Allan Appel Photo
Theresa Bowman and her neighbors refer to Farnam Courts as “The G.” She’s not sure if that stands for “The Ghetto” or just plain “Goodness Gracious!” Either way, tenants of the public housing complex have serious concerns about crime, safety, and disrespect by kids.
The housing authority is taking new steps to address these chronic problems at one of the city’s oldest family developments, which has long suffered from the double whammy of being in an an industrial zone and as well as being cut off by a highway.
At this month’s regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH), membersvoted unanimously to approve a submission for a $300,000 Choice Neighborhood Initiative planning grant for Farnam from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
If successful, such grants lead not only to improving housing stock per se but also to improved safety, more access to stores, schools, and other amenities.
Farnam Courts, an aging World War Two-era family development of 240 one- to three-bedroom townhouses, very much needs all that, tenants said.
Farnam from the southwest.
Although a charming allé of trees brightens the Grand Avenue side of the townhouse development, a high wrought-iron picket fence also seems to set Farnam off as a place apart from the community, observed Bowman, who has lived there five years.
Other tenants interviewed during a walk-through of the townhouses, which stretch from Hamilton Street to the great separator of the I‑91 overpass, agreed.
Sound barrier between I-91 & Farnam.
“It’s bad,” said one woman in her 20s who, like several others, declined to be photographed or identified. “But not to the point where I can’t go outside.”
She was referring to the all-too-common periodic gunfire that appears to have many of these residents unnerved. Residents feel unfortunately resigned to accept the “pop-pop-pop” as one of the sounds of daily life.
“Every other day when they feel the need, they go ‘pop,’” added Bowman. “They don’t care about kids or the elderly. I’d love to see them clean this place up.”
In a report to the commissioners, HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton, acknowledged the problems: “In light of current concerns by residents about criminal activity, we have implemented an initiative to breathe new life into the community at Farnam.” Shorter term that means more programming in the community room, which was locked tight during a recent visit.
Longer term, that would be the “Choice” grant. The application acknowledges problems deriving from the complex’s isolation by I‑91 and the industrial neighborhood of which Farnam is now a part. “The site does not promote a sense of community or ownership, has difficult sight lines and diffcult traffic flow. Additionaly it has aging systems that require attention,” the application reads
HANH is working on the project with the Economic Development Corporation, which itself is developing a longer-term Mill River District plan for the surrounding area.
“Safety is a concern for businesses as well as residents,” said EDC Executive Director Anne Haynes. “Businesses and residents are asking for more jobs close by and also more amenities. They have Ferraro’s across the street, but [that’s] not enough. A couple of retail stores in the area, restaurants, dry-cleaning, so they [Farnam residents] don’t have to travel out of the district.”
One tenant who straddled a fence near the community room called the space far too small for the number of little kids and young people who live in the development.
She said it opens during lunch time daily. When it was opened for another occasion, “last time they destroyed it,” the tenant noted
When asked to explain in more detail as to who “they” might be, this young woman made the gesture of zipping her lips.
Theresa Bowman noted that local kids take advantage of programs at LEAP on nearby Jefferson Street and at some Bible summer camps. She said she still sees too many kids hanging out without enough to do.
Asked the single most important problem to be solved, Bowman cited the general disrespect of kids for their neighbors.
“It’s not where you live,” Bowman said, “but how you live [that matters].”
HANH’s immediate plans call for working with tenants to provide more programming in the existing community room. DuBois-Walton also said that in the short term she will relocate staff offices to a more central location in the development.
Property manager Monica Wolfork’s office is currently in a faraway nook in a boarded up building in a corner of the project
Several attempts to reach Wolfork by phone resulted in her mailbox not being able to accept the calls.
Turn that land into a park and move the units to East Haven