Allan Appel Photo
A recent mural on BIMEC facade topped by posters of local heroes, Constance Baker Motley, Edward Bouchet, and Mayors John C. Daniels and Toni Harp.
A Newhallville not-for-profit agency Wednesday night made progress on overcoming one of two obstacles to setting up transitional housing for people coming out of prison.
About 1,000 people a year return from prison to New Haven, many of them them trying to resettle in the Dixwell-Newhallville area.
The not-for-profit agency, Believe In Me Empowerment Corporation, tries to help them do that at its center at Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street, which it recently renovated after a fire. Now the group wants to transform the building into a custodial care facility to offer much needed transitional housing. It would serve men, 18 and older, with substance, mental health and behavioral problems, who have been released to the community by the state Department of Corrections.To do so, it needs special zoning permission.
The City Plan Commission Wednesday night voted to recommend approval of a special permit to allow only four on-site parking spaces where 11 spaces are required.
While the vote was unanimous, Deputy City Plan Director Tom Talbot asked the commissioners to remove a condition of the parking approval that somehow had found its way into the staff report and recommendation: namely that the maximum number of residents in the facility be capped at 17.
BIMEC needs approval of the parking permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals, which had sent the matter to City Plan for the recommendation before resuming discussion of it and voting on it.
At at BZA meeting last week, BIMEC founder James Walker advocated for a facility that could house up to 34 residents. Current zoning law would allow only six. Zoners expressed concern about the small size of the facility and its rooms and asked Walker to consider scaling back. City Plan had previously disagreed with BIMEC’s case for allowing a larger facility. (Read about that here.)
The discussion was left unresolved when the BZA referred the the specific issue of parking to City Plan. Now BZA will resume discussion of both matters.
Established in 2008 to supply supportive services for incarcerated people and their families, including counseling and a well patronized food pantry, BIMEC received $55,000 in city funds for renovations and then, after a 2015 fire, $30,000 for facade upgrades.
After Wednesday night’s approval of a special exception for parking, Walker and BIMEC must return to the BZA for further discussion and a decision on the size of the facility.
That won’t take place until February 2017 because the BZA does not meet in January.
Can you assure us the tax payer that the people who renenter are pepole who were originally from here. Those men coming out know that they just need to list new haven as their first choice as a place to come out to becseu new haven has more beds than anywhere else. Lets make sure those who CAME from New Haven have first option to return to New Haven