nothin Elicker: State Of City “Precarious” | New Haven Independent

Elicker: State Of City Precarious”

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker (with sign language interpreter Kim Dziezynski): “Committing New Haven to Housing For All.”

City government must step up its fight for quality, safe, affordable housing — through legislative action, through code enforcement, and through lobbying the state legislature to clamp down on suburban exclusivity.

Justin Elicker pledged to prioritize those Housing for All” initiatives during his first State of the City” address as New Haven’s 51st mayor.

Elicker gave that annual address Monday night in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall during the regular bimonthly meeting of the Board of Alders.

The Aldermanic Chambers on Monday night.

Addressing a full house of local legislators, city employees, campaign supporters, and interested residents, Elicker dedicated the latter half of his roughly 20-minute speech almost entirely to the issue of housing. See below for a full transcription of the speech.

Nearly one-third of New Haven residents spend over 50 percent of their income on housing,” he said. And as so many new market rate units come online, we all are concerned that this number will become even worse. Now is the time to prioritize the creation of affordable housing. And, as so many know, what we often call affordable housing isn’t affordable to everyone. We must have new deeply affordable housing units as well.

Ensuring that all our residents have access to quality, affordable housing is central to this administration. We must take up this challenge with urgency, determination, and a commitment to address the housing needs of every New Haven resident. As I pledged on the campaign, I am committing New Haven to a Housing for All initiative.”

Alders look on as Elicker delivers his speech.

Unlike previous mayoral State of the City” addresses that have celebrated New Haven’s politically progressive values and hard-working civil servants and racial and cultural diversity, Elicker’s address struck a largely sober tone.

He rarely cracked a smile. He read most of the speech from a print-out laid before him on the Aldermanic Chambers’s podium.

I believe the state of our city is precarious,” he said.

Income inequality is extreme, Elicker argued: Local budget challenges are exacerbated by state underfunding. And the largely market-rate apartment boom has provided safe and convenient housing for those with good jobs and better bank accounts, leaving many at the margins struggling to afford to stay in a city they’ve long called home.

Elicker presses flesh after address.


We are at an opportunity inflection point. Where we could choose to work together, all of us — the political leaders, our neighboring towns, our major employers, our state partners and community members — to take advantage of the growth we are experiencing and harness it for the betterment for all. Or we could work at odds, squandering this exciting moment of change in New Haven.”

Ending on a note of optimism, Elicker said he’s confident that the overwhelming majority of New Haveners will work together and achieve what now seems unachievable. Accomplish what the naysayers say we can’t.”

I think housing is important, and that we have to find out how we have true affordable housing that is safe,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said after the new mayor’s speech.

She pointed to the alders’ recent creation of a permanent Affordable Housing Commission as evidence of the local legislature’s commitment to the cause. She added that the alders plan to prioritize this term many of the recommendations listed in the Affordable Housing Task Force’s final report.

I believe we have to keep taking care of the least among us,” she said. She also echoed the hopes Elicker expressed towards the end of his speech about New Haveners working together to solve deep-rooted problems: I believe it’s really good to tackle issues as a group.”

Without Housing, We Won’t Succeed”

Outside the mayor’s second-floor office: “We are at an opportunity inflection point.”

Elicker laid out three primary routes his administration will prioritize in its bid to address the affordable housing crisis: requiring the creation of new affordable housing units through inclusionary zoning regulations, pressuring and incentivizing the suburbs to create more affordable housing with the help of a regional affordable housing fund, and doubling down on city housing code and health inspections to ferret out slumlords.

As for a new inclusionary zoning law, Elicker pointed out that his administration has already started work on researching and developing such an ordinance and implementation plan — as helped in part by the brain power of visiting Harvard graduate student interns. That law would potentially require developers to set aside a certain percentage of units in new apartment projects at affordable rates.

We will be working closely with the Alders and the public in the next several months as this plan is developed,” he said.

New Haven cannot focus solely on expanding existing affordable housing options within city limits in order to meet this crisis, Elicker continued. The suburbs have to do their part as well.

Our state has set a minimum standard that cities and towns should have 10 percent affordable housing. While roughly 30 percent of New Haven housing is deemed affordable,’ nearly all of our neighboring cities and towns fail to meet this 10 percent threshold, and in some instances fall far below it. 

