NEW HAVEN – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has sent a very clear message to the owners of a long troubled New Haven low-income housing complex: either comply or goodbye.
HUD spokesperson Rhonda Siciliano said her agency is “very concerned about the situation at Church Street South and are continuing to work with the owner (Northland Investment Corporation) and the City to ensure the health and safety of the tenants.”
During a meeting between Northland, the City and HUD, on Tuesday, Siciliano said the HUD outlined some short- and long-term options for Northland.
“We once again raised the option of the Section 8 pass through with Northland and encouraged them to consider this to allow the tenants more stability in their living arrangements as opposed to the hotel rooms,” she said.
Essentially, Northland would agree to give up some of its $3 million annual rent subsidy to allow tenants to move to alternative publicly subsidized housing, either temporarily or permanently.
Another option on the table is issuing portable certificates, which would allow residents to take the HUD subsidized rent voucher to rent anywhere they choose. Residents are currently subsidized by HUD only as long as they live at Church Street South, which is called a project based subsidy.
Seven apartments have been condemned within the past several weeks. A total of 10 families have been moved out to accommodate repair work. All are living in local hotels.
One tenant, Yomaly Rivera, moved into a hotel last week with her five children after work crews opened up some of her walls and discovered serious mold and moisture. Rivera tells Fox CT no further work has been done on her apartment, making her very frustrated.
Lawrence Gottesdiener, Chairman of the Northland Board of Directors, said in a written statement, “The health and safety of the residents is our primary concern. We are sorry for the disruption that has been caused. We met with HUD and are open to any ideas that will improve living conditions for the members of the Church Street South community.”
Gottesdiener would not comment further, but sources close to the talks say Northland is against trying to fix buildings that the City and HUD have also acknowledged are obsolete. The City has issued a repair or replace order to Northland for roofs covering 17 of the 19 apartment buildings.
Monday a Notice of Default letter was issued to Northland. This letter puts them on formal notice that they are in default of the Housing Assistance Payment Contract for not maintaining the complex in decent, safe and sanitary condition and identifies the corrective actions that must be taken to conform with the HAP contract.
Among the corrective actions outlined in the letter are:
- Repair the condemned units within the timeframe required by the City of New Haven, and provide certification to HUD that such units are in decent, safe and sanitary condition within five days of the completion of that timeframe.
- Within 14 days of the notice they are to provide all copies of the City of New Haven inspections conducted during 2015 and a status of the required repair completion.
- Within 14 days of the notice they are to provide a corrective action plan including timing for correction of all the physical deficiencies identified by the City of New Haven
- Within 7 days of the notice they are to provide a list of all tenants relocated including the relocation dates
- Within 7 days they are to provide acknowledgement that the Section 8 funds cannot be vouchered for any units that cannot be occupied because the units are not in decent, safe and sanitary condition as required by the HAP contract and HUD regulations.
“I'm glad that HUD is now taking the action that they should've taken long ago,” said Mayor Toni N. Harp (D-New Haven), who has been critical of HUD as recently as last week.
Amy Marx, an attorney for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, has filed Housing Court enforcement actions on behalf of seven clients, requesting that a judge order a more detailed evaluation of the underlying problems in this complex.
“We want documentation of what really exists inside these walls and behind these repairs and we absolutely want air-quality testing of each and every one of these units,” said Marx.
HUD officials are expected to begin a thorough inspection of each unit as soon as next week. Northland is scheduled for a follow-up meeting with HUD the week of September 14.