CCA’s Bonita Grubbs and Cynthia Texiera in 660 Winchester lobby.
Allan Appel Photos
The fine red pile of bricks that was once the Ivy Street School might once again help homeless families get back on their feet thanks to a new experiment. If people in New Haven pitch in.
The experiment was hatched by Christian Community Action (CCA) and the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH). The two agencies put the idea on display at an open house along with a GoFundMe campaign to help renovate the building and fill 19 apartments with families on the road to independence .
CCA for 20 years ran a successful complex there called Stepping Stone Transitional Housing for homeless or at-risk families needing short-term apartments and on-site help to get back on their feet. Then the agency had to end the program, and leave the building vacant, in 2018 after federal funding dried up.
Two dozen people gathered Thursday night for a fundraiser and campaign launch at the building, at 660 Winchester Ave.
It was the flagship — and only — facility in town housing families (as opposed to individual adults, young people or vets) transitioning from homelessness and other crises back toward greater financial independence.
Fundraising stepping stones from the 1998 campaign on the north side entryway of 660 Winchester.
The federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department made a large grant to help launch the program back in 1998, said CCA Executive Director Rev. Bonita Grubbs.
Those funds disappeared last year as federal dollars were deemed better spent focusing on young people and vets, and on approaches such as rapid re-housing.
To revive the facility in an era when no new funds are available, Grubbs announced a partnership with HANH that has been approved to offer 18 Section 8 federal rental vouchers tied to apartments at 660 Winchester.
Ivy St. School grad and CCA board member Sheila Cirasuolo (with husband Joe) beside one of the to-be-replaced windows.
The rub is that the apartments and the building all have to be brought up to HUD’s code before the vouchers can be issued.
Hence the GoFundMe campaign, called Window of Opportunity. It aims to raise $75,000 to replace all 192 windows in the building as the first stage in a total $471,000 capital upgrade. At that point, the new families can move in.
CCA officials and supporters begged to differ with the wisdom of having their transitional family housing become a casualty of the new approaches and funding streams.
CCA Director of Housing Shellina Toure said under the Stepping Stone approach, families are permitted to stay up to two years — long enough for the heads of household to receive intensive counseling, hone employment and life skills, increase income, and get ready to step out as renters or home-owners on their own.
Thus the moniker Stepping Stone.
“It’s not just about housing. It’s about independence,” said Grubbs.
Gooding, left, with r Kids’ Randi Rubin-Rodriguez.
Grubbs credited the re-invigoration of the effort to reopen Stepping Stone to two super volunteers: Cynthia Texeira and Crystal Gooding. Texeira, now retired, spent 35 years as the manger of dispute resolution at state housing court. She was often able to get on the phone and send families in distress to Stepping Stone.
She and Gooding, the vice president of the Dixwell Community Management Team, organized the GoFundMe and have corralled the first $5,000 toward the $75,000 goal through other members of their church community at St. Martin De Porres.
HANH CEO Karen DuBois-Walton called the partnership with CCA for shorter-term subsidies a great opportunity “to allow operating costs to be covered to allow residents to focus” on improving personal, employment, and financial management skills.
All those counseling sessions and case management will be provided by the CCA staff, not HANH. HANH will provide subsidies for 18 units up to 2028, said DuBois-Walton.
DuBois-Walton was asked why HANH came up with this approach to Section 8, which usually involves subsidies for longer periods of time.
“I’m mindful of the thousands on our waiting list — 10,000 and probably more,” she said. “And studies show 25,000 families in the city could use housing services. We need to innovate. We have this amazing resource, this building, and CCA is the partner. HUD has approved it and we are ready to move.”
“Let’s support this innovative model,” she concluded.
Prior to HANH entering the picture, “we tried to get state funding,” said Grubbs, “but it’s on a ‘debt diet. ‘We could never find an open door. Now we have one with the housing authority.”
“We want to put it out there,” said Texiera. “If we get 400 people to send in $25, that’s ten grand.”
And quite a few windows.
To support the GoFundMe effort, the link is here; find out more about Christian Community Action here.