They must do better. We must work with our neighboring towns to ensure that they are doing their part, and that is why our state delegation and I will be outspoken advocates in support of state legislation to increase requirements and funding state-wide for more affordable options.”

What that means in practice, Elicker said, is the city and its state delegation advocating for the creation of regional affordable housing funds that would provide small towns with financial incentives to develop more affordable housing.

But affordable housing isn’t just about new development,” he said. It’s also about our existing housing stock. And let’s face it, so much of our rental housing a is a mess, with some absentee landlords benefiting while our residents live in substandard and dangerous conditions.”

We are coming for you,” he warned any bad landlords” listening.

He said government under his leadership will implement a Housing Inspections 2.0” initiative that will work to increase inspections, expose the violators, and ensure accountability.”

Those increased inspections will also apply to how the city handles child lead poisoning, he added.

Elicker said that the city’s lawyers are currently working with legal aid right now to settle the long-standing class action child lead poisoning lawsuit legal aid filed last year.

He said the Health Department will be distributing $5.6 million in federal lead paint abatement funds to help local landlords cover the cost of cleaning up hazards at their properties and to perform health homes assessments.

And he promised to formally submit to the Board of Alders a list of appointments for the Lead Paint Advisory Committee in the coming days.

Housing first, housing for all,” he said. Without housing, we don’t have stability in our lives. Without housing, we won’t succeed.”

Text Of Mayor Justin Elicker’s 2020 State of the City” Address

President Walker-Myers, City Clerk Michael Smart, Honorable Members of the Board of Alders, good evening. I’m excited to be here before you.

It’s been more than six years since I’ve been at this podium – then as Ward 10 Alder, sitting where Alder Festa sits today, representing Cedar Hill, East Rock and a sliver of Quinnipiac Meadows. We’ve all come a long way since then. The Board has created a strong leadership structure, worked to create New Haven Works, advocated for the creation of the new Q House and many more initiatives. Many of you then were new to the Board and learning how to get things done. Now many of you are veterans, skilled in your approach and focused on outcomes for the constituents you represent and residents across the City.

I, too, have come a long way. Of course, I have a new role, but more importantly I’ve learned a lot over these years. After running the New Haven Land Trust for five years, two mayoral campaigns, thousands of conversations and experiences with people around the City, and the experiences of being a father, my understanding of people’s circumstances has deepened, my relationships throughout the City have intensified, and my commitment to significant, meaningful change in the Elm City has solidified. I am sure those things are true for you in this room as well.

It’s been 34 days since I was inaugurated as New Haven’s 51st Mayor. And let me tell you, a lot has happened since then. This weekend, when I was drafting this speech, I reflected on this past month. We all know you can’t accomplish a lot in 34 days. But I think what has been accomplished fits in two buckets. The first bucket is the tone my administration has set. And the second bucket is the work we are doing to lay the groundwork for meaningful policy changes.

The first bucket – setting the tone.

During last year’s campaign, I didn’t promise I would successfully implement a slew of policy changes (although I plan on doing so), but what I promised were things I was sure I could deliver on. I promised a City Hall that is run by the best people, a City Hall that is open to everyone, a City Hall that is more accessible, a City Hall that you can trust. And in this first month, my administration has set that exact tone.

A City that is run by the best people. Over the past year I said over and over that I would appoint people that were right for the job — not based on my friendships or their political connections. I promised that I would appoint people from a diverse set of backgrounds who had the right expertise, were hard working and had strong integrity. I’m sure that some of you in this room doubted that. But I have done just that. And the team I’ve assembled reflects all of those things. From the Director of the Health Department, to the Director of the Cultural Affairs, to the Chief Administrative Officer, to my front office staff, to our Corporation Counsel and more, our team is incredible. And each day that goes by I become more sure of that.

A City Hall that is open to everyone. This started well before the inauguration. Through the transition process we engaged hundreds of residents in a collective discussion over group meetings, coffee gatherings, online surveys, one-on-one conversations to compile a report that reflects the aspirations of so many New Haveners. A few days after inauguration we opened up the doors of City Hall so that staff and residents could mingle and enjoy food from Orchid Café. And it’s continued every day since. I haven’t changed my cell phone number – the one that everyone in New Haven has. And over the past 34 days I’ve attended 56 community management team meetings, neighborhood meetings, ribbon cuttings, meet and greets and other gatherings around the City to set the tone that the City is listening and the City cares.

