Markeshia Ricks Photos
Val Macri’s daughter at Friday’s ribbon-cutting on Frank Street.
For Nelson McLaughlin, homelessness meant sleeping on a bench, seeing someone from your past life walk by and hoping the person doesn’t see you.
“I didn’t want him to see me, to know that it was me,” recalled McLaughlin (pictured at left).
Now he’s cleaned up, he said. And thanks to a housing-rescue effort by local organizations, he has a nicer and more permanent place to live than a park bench or a homeless shelter. He stopped by to check out his soon-to-be-new home in the Hill at a ribbon-cutting Friday.
McLaughlin said back in the 1980s he fell into drugs — cocaine and others. When his addiction overwhelmed his ability to keep a job and a place to live, he became homeless. Two years ago, he got on methadone, went to Safe Haven shelter, where he said the staff advocated for him and hooked him up with Columbus House. And soon, he will have his own place to live again.
“It’s surreal actually, but I am happy to have such a nice, clean place to live,” he said.
McLaughlin will be one of the residents of the newly renovated Valentina Macri Apartments at 109 Frank St. Like many of its new occupants, the former senior-public housing facility itself fell on hard times, and became an eyesore. Local organizations came to the rescue, fixed it up, and have now revived it as a permanent home for people like McLaughlin. (Read more about those hard times and the steps taken to rehab the complex here and here.)
Eleanor Carbone (at right in photo at the top of the story), daughter of the apartments’ namesake, Valentina Macri, braved bracingly cold temperatures to stand in the inner courtyard of the complex Friday to help cut the the ribbon officially reopening the apartments.
“I wish she could see us now,” she said, to which the audience replied heartily, “She can!”
The complex was named for Macri (pictured) upon her death in 1973. She was a career social worker with the New Haven Welfare Department beginning in 1929. Macri later became a staff member for the housing authority in addition to being an advocate for her clients.
Over the last two years, Columbus House worked with federal, state and local officials to transform the once-rundown housing complex in the Hill, into 17 liveable units again. While the building retains much of 1970 “garden-style” charm, the apartments feature new bathrooms and kitchens, new heating and ventilation systems, new plumbing and wiring, and all new appliances. The building also features solar panels.
“I am so glad to see this raggedy thing come up to be something that I think will be a pleasure to be in the neighborhood,” said Hill Alder Andrea Jackson-Brooks.
Michelle Lee Rodriguez, a relocation coordinator with the Housing Authority of New Haven, said seeing Valentina Macri in its new reincarnation brings back sweet memories for her. Her grandmother and her great aunt, on her dad’s side of the family, were both residents of the complex back in the late 1970s through about the mid-1980s. The two women used to tend the courtyard garden planting flowers.
“I used to come and visit them all the time,” she said. “I’m so happy and I love the idea that it is going to be supportive housing and a place that can become a home for someone, just like it was her home.”
Mayor Toni Harp tours one of the newly renovated apartments.
Eleven of the apartments will be specifically for permanent supportive housing for homeless people. Six units will be additional affordable housing units. Residents will also have access to on-site support services to help them maintain their housing and enhance their quality of life.
Columbus House Executive Director Alison Cunningham said those who toiled over several years to see the complex finished were driven by a mission to end chronic homelessness by 2016. The complex plays a role in achieving that mission, which she said that she believes New Haven will achieve, she said she believes it could happen ahead of schedule.
“I think we can do it before 2016 in New Haven,” Cunningham said.
