in the city where he grew up and plans to stay well after graduation.
Sabin, an East Rock native and graduate of Hopkins School, has filed to run for the Democratic nomination for alder in the Yale downtown ward.
He is the only candidate to date looking to replace outgoing one-term Alder Hacibey Catalbasoglu as the representative for the Downtown legislative district, which has traditionally been occupied by a Yale College student. Sabin currently lives in Grace Hopper College at Yale, where he studies American history and political science.
“I really care a lot about New Haven,” he said during an interview at B Natural Cafe on Orange Street. “All the work I’ve done has shown me the struggles that people are going through throughout the city. Putting food on the table. Paying the bills. I think that local government provides an incredible opportunity for us to have an impact on our community.”
Despite his youth, Sabin has had experience learning about the different levers of government and the role that legislators play in advocating for their constituents.
Since January, Sabin has served as the director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Progressive Caucus. He helped organize 44 left-leaning state legislators as well as groups of activists throughout Connecticut in their advocacy for bills ranging from $15 minimum wage to paid family and medical leave to mandated data collection on state prosecutors.
Paul Bass Photo
Sabin (center) with New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar (right) at a 2018 Lemar campaign event.
This past session he also spent working in New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar’s office, where he conducted research on affordable housing, public education, and criminal justice reform. He ran Lemar’s reelection campaign in 2018, following his introduction to state politics in 2016 door knocking for Lemar and for former East Haven State Rep. James Albis.
Sabin’s political experience isn’t limited to the state capitol. He spent six months in high school volunteering for U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and will be doing healthcare policy research this summer in U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office in Washington D.C.
In New Haven, Sabin has served as the Ward 1 Democratic Town Committee co-chair since October 2018 and as a member of the city’s Homeless Advisory Commission since earlier this spring. During his freshman year at school, he also volunteered as the communications director for the Yale College Democrats.
His extensive progressive political education at the local, state, and federal levels to date, he said, has taught him that legislators can make a different when advocating for basic quality of life improvements.
New Haven needs more affordable housing, he said, and greater access to quality, gainful employment. He said that’s where he plans to dedicate his energies if elected Ward 1 alder.
“We need to make sure that everyone in New Haven has the opportunity to find an affordable place to live that’s not straining their income,” he said, “and making it so they don’t have enough money to pay for food, and pay for electricity and heating bills at the end of the month.”
Alders can help New Haven get there, he said, in part by acting on the recommendations included in the Affordable Housing Task Force’s final report.
In particular, he said the city should pass an inclusionary zoning ordinance that would require developers to set aside a certain percentage of units in new market-rate developments at affordable rates.
Based on his research on inclusionary zoning while working in Lemar’s office, he said, he found that many existing municipal and state ordinances currently in effect require a roughly 12.5 percent affordable allotment in new developments.
If elected alder, he said, he would also push the board to consider adopting an inclusionary zoning ordinance based off of an area median income (AMI) true to New Haven as opposed to the region at large. An AMI that takes into account Branford income levels is drastically different from one based off of Newhallville income levels, he noted.
Sabin said he would also support the passage of the Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights, which the advisory commission recently submitted to the Board of Alders as a proposed ordinance rather than as a proposed resolution. That means the bill of rights as proposed would be an enforceable law rather than just a municipal statement of values.
And in his capacity as a key bridge between the city and the university, Sabin said, he hopes to support the UNITE-HERE union’s push for Yale to keep hiring locals to good-paying, union jobs. He said he would help speak with students about the economic impact that the university and the hospital have in this city, both in terms of being the largest employer and town and in owing the city a larger voluntary contribution than $11.5 million a year because of its copious tax-exempt property holdings.
Sabin helped run the polling location at the downtown public library and spent a fair amount of time at the chaotic Election Day Registration (EDR) scene during the 2018 elections. He said he plans to use his aldermanic campaign as an opportunity to register as many Yale students as possible so that his collegiate peers don’t have to flood City Hall last minute just to exercise their right to vote.
If possible, he said, he would like to see a polling place opened up on the university’s campus and to allow interested voters to register at locations other than City Hall.
Lemar praised Sabin as possessing both the personal and the professional qualifications necessary to make a difference in the Ward 1 alder seat.
“I think he’s got firsthand knowledge that finding smart people and good ideas is pretty easy,” he said. “It’s the hard work and the policy development that takes time and effort. Building the coalitions necessary to move legislation is what’s really hard.” Anyone can find five good ideas, he said. But someone like Sabin understands that ideas have little practical bearing without large constituencies of supporters advocating for their adoption.
Long term, Sabin said, he plans on staying in New Haven and working in public service, whether that be in politics or in the nonprofit world. His love for New Haven comes from many places, he said, including his decade-plus playing in the New Haven Youth Soccer league, and his time spent volunteering with Elm City Internationals and the Connecticut Food Bank.
He said his parents, author, New York Times Magazine staff writer and Yale Law School writing fellow Emily Bazelon and Yale history professor Paul Sabin, instilled in him at an early age the core Jewish principle of tikun olam, or repairing the world.
“My parents raised me to believe in public service,” he said, “and believe that we all have an obligation to do what we can to address the injustices we see in the community, and to work as hard as we can to lift other people up.”