A City Hall that is more accessible. Our team is working to do just that. And it’s the small things: like sending out weekly emails notifying residents of important issues, to creating an online form to sign up for Boards and Commissions, to putting Complete Streets applications and their status online. And it’s the big things that we’re working on, like an open checkbook policy that will share all government expenditures to create more accountability, like gathering non-profit and regional partners to respond to the Puerto Rican Earthquake or Coronavirus. We will be more successful if we work together and that starts with City Hall showing we want everyone to be a part of it. 

And a City Hall that is honest. And we’ve been honest. We were honest when in response to press inquiries we immediately shared information on our decreases in parking meter revenue or the amount of expenditures on outside attorneys working on the lead case. I was honest when I said that I may be skinny, but I can put down some wings.” I was honest when I said I hadn’t used the bathroom phone in the Mayor’s Office. (It’s disconnected.) And you’ll see more of that honesty as we work through what will be a very difficult budget year.

The first bucket of what we’ve accomplished so far — is setting the tone. And the second bucket is the work we are doing to lay the groundwork for meaningful policy changes.

What’s clear is that we in a period in our City of great opportunity if we choose to embrace it. In my inauguration speech I talked Inclusive Growth and what my priorities are over the coming years to realize this vision: safety, jobs, education and housing.

Our team is already making progress in all of these areas.

On safety, we are working as a team to expand on what it means to implement community policing. Just last week Chief Reyes initiated the New Haven Police Clergy Academy. The Chief, City Engineer, Director of Transportation, Traffic and Parking and I had a robust conversation with community members about pedestrian deaths and are already implementing changes based on that meeting. And when New Haven lost an 19-year-old boy, Mubarak Soulemane, in an officer-involved shooting that did not involve New Haven police but did involve state troopers, the Chief and I were at the protests and I at Mubi’s funeral to underscore that our police force and City care deeply about police accountability, that we value the lives of young black and brown men and women and will work to always be improving our policing practices.

On jobs, as you have seen, we are working with the State of Connecticut and Carter Winstanley on a new office building — 101 College Street – which will support over 500 jobs. It’s not, however, just a new building and new taxes. We intend to be inclusive in our approach by supporting small business startups from the neighborhoods as well as from Yale, focusing on academic pathways connecting our public school students to jobs in the bio/life sciences and rolling out a new program called sourceNHV. City staff and community partners will help approximately 300 small business customers this year through technical assistance and start-up boot camps. The sourceNHV approach will provide the needed ongoing support, taking a start-up from the boot-camp to sustainable levels of growth. There is still quite a bit of work to do but I hope to deliver you a development agreement on 101 College for your consideration later this month, open up a community conversation about jobs for all New Haven residents, and then start construction this year.

Also going into construction this year is a new Neuroscience Campus at Yale New Haven Hospital’s St. Raphael’s Campus. With over a billion dollars in construction impact, this is a great opportunity to connect small contractors to work right here in the City. We are setting a goal to increase by 20% the number of registered small contractors in our programs and providing technical assistance to get our contractors the necessary certifications to work in hospital and patient care settings. 

Likewise, our Livable City Initiative is working closely with the local Alders and the surrounding community to ensure that this dramatic change in the neighborhood is done responsibly — - and this includes revitalization of commercial districts right around St. Raphael’s with stores that serve the residents who live there.

And on the education front, we have already started making progress. Interim Superintendent Dr. Tracey has brought a much needed level of calm and stability to our school system. And the Board of Education voted unanimously to select new leadership in Yesenia Rivera. President Darnell Goldson put his all into the position, and now with Ms. Rivera as President we have an opportunity to take things to the next level.

There are many things we need to focus on to improve our ability to teach to the whole child – early childhood education, play-based learning, restorative practices. I believe one of the most important areas however is investing in our disengaged youth. Our work, and the work of our community partners like New Haven Public School Advocates, to advise the Dalio Foundation to implement our vision for equitable funding, is a good foundation to set that tone.

