Brian Slattery Photo
The claw of the excavator reached to the second-story roof of the laundromat of the Church Street South housing complex across from Union Station Monday — and begin what will be a long process of demolishing a symbol of failure of subsidized housing.
“You can just smell the mold,” Building Official Jim Turcio said as he surveyed the work. He looked at the shell of the building again. “It’s the beginning of the end.”
The claw took off the corner of the building and made its way along the north wall until the entire inside of the building was exposed. When the dust cleared, you could see how the building had been put together, from its concrete ceilings to its cinderblock walls, and get a sense of why it was being torn down.
Northland Investment Corp., which owns the 301-unit federally subsidized complex, had two permits approved Monday to begin the demolition work, on two buildings that don’t include any apartments. Officials hope to have the whole complex cleared out of families, and the mold-infested, crumbling buildings all torn down, by year’s end so a new mixed-income complex can rise in its place.
Mayor Toni Harp was asked if the beginning of demolition is a cause for celebration.
“It’s a two-edged sword,” Harp said during an appearance on the weekly “Mayor Monday” segment on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “It’s important that they come down. But it’s too bad that they were never maintained. And that people have got to at some point lose their homes and resettle.”
Turcio said that the laundromat would be demolished by the end of the day. The daycare center nearby would be torn down possibly by Tuesday or the end of Wednesday. The city’s building department was pulling permits to demolish the rest of the structures.
About a dozen onlookers gathered to watch the excavator at work. One of them, a 26-year old José who declined to give his name, grew up in Church Street South and moved out in 2003. He lives in West Haven now.
How did he feel about the buildings being torn down?
“Not good,” he said. “I can never bring my kids here and tell them this is where I grew up.”
“It’s history,” said one of his friends.
“A lot of people, when you came here to visit, you hadn’t seen them in years,” he continued. “There are too many feelings here. Words ain’t gonna express it.”
He watched as the excavator sent up another plume of dust.
“I hope they build something,” he said. “That’s the only way to make it up, make people feel like they’re back home.”
Efraín Soto, who lives on Derby Avenue in New Haven, was visiting his daughter, who still lives at Church Street South for now with her three kids; she had been there for 15 years. His daughter had no immediate plans to move out; her apartment was “in good condition,” Soto said. This reporter expressed surprise, since so many of the apartments at Church Street South had been declared uninhabitable. “That’s what everybody says, but not my daughter,” Soto said. “She’s never had a problem.” However, all tenants will eventually have to leave, as officials have decided that the crumbling complex and its porous roofs and walls are beyond repair.
Behind Soto, a woman who had recently moved out of Church Street South was running to her mailbox to collect her mail.
“How do you like your new place?” a man called to her.
“It’s much better,” she said.
Paul Bass contributed reporting.
Previous coverage of Church Street South:
• This Time, Harp Gets HUD Face Time
• Nightmare In 74B
• Surprise! Now HUD Flunks Church St. South
• Church St. South Tenants Get A Choice
• Home-For-Xmas? Not Happening
• Now It’s Christmas, Not Thanksgiving
• Pols Enlist In Church Street South Fight
• Raze? Preserve? Or Renew?
• Church Street South Has A Suitor
• Northland Faces Class-Action Lawsuit On Church Street South
• First Attempt To Help Tenants Shuts Down
• Few Details For Left-Behind Tenants
• HUD: Help’s Here. Details To Follow
• Mixed Signals For Church Street South Families
• Church St. South Families Displaced A 2nd Time — For Yale Family Weekend
• Church Street South Getting Cleared Out
• 200 Apartments Identified For Church Street South Families
• Northland Asks Housing Authority For Help
• Welcome Home
• Shoddy Repairs Raise Alarm — & Northland Offer
• Northland Gets Default Order — & A New Offer
• HUD, Pike Step In
• Northland Ordered To Fix Another 17 Roofs
• Church Street South Evacuees Crammed In Hotel
• Church Street South Endgame: Raze, Rebuild
• Harp Blasts Northland, HUD
• Flooding Plagues Once-Condemned Apartment
• Church Street South Hit With 30 New Orders
• Complaints Mount Against Church Street South
• City Cracks Down On Church Street South, Again
• Complex Flunks Fed Inspection, Rakes In Fed $$
• Welcome Home — To Frozen Pipes
• City Spotted Deadly Dangers; Feds Gave OK
• No One Called 911 | “Hero” Didn’t Hesitate
• “New” Church Street South Goes Nowhere Fast
• Church Street South Tenants Organize
I'm not so sure that the demolition of Church Street South Housing is so much a symbol of a failure of subsidized housing, as it is an example of the failure to properly maintain buildings. The complex suffered from having never been completed in 1970 with 100 planned moderate-income units, having a tiny construction budget, being separated from Downtown by Route 34, flat roof design, no through streets, and an absolute failure to maintain the buildings from their inception.
None of its flaws were insurmountable or beyond repair, though time has not been kind to the complex. Primarily, what has lacked is the will and vision to invest in rehabilitation rather than redevelopment - a familiar mistake that we made once before during Urban Redevelopment in the 1950s and 60s.
http://newhavenurbanism.org/new-haven-architecture/renewing-church-street-south-housing/