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Ward 20 primary candidates Shirley Lawrence, Devin Avshalom-Smith, Addie Kimbrough.
Devin Avshalom-Smith is living the way Newhallville once lived — and the way he and his competitors for a seat on the Board of Alders vow to help make it live again.
Avshalom-Smith lives on Starr Street, in a house passed through generations. His grandparents Roy and Darlene bought it in 1960 after they moved up to New Haven from North Carolina in the “Great Migration.” Roy took a job at the then-bustling Winchester rifle factory. As many as 20,000 people once worked there, in three shifts around the clock. They made living wages. They bought houses that they could pass down to their children.
Newhallville at one point had the city’s highest rate of Black homeownership. Then the factory jobs disappeared, along with opportunities to pass along generational wealth. By one estimate, 85 percent of Newhallville’s population now consists of renters. Many of them rent from landlords who don’t live in the neighborhood, conglomerates that accumulate hundreds or thousands of low-income apartments across town.
Avshalom-Smith and Addie Kimbrough — who also lives in a family-owned house, on Shepard Street — talked about that larger story the other day, and about how to help more Newhallville residents own their homes again.
They discussed the issue during a joint appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. They came on the program to present, and in some cases contrast, their candidacies for the Ward 20 seat on the Board of Alders. Delphine Clyburn, who was elected to five two-year terms representing the Newhallville ward, stepped down earlier this year.
Avshalom-Smith and Kimbrough petitioned their way onto a Sept. 14 Democratic primary ballot, for the only Democratic primary taking place in New Haven that day. They are challenging labor and community activist Shirley Lawrence, who has received the endorsement of the ward committee and Democratic Town Committee. Lawrence declined an invitation to participate in the radio discussion or a public candidate forum.
Click here for a previous story about how Lawrence pitched her candidacy when she received the endorsement of the Ward 20 Democratic committee, emphasizing her decades of labor, community, and tenant organizing.
On “Dateline,” Avshalom-Smith and Kimbrough both promised to help promote homeownership in the neighborhood if elected.
Avshalom-Smith spoke of helping working families purchase first-time homes with help from nonprofits with track records, such as Neighborhood Housing Services and ConnCAT. He also spoke about tackling the tensions between tenants and outside mega-landlords from both angles: pursuing “a level of accountability” from the property managers and owners, while also working “neighbor to neighbor” to encourage renters to help keep properties in good condition.
Kimbrough spoke of encouraging the housing authority to build affordable duplexes like those in the newly reconstructed Brookside development, with a mix of home ownership and rentals.
Both candidates described their work and civic experiences as best positioning them to bring together different public and private entities to, for instance, find the money to bring youth programs, social services, and job-training to the vacant former state welfare building on Bassett Street. The city recently scrapped a plan to turn the building into a worker-owned laundry, because of the high cost of renovation.
Avshalom-Smith spoke of his work in an accounting office; at the state legislature, in his current capacity as a legislative aide to State Rep. Robyn Porter; his work with the Community Foundation’s the New Haven Equitable Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (NHE3), which works toward “the growth of entrepreneurial pathways to economic independence and generational wealth.” He founded the Newhallville Community Action Network and serves as secretary of Newhallville’s Community Management Team.
Kimbrough described her work on the city’s Food Policy Council, on the boards of the Opportunities Investment Center and Community Action Agency, and her volunteer leadership position in the group promoting participation in the 2020 U.S. Census. Kimbrough also organized neighbors this year to create a community vegetable garden on Shepard Street.
One strategic difference emerged during the discussion: Kimbrough has petitioned her way onto the Nov. 2 general election ballot to run as an unaffiliated candidate should she lose the Democratic primary. Avasholm-Smith didn’t.
“I’m consistent. I’m not going to change party lines,” he said.
“I really want to be alder,” Kimbrough said, whichever ballot line proves the way to get there.
Click on the video above in this story to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with candidates Addie Kimbrough and Devin Avshalom-Smith.