Yul Replants His Sign

Yul Watley returned to home to find his two Toni Harp campaign signs removed from his front yard. By the time he got to the bottom of the disappearance, his simple act of planting the signs has resulted in a broader review of the rules for some New Haven public-housing tenants who express support for political candidates.

When his signs first disappeared, his first suspicion was that they had been stolen by an opposing candidate’s team. That has been known to happen in New Haven elections.

Watley, who lives in a stand-alone ​“scattered-site” public-housing dwelling in the Quinnipiac Meadows neighborhood, was wrong about the thief. The housing authority had taken down the signs and folded them neatly beside the house.

It turned out the housing authority may have been wrong, too. Though that’s unclear — because Watley’s house might not fit neatly into the authority’s existing policy on political speech.

Watley appeared before the regular meeting of Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) commissioners last week to seek clarity about the policy about public housing residents displaying their political preferences via signs and campaign paraphernalia on their lawns. Watley supports Democrat Toni Harp, who’s running against independent Justin Elicker in the Nov. 5 mayoral election.

“I was told I couldn’t put up a political sign,” said Watley during the public comment interlude of the commissioners’ meeting.

“Areas within the exclusive control of the resident” are permitted to have signage, replied HANH legal counsel Rolan Young.

“So if you have it in a window,” it’s OK, she added.

She didn’t specifically address Watley’s situation. His sign was not in a window, but on his front lawn.

Watley used to live at the housing authority’s Westville manor project. He served as residents council head at the time. Now he lives in a single-family home on Palmieri Street, a leafy enclave in Quinnipiac Meadows, part of HANH’s scattered site housing portfolio.

HANH owns his three-bedroom home. All the grounds are in his exclusive control — or so he thought— as opposed to just the windows and the interior, which was the case at Westville Manor. That was why he thought the sign was OK.

So why had his property manager, as it turned out, taken down the signs?

Because that’s apparently current HANH policy. ​“My read of the policy is that windows are fine, grounds are not,” HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton wrote in an email response to an Independent question. (DuBois-Walton serves as a chairwoman of Toni Harp’s mayoral campaign.)

Click here to read the housing authority’s policy.

When told of Watley’s situation — she had been unable to attend the board meeting — she added: ​“If he was given different guidance, then I wouldn’t ask him or others at single-family scattered sites to remove them.”

Watley proudly replanted the signs Thursday afternoon.

“I’d done this for years,” he said.

If a HANH tenant lives in a Section 8 dwelling, a private apartment with rent subsidized by the government, the tenant must ask permission from the landlord to display a sign on the lawn, Watley continued.

If the landlord has another candidate, then he can say, ​“No, you’re out of luck,” Watley quipped.

Tthe Independent reached Rhonda Siciliano, a public information officer at the HUD Boston regional office to ask if there were HUD regulations about signs in developments, scattered-site homes, and Section 8 rentals.

“It’s a free speech matter in terms of what public residents can post. That’s a local decision. We have no regulations that would prevent. That would be [the decision of] the local authority,” she said.

Which was why Watley had shown up at the HANH commissioners’ meeting with that item on his personal agenda to address during the public comment section of the meeting.

To Plant or Not to Plant. That Still Is the Question

Young had not answered his question fully. ​“Rolan advises but doesn’t make the policy. Our policy says no on the grounds. We’ll review it in the light of the concern raised,” wrote DuBois-Walton.

Watley, who has taken advantage of all the training and mentorship opportunities HANH provides to start his own construction business, likes to mix it up with the commissioners at monthly meetings, in a friendly way.

Although he had brought his humor to his inquiry about the sign, it was no light-hearted matter. Public-housing areas often sees the lowest levels of political engagement, or at least voting, in town.

“Public housing residents sell themselves short. Yes, you live in public housing, but you deserve your voice,” Watley argued.