Thomas Breen photo
The Charles T. McQueeney Towers.
The city’s housing authority will receive nearly $8 million from the state to rehabilitate two local public-housing complexes, one downtown and one in Wooster Square.
In a Tuesday afternoon press release, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced that the state will award more than $61.5 million in grants and loans to help create and rehabilitate 24 housing developments in 20 municipalities throughout the state.
Click here to read the full press release.
The press release notes that the Glendower Group, Inc., which is the development arm of the Housing Authority of the City of New Haven (HANH), which was recently rebranded as Elm City Communities, will receive a loan of up to $4,503,665 for the rehabilitation of the Charles T. McQueeney Towers at 358 Orange St.
The 10-story high-rise consists of 149 studio and one-bedroom apartments. It serves residents with disabilities and residents who are 62 years old or older, both of whom make 60 percent or less of the area median income.
The Winslow Celentano Apartments.
Glendower will also receive a loan of up to $3.2 million for the rehabilitation of the Winslow Celentano Apartments at 60 Warren St. in Wooster Square.
The Celentano Apartments consist of 64 one-bedroom and studio apartments, and also serves seniors and people with disabilities who make 60 percent or less of the area median income.
Daniel Arsenault, the public information officer for the state Department of Housing, said that these awards are expected to be structured as loans, but the final terms will not be completed for several months until negotiations between the state and the awardee are completed.
“The final loan is still being underwritten,” he said in an email to the Independent, “and will be finalized in the future.”
Lisa Kidder of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) said that Glendower will also receive $7 million in federal low-income housing tax credits for the McQueeney rehabilitation and $4.3 million in federal low-income housing tax credits for the Celentano rehabilitation.
She said these tax credits are awarded to the borrower, which in New Haven’s case is Glendower. That borrower can then sell the tax credits to investors for cash, and those investors can then use them to take money off of their own federal tax liabilities. The purpose of these tax credits, she said, is to leverage state money to encourage private investment in the development and rehabilitation of public house.