by | Jun 17, 2025 10:20 am | Comments (20)
Sonia Ahmed photo
Antoinette Humes shares her experience of homelessness and housing in New Haven.
A bus full of affordable housing advocates drove by a new luxury apartment complex on Munson Street — as Antoinette Humes, mic in hand, told her fellow riders about her path into and out of homelessness.
by | Jun 16, 2025 2:25 pm | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen photos
56 new townhome-style apartments in West River ...
... as celebrated with an official ribbon cutting.
Six decades after Urban Renewal’s bulldozers plowed through the Oak Street neighborhood — and nearly three decades after the late Rev. Curtis Cofield II began fighting to build back housing there — city officials, nonprofit developers, and West River neighbors cut the ribbon Monday on 56 new affordable apartments.
“Sixty years ago, they said this would never be replaced,” longtime community leader Jerry Poole said about the residences that were destroyed to make way for a mini-highway. “I use one word to describe how I feel about [the new housing here today]. Magnificent. Magnificent! That’s how I’m feeling.”
by | Jun 16, 2025 1:19 pm | Comments (10)
Laura Glesby Photos
Police have recommended revoking the license of the New Haven Inn.
Alder Furlow (middle): The New Haven Inn is a subject of frequent complaints about public substance use, needle littering, and fights.
The city is seeking a new avenue to shut down hotels deemed to be problematic — with the New Haven Inn as a possible first target — by reforming a currently irrevocable rooming house license.
by | Jun 13, 2025 12:52 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen file photo
Fair Haven's Brewery Square, now under new ownership.
An affordable housing developer duo has purchased the 104-unit Brewery Square apartment complex for $15 million — and now plans to update the bathrooms, install new windows, refinish the floors, and put in quartz countertops.
by | Jun 13, 2025 9:36 am | Comments (23)
Laura Glesby Photo
LCI Neighborhood Specialist Rosaly Rosario, Attorney Sinclair Williams, and director Liam Brennan.
Tenants who report unsafe living conditions to the city could soon have another layer of protection from retaliatory evictions — by way of a prospective update to the landlord license program.
by | Jun 12, 2025 3:49 pm | Comments (4)
Alexandra Martinakova photos
Peace gardener Aaron Goode: “We’re hoping to have a mutually beneficial relationship" with ...
... the newly opened Curtis Cofield Estates residents next door.
As the thermometer showed a temperature in the mid 80s Thursday morning, Paula and Frank Panzarella and Aaron Goode watered the West River Peace Garden with bottles and buckets they brought themselves.
They tended to that public greenspace, which still lacks its own water supply, as new neighbors have begun to move in next door at a long-in-the-works affordable housing development.
Continue reading ‘Peace Gardeners Prepare For New Neighbors’
by | Jun 9, 2025 7:54 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen File Photo
Local landlord Ocean Management is facing mounting blight fines for this Fitch Street house, among others.
A change to the type of mail used by the city to notify landlords of blight violations might soon make it harder for landlords to dodge fines for dilapidated properties — as part of a broader suite of anti-blight updates that would also see those fines rise to up to $1,000 per day.
Continue reading ‘Anti-Blight Update Seeks To Raise Fines, Drop Certified Mail’
by | Jun 9, 2025 3:06 pm | Comments (8)
A passerby on Friday claimed to see people throwing trash out of the building's broken windows.
Mona Mahadevan photos
The building is covered with graffiti and surrounded by trash.
The building's internal courtyard is completely overgrown.
The potential revitalization of the dilapidated clock factory on Hamilton Street has been delayed once again, as a state judge has granted the property’s owner more time to clean up environmental contaminants and subordinate debt before selling the complex to the housing authority.
by | Jun 9, 2025 10:56 am | Comments (6)
Robert Greenberg photos
Before/after comparison of 33 Crown St., which is now an 18-unit "mass timber" apartment building.
David Sepulveda photo
Jeff Spiritos (second from left) leads a May 20 tour of the furniture store-turned-apartment building.
A four-story brick building facade from 1877 — now sandwiched between two layers of modernist architectural elements — only hints at the forward-facing transformation that has taken place inside 33 Crown St.
Continue reading ‘ACME Furniture Reborn As Eco-Friendly Apartments’
by | May 30, 2025 10:40 am | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photo
Fenced-off Fitch houses, between Dyer and Blake.
A chain-link fence with a blue screen now stretches across one side of nearly a full block of Fitch Street — partially shielding from view a row of Ocean Management-controlled dilapidated houses that are the subject of more than $150,000 in new anti-blight liens.
by | May 30, 2025 8:53 am | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen file photo
LCI inspecting a Nash St. rental property in October.
Frustrations with ceiling mold, peeling vinyl siding, and unresponsive landlords prompted tenants and neighbors at the most recent East Rock Community Management Team meeting to try to figure out what can be done about deteriorating rental homes in East Rock.
Continue reading ‘East Rock Q: What To Do About Rundown Rentals?’
by | May 22, 2025 4:50 pm | Comments (39)
Zachary Groz File Photo
The currently vacant firehouse building at 15 Edwards St. ...
Sam Gardner Rendering
... now slated for housing.
A local developer and a group of East Rock neighbors faced off once again over the fate of the old Edwards Street firehouse.
This time, the developer succeeded and received City Plan Commission approval to build 27 apartments both within and atop the firehouse — despite protests that denser housing would unleash the “gradual demise” of the neighborhood.
by | May 16, 2025 9:34 am | Comments (2)
Lisa Reisman photo
Volunteer Justin Toczydlowski at work at the 180 Center Community Care Day.