On education, I also wanted to take a moment to say how proud I am of my wife Natalie for writing an op ed in the New Haven Independent encouraging those parents who can make a choice, to opt into our public school system. Our daughter Molly is benefiting every day from her experiences at her school and we are grateful to be a part of the New Haven Public School Family.

But of these priority areas, tonight I want to focus on one and that is housing. And I want to focus on housing because it is in every way, for our City and for individual residents, foundational. 

Nearly 1/3 of New Haven residents spend over 50% of their income on housing. And as so many new market rate units come online, we all are concerned that this number will become even worse. Now is the time to prioritize the creation of affordable housing. And, as so many know, what we often call affordable housing isn’t affordable to everyone. We must have new deeply affordable housing units as well. Ensuring that all our residents have access to quality, affordable housing is central to this administration. We must take up this challenge with urgency, determination, and a commitment to address the housing needs of every New Haven resident. As I pledged on the campaign, I am committing New Haven to a Housing for All initiative.

o This means implementing a strong inclusionary zoning ordinance that will require new large housing developments to include affordable and deeply affordable housing. My administration has already been working diligently to research and develop such an inclusionary zoning ordinance and plan. We will be working closely with the Alders and the public in the next several months as this plan is developed.

o And while New Haven must do all we can to expand affordable housing, we cannot do it alone. Our state has set a minimum standard that cities and towns should have 10 percent affordable housing. While roughly 30 percent of New Haven housing is deemed affordable,” nearly all of our neighboring cities and towns fail to meet this 10% threshold, and in some instances fall far below it. They must do better. We must work with our neighboring towns to ensure that they are doing their part, and that is why our state delegation and I will be outspoken advocates in support of state legislation to increase requirements and funding state-wide for more affordable options. The Governor and others are elevating this issue as a priority, and we are too as our team in partnership with the New Haven state delegation initiates a proposal to the state legislature for the creation of regional affordable housing funds across the state to encourage smaller towns to develop their affordable housing stock and help subsidize units in New Haven and other cities like ours.

o But affordable housing isn’t just about new development – it’s also about our existing housing stock. And let’s face it, so much of our rental housing is a mess, with some absentee landlords benefitting while our residents live in substandard and dangerous conditions. To the good landlords out there (and there are many) – thank you for doing your job, keeping our residents safe, maintaining a clean and healthy living environment. And to the bad landlords – be forewarned, we are coming for you. My team will be implementing Housing Inspections 2.0 working to increase inspections, expose the violators, and ensure accountability.

o Finally, I would be remiss if I did not touch on lead poising in our children. This is an issue that impacts the most vulnerable – and issue we all care about in this City. Now is the time for us to work together with our community partners to address this very difficult problem. Our Corporation Counsel is working with Legal Aid representatives with the goal that we can come to a settlement in the class action lawsuit against the City. Meanwhile our Health Department will be working to facilitate the remediation of lead hazards with $5.6 million in HUD funds to help local landlords cover the cost of abating lead hazards to provide safer homes for low-income families with children and to perform healthy home assessments.

And in the coming days I will formally be submitting for appointment the Lead Paint Advisory Committee members to the Board of Alders.

o Housing first, housing for all. Without housing, we don’t have stability in our lives. Without housing, we won’t succeed.

This address is entitled State of the City”. Which begs the question, what is the State of New Haven now? I think most political leaders, when they give State of the Nation, State of the State and State of the City speeches would answer, that the State is Strong. But frankly I think the answer for New Haven is much more complicated. The State of New Haven, the State of our City is unequal – income inequality in our City is extreme and must be dealt with. The State of our City is underfunded – we have extreme budget challenges that will have severe consequences in the years to come; and I believe the State of our City is precarious – we are at an opportunity inflection point. Where we could choose to work together, all of us – the political leaders, our neighboring towns, our major employers, our state partners and our community members – to take advantage of the growth we are experiencing and harness it for the betterment of all. Or we could work at odds, squandering this exciting moment of change in New Haven. I’m optimistic that the overwhelming majority of us will work together and achieve what now seems unachievable. Accomplish what the naysayers say we can’t. The State of New Haven is What We Choose to Make of It. And I’m confident that we will make the right choice, to be a part of this journey together.

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