New Haven Independent

The group of residents, Housing Authority brass, and city officials charged with overseeing the project have come to an agreement on a developer for the project, but Miller said he could not disclose the name of the developers because they had not yet been notified. (Click here, here and here for previous stories on the project).

In the meantime, HANH is working on recruiting subcontractors who will hire Rockview and Brookside residents as a first priority, and Housing Authority residents in general, said Miller at a Wednesday meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Ad Hoc Committee on Housing Authority Review at Katherine Brennan School.

“And we have been to Man-Up and to anyone else who can help us go out, and help us recruit the subcontractors,” said Miller. “We have a gentleman on board who will serve our purposes.”

“So you’re working with these folks?” Asked Alderman Robert Lee.

“Yes, well I’m saying we cannot do this by ourselves. They have the grassroots contact and the grassroots support that we could never—what’s the word—run,” Miller said.

Construction is expected to begin in 12-18 months, Miller said, and will include an $8 million renovation of the West Rock Family Center at the top of Wilmot Road, into a computer lab with 30 work stations, and a job training center. A total 50 of the 450 homes that will be rebuilt or restored will be part of a home-ownership plan.

“We have 50 slots that still ain’t filled,” Miller said.

Hill Alderwoman Jackie James wanted to know what kind of outreach HANH has done to get the word out about the home-ownership program to residents who have been moved around the city.

“We’re outreaching to the entire population,” said community services coordinator Sheila Allen Bell, who said HANH printed 3,300 flyers that were mailed out and slid under doors.

Rockview Tenant Residents Council president Shirley Banks (pictured) said she never received any information about the program. Unlike the residents who were relocated to different HANH properties, Banks used a Section 8 voucher to move in to a home on Division Street.

“Unfortunately,” Banks said about her new address. “I say unfortunately because I do not like it there, I want to go back to Rockview.”

Miller said he expects about one third of the Rockview and Brookside residents to move back in. This is because while HANH has kept in touch with the people who still live in the buildings they manage, Miller said it is harder to keep in contact with the ones who have moved to scattered locations around the city, and those who have moved to different states.

James and Lee also wanted to know what was being done by HANH security to keep drug activity away from the new development.

John Prokop, the outgoing director of Security, said a plan to get a police substation at the center of the Rockview and Brookside developments was “in the hop” but that it would come to fruition once he was gone. Prokop said he has also applied for grants for 78 cameras, and that Ribicoff Cottages was going to get a gate.

Allan Felder of Man-Up Community Works Organization said he is against cameras and police patrols. Citing W.E.B. DuBois, Felder said the way to eliminate crime is to create economic and educational opportunity.

Although Westville Manor and Abraham Ribicoff are the only occupied buildings on that side of West Rock, the community center is coming back to life this summer, with a new schedule and a new 17 passenger van to pick up displaced residents during the summer.

When she is not attending TRC meetings, Banks also coaches a drill team for Rockview girls, which is actually expanding—taking on 20 new members who moved to Westville Manor, and people who she has stayed in touch with who used Section 8 vouchers to rent apartments in scattered areas across the city.

Only four members of the community came out to speak to the event hosted by the Board of Aldermen Ad-Hoc Committee on Housing, which held a special meeting in the center of the abandoned Brookside and Rockview housing projects, to make the meeting accessible to the community, according to Alderman Robert Lee of Fair Haven.

“We wanted to hear concerns about the construction from the community,” Lee said.

At the beginning of the month, the West Rock Implementation Committee called neighbors to a meeting to select a developer and raise concerns about the redevelopments, but were not allowed to speak at the meeting once they arrived.