NEW HAVEN, Conn. — In a historic moment for New Haven, the city announced the launch of their newly created land bank on Friday, which will focus on buying out and fixing up overrun and vacant properties.
“This is just another step in us bringing back our communities,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said during the press conference at New Haven’s City Hall. “This is actually the city paying attention to what’s affecting our community and putting a solution to the problem.”
The New Haven Land Bank, Inc. is a non-governmental, non-profit organization made up of seven board members that will work closely with the city to fulfill its mission to create more affordable housing. The state gave them $5 million to get the program up and running through the Urban Act Grant Program. After that, it’ll be paid for through fundraising efforts.
“There are plenty of properties that need to be acquired by the lank bank. And we’re going to try to get them,” said Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, the executive director of The New Haven Land Bank, Inc.
The launch of the land bank comes after years of planning. It was first proposed to the Board of Alders in 2022, which passed legislation in 2023 to allow for the formation of the organization.
Neal-Sanjurjo has spent her career focused on economic development and housing initiatives, and she said she’s already hitting the ground running. Her first course of action is to transfer properties the city owns to the land bank, so they can be revived or redone.
“I’m going in, all in. I’m not going to think about it hard. The only way to do that is to just jump head in, and I’m going to do it,” Neal-Sanjurjo said.
But in the midst of this announcement, a group of unhoused individuals walked up the steps of city hall for a protest. The protestors were wearing shirts that said, “The emergency is now.”
Many of the people involved live in a community called Rosette Village, along with other advocates and supporters.
The village is made up of prefabricated, tiny structures in the backyard of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven. The structures have been deemed unsafe after the state said they are not up to housing code regulations. Because of that, the city instructed the electric company to turn the power off to the illegal dwellings. The power officially went off last week.
On Friday, the protesters were demanding for that power to be turned back on.
“The state is saying the residential structures they have put on the property are not safe. They do not comply with the building code and therefore they cannot have people living there,” Mayor Justin Elicker said.
Following the press conference, Elicker walked up to the crowd and spoke with the organizers. That included Tammy Varney, who shared her struggles living without a home in New Haven.
“For somebody in my condition waiting a year and a half to get housing, is ridiculous. We gotta do something,” Varney said.
“That’s in large part, what today is about,” Elicker responded.
Varney mentioned an old nursing home she’s noticed on Winthrop Avenue. She gave suggestions of what to do with it.
“I’m saying it can be leased out, to get a shelter there. To get some of these people into housing immediately,” Varney said.
Elicker commended her for the idea.
He went on to say, “There’s a lot of need. And that’s why we put so much resources into it.”
Elicker went on to explain that the land bank has been created to help people like Varney, so people can afford to buy homes.
“I hope people, they are able to see the forest through the trees, and understand that the big picture is, we all share a lot in common here and have the same goals,” Elicker said to reporters following the event.
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Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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