On a recent sun-splashed afternoon outside the 180 Center on East Street, John A. was dog-sitting a bull terrier named Cherish when he heard someone calling his name. It was a staff member telling him she had his mail.
“This place is my lifeline,” he said, amid the aroma of hot dogs and festive crush of attendees on Community Care Day. Each day he goes to Bible Study classes at the center. On Sundays, he attends church there. Otherwise, he’s flying a sign on the corner of Long Wharf Drive and Sports Haven.
With its slogan “Turning Lives Around,” the 180 Center, which relies solely on charitable donations, provides free breakfasts and lunches to anyone in need year-round. It also offers a warming center, an intensive 18-month rehabilitation program comprising Bible studies, conflict resolution classes, and prayer sessions for up to nine men, and a Christian 12-step program.
Continue reading ‘180 Center Steps Up With Free Haircuts, & Much More’
by | May 13, 2025 10:49 am | Comments (4)
Mona Mahadevan photos
Garrett Wiese and Taesha Aurora share their findings with Iskander Guetta, one of the current tenants of 337 Crown.
Notice of demolition posted on 337 Crown.
Iskander Guetta had never taken much notice of the small door in his bedroom at 337 Crown St. — until he and his classmates pried it open and uncovered a fireplace sealed behind the wall.
The four Yale School of Architecture students — Guetta, Taesha Aurora, Garrett Wiese, and Metos Shtaloja — had been researching the 185-year-old house when they came across an early floor plan marking the fireplace’s location. The discovery resulted from their efforts to document the building’s history as Yale prepares to tear it down and construct a multi-story dramatic arts complex.
Continue reading ‘House History Uncovered, Before Yale Demo’
by | May 2, 2025 3:11 pm | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen file photo
Redeveloper Jake Pine: This demolition will be done right.
Highville Principal Che Dawson: Will this endanger kids?
275 Winchester, to come down starting this summer.
Demolition of the remaining vacant, toxic former Winchester Repeating Arms factory buildings near Munson and Mansfield Streets is slated to begin this summer.
The cleanup and teardown project should take roughly a year to complete — and will ultimately lead to the construction of new housing or lab/office space in Science Park.
by | May 1, 2025 1:26 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
Michael Henderson: "I'm not trying to not pay rent."
The new owner of a 72-unit apartment complex in Upper Westville has moved to evict five households — including parents of young children who said they are willing and able to pay their rent, if only the landlord would take their money.
Continue reading ‘Tenants: Let Us Pay. Landlord: Time To Go’
by | Apr 30, 2025 11:04 am | Comments (4)
Cider-making photos included in Rivera's BZA application.
New Haveners will soon-ish be able to enjoy locally made hard cider in the basement of a downtown office building — thanks to the entrepreneurship of fermented-apple-juice enthusiast and aerospace engineer Antonio Rivera.
by | Apr 30, 2025 9:39 am | Comments (12)
Laura Glesby Photo
Neva Caldwell at the Mothers and Others for Justice meeting.
There were no empty seats at dinner in the basement of 660 Winchester Ave., where a group of 20 moms brainstormed how to bring landlords to the table in their fight to protect rent assistance.
Continue reading ‘Mothers & Others Organize To Protect Section 8’
by | Apr 24, 2025 8:53 pm | Comments (7)
Thomas Breen file photo
The Brewery Sq. complex at 19 River St.
The Board of Alders unanimously approved a municipal tax break for two developers planning to renovate a Fair Haven apartment complex and double the number of below-market-rent units there.
by | Apr 11, 2025 8:03 pm | Comments (3)
Laura Glesby Photos
CCA's Juan Vega unveils the new street sign at Davenport and Ward...
...in honor of Rev. Bonita Grubbs, center, who turned 70 on Friday.
The corner of Davenport and Ward now officially bears the name of a cornerstone of New Haven’s fight against poverty.
by | Apr 4, 2025 4:45 pm | Comments (19)
Thomas Breen photo
At work this week on 96 new downtown apartments.
The logo for September's "pro-homes" YIMBYtown conference.
Expand housing in industrial zones.
Make it easier to build small-scale developments.
Pull back on parking mandates.
Double down on mother-in-law apartments.
Those are a few of the zoning changes that sit at the top of the respective wish lists of two local housing-policy aficionados when asked what would make New Haven a city that truly supports build build building.
by | Apr 2, 2025 3:48 pm | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photos
Cars parked at 80 Elm ...
Thomas Breen photo
... to facilitate the construction of a different downtown development.
The fence is open and cars are parked on an empty Elm Street lot near City Hall.
Might this mean progress on a long-stalled downtown development?
Yes … just not the one you might think.
by | Apr 2, 2025 1:48 pm | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby File Photo
Tim Maguire, new executive director of Y2Y.
Two partnering youth homelessness nonprofits are now under new leadership.
Continue reading ‘Youth Homelessness Orgs Announce New Directors’
by | Apr 1, 2025 9:52 am | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photo
1447 Chapel, home to a "cordial" rent-hike dispute.
A 75-year-old tenant’s monthly rent will increase by $100 — after the Fair Rent Commission chipped away at the landlord’s compromise proposal of $150, following an initial suggested hike of $350.
by | Mar 28, 2025 11:54 am | Comments (11)
Paul Bass photo
Reinvention team: LCI's Rosario, Brennan and Williams at WNHH FM.
Rosaly Rosario discovered that a rundown vacant house on Sylvan Avenue wasn’t so vacant after all.