Housing Horrors Haunt Hearing

Children urinating into buckets. Mice and mushrooms emerging from floorboards. Showering at Planet Fitness!

The first public hearing on the mayor’s proposed new city budget elicited such horror stories — as members of the public came out en masse to push not just for more affordable housing, but for better government oversight of living standards across existing housing stock.

The mayor’s proposed $680 million general operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, currently before the Board of Alders for review, would add five housing code inspectors to the Livable City Initiative’s (LCI’s) staff. That would bring the total number of inspectors up from 13 to 18. The budget also calls for hiring a new attorney focused exclusively on housing code enforcement and landlord accountability, as well as a new LCI administrative assistant. Mayor Justin Elicker is also proposing moving LCI’s affordable housing development work under the purview of a newly created Office of Housing and Community Development so that LCI can focus exclusively on housing code inspection and enforcement.

Read in more detail about some of those proposed changes and more here.

As the Board of Alders now decides how to grow, cut, or trade budget line items, tenants are asking the city to prioritize safe housing within that financial plan. That message came across loud and clear at City Hall Thursday night as the alders’ Finance Committee held its first public hearing on the budget proposal.

“There have been numerous times when I needed LCI and I was told they don’t have the staff to come out,” Quinnipiac Avenue Tenants Union President Hope Vaughn testified. ​“I had to wait for weeks because of the lack of personnel.”

In one case, she said, it took two weeks for LCI to respond to ​“a mold infestation so severe that mushrooms were literally growing out of my wall.”

After that call, the landlord made a faulty repair, which forced her to call LCI once again, she said. The landlord was given another 21 days to abate the problem.

In the meantime, Vaughn and her daughter were unable to use their bathroom, instead showering at Planet Fitness, peeing into buckets, and sometimes sleeping on friends’ couches.

“We only used the bathroom when we had to for things we couldn’t use the bucket for,” she recalled.

“I know I can’t be the only one” who has experienced similar problems, she said. ​“If there had been adequate staff, it would’ve been different. 

“The mayor is asking for a meager five new positions for LCI,” testified Jessica Stamp, a leader with the Blake Street Tenants Union. ​“That’s the bare minimum. I would ask for at least 12.”

“Sewage, rodents, roaches, no heat, leaks, collapsed ceilings, electrical failures, fires,” she said, listing problems she and other tenants across New Haven have faced. Regular and proactive property inspections and more stringent residential licensing protocol would help, she argued. 

“Staffing LCI will prevent health problems and save lives,” she concluded

Organizer Jaime Myers-McPhail, a homeowner, added anecdotes he picked up while door-knocking on behalf of New Haven Rising, a labor-affiliated activist group.

“I heard story after story about how the housing crisis is upending people’s lives.” he said. One woman told him that the bathroom ceiling collapsed on her daughter while she was taking a shower, he said. It was weeks before the landlord responded.

New Haven has spent a larger proportion of federal pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan funds than any other Connecticut municipality on housing work and served as a leader across the state in legalizing tenants unions, Myers-McPhail noted. Still, he argued, ​“it should be on the city, rather than tenants unions, to enforce housing code.”

Bringing on more housing code inspectors and increasing the budget for the Fair Rent Commission, he said, are a couple of ways the city could continue to protect tenants’ rights.

Xtra Gold Offered To Gold Standard Director

After listening to — and occasionally gasping at — those testimonies, members of the finance committee agreed aloud about the need to bolster renters’ rights while publicly reviewing departmental budget breakdowns and hearing from office directors. 

LCI is not scheduled to make its budget presentation to the alders until later this month. Meanwhile, the Fair Rent Commission — a smaller city department also concerned with affordable housing — did discuss their aims and needs Thursday night with the committee.

Unlike LCI, the fair rent office, made up of just two full-time workers plus one part-timer, does not receive new positions in the proposed new budget.

“Fair rent does a lot with a really minimal budget,” Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany said. Beyond a modest proposed increase for costs associated with travel and contractual services, most of the money going their way is due to 3 percent salary raises for the two full-time workers.

In all, that translates to a proposed increase of $7,510 ($5,110 of which is due to salary raises) for the department from the 2024 budget of $171,624. That would bring the mayor’s suggested fair rent budget for 2024 up to $179,134.

Executive Director Wildaliz Bermudez did not ask for more resources in remarks to the committee. Rather, she spoke to how her office plans to do more in the coming year with less.

Since the city passed legislation permitting the formation of tenants unions, Bermudez said, her office has registered over 85 new tenant union members. It is averaging 200 fair rent cases a year; it used to hear around 50. It has held five community workshops to inform residents about renters’ rights and launched an online complaint process.

They’ve relied on two high school interns from the city’s Youth at Work program and three Yale Urban Fellows to guide much of that work, Bermudez said. Their sustained involvement in the office is not guaranteed each year.

Now, she said, ​“we’re getting an influx of requests to provide presentations to other municipalities” about how to run a tight fair rent ship. ​“We’ve gotten inquiries from West Haven, Hamden, Norwalk, New London,” she said. ​“It’s been exciting to have New Haven recognized as the gold standard for fair rent commissions.” 

Though the alders typically look to bring down costs, and though Bermudez did not request any more money, Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton put on her Santa Claus cap at the conclusion of the director’s report.

Her question for Bermudez: ​“What do you need?”

A soft smile emerged on Bermudez’s face. ​“Well… if I could have an administrative assistant, that would be amazing. That would be great!”

“You’re doing yeoman’s work in this community,” Hamilton declared. ​“It sounds like you might need some more staff.”

Bermudez bowed her head: ​“I welcome that.”