Housing Authority Picks Up #CancelRent Call

The housing authority plans to tap into a rainy day fund of non-public, fee-generated dollars to help cover the cost of canceling July rent at 21 different public housing complexes throughout the city.

The goal: To provide direct financial relief for some of New Haven’s neediest families, and to inspire other landlords as well as the state and federal governments to support broader rent cancellation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton made that announcement Thursday morning during a press conference held outside of Charles T. McQueeney Towers at 360 Orange St.

Standing in front of the 10-story, 150-unit public housing building that doubles as the local housing authority’s headquarters, DuBois-Walton expounded on a decision that Elm City Communities first made public in a press release sent out Monday.

The housing authority will be cancelling July rent for over 1,280 families living in the homes the agency owns and manages. That means that the local public housing entity will be foregoing rent collection of roughly $408,000 next month.

The rent relief will apply only to families living in housing authority-owned or managed buildings, and not to those living in private housing with Section 8 support of Housing Choice Vouchers.

“I refuse to operate from a scarcity mindset,” DuBois-Walton said about her motivation for cancelling July’s rent — and as a preemptive response to anyone who might question whether or not low-income public housing tenants are ​“deserving” of such relief.

She said that the average three-person family renting from the housing authority earns between $14,000 and $16,000 a year. Rent collection rates at housing authority properties has dropped from the 90 percent range to around 70 percent as renters struggle with job losses and increased costs associated with childcare, utility bills, and medical bills.

“Rather than begrudge those who have very little economic resources, be outraged that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few,” she continued. ​“Be outraged that relief efforts have not been equitable. And be outraged that hardworking people, many of them being essential, cannot work their way out of poverty despite working two or more jobs. Be outraged that we do not have the resources to do more.”

In addition to the July rent cancellation, DuBois-Walton said that the housing authority has already adjusted over $100,000 in rental income for over 400 families who have lost sources of income during the past three months of the pandemic.

DuBois-Walton said that the housing authority will not be using any public money to cover the losses incurred by July’s rent cancellation..

Instead, it will be tapping into a rainy day fund made up of fees generated by services rendered by the housing authority, its non-profit development spin-off The Glendower Group, and its non-profit property management spin-off, the360 Management Group Co.

DuBois-Walton said the largest source of those non-public dollars is developer fees earned by The Glendower Group whenever it manages the development or redevelopment of one of the city’s public housing projects. She said that the housing authority also brings in private dollars when it helps other landlords relocate tenants, such as when the housing authority helped find new places to live for those displaced from the former Hotel Duncan. And she said that the housing authority brings in a small amount of money from leasing space for cell towers at some of its buildings.

“We have been working to diversify our income into the agency because we know that to provide the level of quality housing that we need in a time of ever-shrinking federal resources, we need other ways of making money.”

She said that the housing authority has received some money from the federal CARES Act, but that that money cannot be used for rent relief. Instead, it must be used on health and infrastructure-related issues like buying personal protective equipment or reconfiguring shared spaces to allow for social distancing.

DuBois-Walton stressed that the July rent relief will only apply to those tenants living in the housing authority’s 21 public housing complexes. And it will only apply to tenants who are up-to-date on rent or are in arrearage but do not already have a repayment agreement in place. She said those tenants with repayment agreements must make good on those prior commitments in July and going forward.

“I do not have the ability to tell other management companies or private landlords to cancel rent for their tenants,” she said. ​“But I do hope that some of them will see what we’re doing and take the opportunity to follow our lead.”

The tenants living in the following complexes will benefit from the canceled July rent:

Charles T. McQueeney Towers
Constance B. Motley
Chatham / Fair Haven
Eastview Terrace
Essex Townhouses
Fairmont Heights
Fulton Park
George Crawford Manor
Katherine Harvey Terrace
Matthew Ruoppolo Manor
McConaughy Terrace
Newhall Gardens
Prescott Bush
Robert T. Wolfe
Scattered Sites
Stanley Justice Landing
Twin Brooks
Waverly Townhouses
Westville Manor
Wilmot Crossing
Winslow-Celentano
Valley Townhouses

“These families will not have a rent charge due for the month of July,” DuBois-Walton said. She said she hopes that families will use this month to dig out of any financial holes they are experiencing that have been exacerbated by the pandemic; To pay an arrearage or mounting utility bill, to get ahead on August rent or cover basic expenses like food and childcare, or even to put some money aside for savings.

DuBois-Walton added that she was inspired to cancel July’s rent in part through the organizing and advocacy of nationwide rent cancellation movements, including Cancel Rent CT.

“We’re in this moment in this country of protest and agitation, of people working to bring things to our consciousness,” she said. ​“I offer this to show the power of folks being able to speak up and help us dream something that we had never thought was possible before.”

CTCORE-Organize Now! Deputy Director Ashley Blount (pictured), one of the lead local organizers of the statewide ​“Cancel the Rent’ movement, praised DuBois-Walton for taking the lead on this issue — and urged other landlords and politicians to take notice.

She said the movement is calling on Gov. Ned Lamont to pass an executive order to cancel rent throughout the state during the Covid-19 crisis. Low-income black and brown tenants are struggling to make ends meet, she said.

The one-time CARES Act direct cash assistance did not make its way to everyone, including to undocumented immigrants. And the $600 federal boost to unemployment ends at the end of July — and that’s only for people who have successfully applied for and received unemployment assistance, which is not everyone who has lost a job during the current crisis.

“Instead of providing insufficient relief to tenants, we want the governor to cancel all rent and provide relief to landlords,” Blount said.

Help With ​“The Basics”

Sitting in the sun on the U‑shaped benches directly outside of McQueeney Towers, housing authority tenants spoke about what July’s rent cancellation meant to them.

“It will take a lot of pressure off of us for the month,” said Dean Allen (pictured), who has lived in an eighth-floor one-bedroom apartment at McQueeney Towers for two-and-a-half years and pays $202 in rent each month.

He said he’ll use the money saved on rent to pay for ​“the basics”: food and clothing.

“I’m not looking for a free ride,” he said. He added that the rent cancellation shows that the housing authority management do care about its tenants, and are paying attention to their needs during these trying times.

Maggie Hamrick (pictured) agreed. She said she’s lived at McQueeney Towers for 26 years, and is currently in a sixth-floor one-bedroom apartment, for which she pays $273 a month.

“At least they’re thinking of us at this time,” she said. ​“I think it’s a really good thing.”

Trisha Mackay (pictured) said that she’ll use the $202 she usually spends on rent for her one-bedroom apartment at McQueeney to help pay for an unexpected $1,000 medical procedure.

That procedure isn’t for her, but rather for her therapy dog. She said her dog has a rotten tooth that needs to be pulled — and she said that lowest quote she’s gotten so far is around $1,000, well more than she can afford right now.

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch Tuesday’s housing authority Board of Commissioners meeting, during which commissioners voted unanimously in support of the July rent cancellation.