New Haven Independent

Tower One’s not alone. Thanks to a glitch in Hartford, city tax bills have gone out to ten New Haven addresses where not-for-profits house low-income people — all places where a state tax abatement grant program has previously covered local taxes.

Tower One houses 230 elderly tenants in 196 apartments in a tower on Church Street South. More than half the tenants receive no federal rent subsidies but are still low-moderate income and could not afford $88-$130 rent increases, said Gianniani-Meyers (pictured), who runs Tower One. She calls the new bills a crisis.

“I don’t panic. I trust that people will do the right thing,” she said. “I trust our elected officials will not want to see vulnerable old people — who would otherwise be in nursing homes — not be able to stay here.

“Think about your mother, your grandmother. We’re not talking about rich people here. We’re talking about people who worked hard all their lives.”

The amounts previously covered for the affected New Haven complexes by the state grants range from from $6,139 to $149,013.

Those are the amounts previously supported by a state law that covered some of the tax bills for five dozen addresses around the state where not-for-profits house low-income people, many of them seniors. Most of the locations have fixed-income renters whose rents are provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 program. (Two of the locations also get support from the state Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.)

The money for the tax subsidy was originally in the current state budget, but was dropped during negotiations between legislative leaders and the Rell administration. Legislative leaders have restored the money when that happened in the past. But they didn’t this year.

Now, without the subsidies, which go to the city government, City Hall has sent out whopping tax notices to following housing complexes all over town (some of which have property at more than one address):

Subsidized rental properties/HUD (also DECD and CHFA)

• University Row, 127-141 Henry St.
• Canterbury Gardens Apartments, 545 Sherman Parkway
• Seabury Cooperative, 400 Elm St. & 116 Howe St.
• Dwight Cooperative Homes, 99 Edgewood Ave.
• Fairbank Apartments, 355 Ferry St.
• Tower One, 18 Tower La.
• Village Park II & Bella Vista Phase II: 301, 321 & 315 Eastern St.

Even though not-for-profits run these complexes, they’re still subject to property taxes unless they get a specific city exemption.

A Tight Spot

Tower One has enjoyed not just one, but two such breaks under a decades-old agreement with the city. Like the other projects on the list, it has the portion of its taxes forgiven for the state abatement grants. Unlike others, it also has the rest of its tax bill forgiven.

According to Giannini-Meyers, that amounts to around $180,000 a year — half from the state grant, the other half from the special agreement with the city.

However, all that money depends on the state grant coming through. So this year Tower One is on the hook for that money.

Plus, that 40-year-old agreement with the city expires this May 13.

So Giannini-Meyers is urging lawmakers to act on two fronts.

She’s urging state legislators to restore the statewide program by passing an emergency bill (HB 5031) to restore this year’s state abatement grants to the budget; as well as a state bill (SB#2) to preserve those grants in future years.

Meanwhile, she’s asking the Board of Aldermen to renew the special city agreement with Tower One.

Two key lawmakers from New Haven, State Senate Majority Leader Marty Looney and Sen. Toni Harp, said they’re working to restore the money.

“It’s on our radar screen,” Harp said. “The longer we wait, the more negative impact this will have.”

Looney said “there is a general consensus to restore that money” at the legislature. During budget negotiations last session, lawmakers had the feeling that municipalities could “absorb the loss” from the expiration of the grant program. “It turns out not to be the case.”

Democrats have included the money in their “emergency relief” plan to be drawn from the state’s budget surplus.

Mayor John DeStefano said he’d like to see the legislature restore the money in the interest of supporting affordable housing. If it doesn’t, aldermen will find themselves in a tight spot in addressing the Tower One request, since so many other affordable housing not-for-profits don’t have agreements with similar terms. “How do you do it for one and not the other?” he said. Doing it for everyone could put the city millions of dollars in the hole.

“I understand he’s struggling” with a tough budget, Giannini-Meyers said of the mayor. “He’s in a real Catch-22. I hate to add to his struggles. But we have to. My job is to protect people who live here.”

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