Debate Q: How To Make Local Housing Livable?

Tenant advocate, Fair Haven resident, and grandmother Camilla Crowell arrived at a housing-themed mayoral debate with an inkling that she might vote for Justin Elicker. 

Two and a half hours later, she had learned something she liked about nearly every candidate. ​“I think I got more options now.”

Crowell is a member of Mothers and Others for Justice, a grassroots anti-poverty activist group that co-organized the debate on Thursday as part of a local network of housing organizations called the Room For All Coalition.

The event, which took place in Albertus Magnus College’s student center, garnered more than a hundred audience members from neighborhoods across the city.

Crowell wanted to hear what the candidates would do about rising rent (“there’s so many people, families with kids, with nowhere to go”) and gun control (“there’s too many shootings”).

She was drawn to the housing-themed dialogue in part because of her experience with a federal Housing Choice (“Section 8”) voucher, which covers a portion of her rent based on her income.

Crowell lives in Fair Haven with her 18-year-old grandson. When he recently got a job, she said, ​“they raised my rent so high.” She wants him to have some financial and housing support as he dives into adulthood. ​“They’re not giving us enough,” Crowell said.

The Room For All Coalition’s debate lasted over two hours and centered primarily on housing policy questions. Journalist and educator Veronica Douglas-Givan moderated. Organizers worked to make the debate more accessible than the average political event: they offered Spanish interpretation, pizza and snacks, and free childcare provided by Kim Harris of the Harris & Tucker preschool.

The debate featured two-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker and fellow Democrats Tom Goldenberg, Shafiq Abdussabur, and Liam Brennan, as well as independent mayoral challenger Wendy Hamilton. (A former New Haven Legal Assistance Association attorney, Brennan has been part of the Room For All Coalition.) Mayce Torres, another registered independent mayoral candidate, had planned to attend but told organizers that she had gotten sick.

Of those six candidates running for mayor, Crowell knew the most about Justin Elicker. She liked that when he first campaigned for mayor in 2019, he had personally knocked on her door. ​“He didn’t send a whole bunch of people on his behalf.” 

“Half of these people who are running, I have no idea who they are,” she added. She had come to Thursday’s debate to find out.

"A Philosophy Sea Change In LCI"

Former legal aid attorney Liam Brennan dove into a critique of the Livable City Initiative (LCI), the city’s anti-blight and housing code enforcement department, which he framed as understaffed and not transparent enough.

“We need a philosophy sea change in LCI,” Brennan argued. ​“Right now, we think we’re supposed to hold hands with some of these corporate landlords buying up land around town. That’s not the case. We need to make sure those landlords are serving our residents and doing it well.”

Brennan argued that the city needs more housing inspectors than the 12 it currently employs. He noted that the 34 new city positions that the mayor initially proposed in his latest budget did not include any new housing inspectors. 

In order to support tenant unions, he said, ​“we need to have good inspections of the properties,” he said. ​“You can make a complaint, but if no one ever inspects the properties, you’re never gonna get anything done.” 

He promised to implement a public database of inspection requests, projected timelines for those inspections, and results if elected mayor.

Later, Brennan said that in addition to bolstering LCI, he would seize dilapidated properties through eminent domain and blight ordinances as a means of enforcing housing code.

He added, ​“We can’t do that if we’re accepting money from developers or from Mandy Management. I am not” — an ostensible swipe at Abdussabur, who has accepted donations from Mandy Management employees.

Retired police sergeant Shafiq Abdussabur proposed ​“sitting down with LCI, tenant unions, residents,“ and ​“sitting down with the megalandlords — bringing them to the table” to promote dialogue between these different groups and re-examine the city’s zoning code. ​“As your mayor, I will be the facilitator and hold them accountable.”

In reference to the city’s largest landlords like Mandy and Ocean Management, Abdussabur added, ​“I reached out to some of these landlords and they’re not having conversations with City Hall. They’re not having conversations with other tenants and landlords.”

He also reframed Brennan’s critique of LCI, noting that one audience member, Ray Jackson, is an LCI employee. 

Jackson is a ​“frontline worker, worked during Covid with other frontline workers, doing the best they can during Covid. They need support,” Abdussabur said. ​“They absolutely need more resources to do their job. I know they’ve taken a lot of criticism and a lot of heat, but you know what? Anybody will when you’re handicapped without having what you need to do to do your job.”

In addition to tenants’ concerns, Abdussabur focused much of his responses on the importance of expanding homeownership access, with a nod to ​“home-buyer programs.” 

He paid homage to his grandfather, a sanitation worker with a ​“sixth grade education” who ​“saved up all his money and paid for his house” despite anti-Black redlining policies.

Tom Goldenberg joined Abdussabur and Brennan in calling attention to LCI. He said he’s met tenants whose ​“complaints have either been ignored, delayed, or not followed up on.”

He pledged to ​“work with the state to create owner-occupied incentives” rewarding prospective buyers who plan to stay in their homes. 

He also called attention to property tax increases that have disproportionately affected the majority-Black and Brown neighborhoods of Fair Haven, Newhallville, and the Hill. Taxes have increased largely due to the city’s latest property revaluation. (The mill rate has decreased as property values increased, but not enough to reduce the actual value that many property owners are paying in taxes.) 

“A 40 percent tax increase does push up the rent,” Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg left the debate after a handful of questions to attend a meeting of a Quinnipiac Meadows Democratic Town Committee (Ward 12’s).

Wendy Hamilton promised to raise taxes on ​“Ocean, Pike, and Mandy” while lowering ​“your taxes.” 

She also promised to declare municipal bankruptcy on her first day of office and somehow strongarm Yale into paying ​“half of our budget.”

“I will ticket all Yale vehicles every day. I will shut off city water to Yale’s private golf course…. I will ask city residents to take a weeklong vacation from Yale,” she said. ​“That’s just the appetizer.”

Hamilton’s replies elicited cathartic bursts of laughter from the audience, and even a few of the candidates on occasion.

Elicker: "We Are Doing A Ton Of Work"

Throughout the debate, Justin Elicker vehemently defended his four-year tenure as mayor.

In response to the other candidates’ critiques of LCI’s housing code enforcement, Elicker replied, ​“Yes, we have to do more work. But, we are doing a ton of work.”

Elicker later mentioned that he plans to create more housing inspector positions in next year’s budget. ​“You will see that in the future. I agree with that.”

The mayor touted his successful advocacy for the state to allow the city to impose higher fines on landlords whose units violate city codes. ​“Ocean Management is in court [for housing code violations] every other day,” he said. ​“Thank goodness.” 

He said he’s now drafting an ordinance that would actually raise the city’s landlord fines from $250 to $2,000. ​“I can promise, once that’s passed, we will be holding landlords accountable more.”

Elicker added that he worked with tenants to create new legislation recognizing tenant unions in the city, and that he’s focused on revamping the Fair Rent Commission as a means of addressing unfair rent hikes and living conditions. He noted that he’s increased down-payment assistance funds for prospective homeowners in the city.

Finally, Elicker said that he can’t prevent private landlords from buying up property in the city, but he touted his use of American Rescue Plan Act funds to create a land bank that can purchase housing ​“before the Mandys, before the Oceans do.”

In response to Goldenberg’s oft-repeated criticisms of property tax increases, Elicker replied, the tax reval was mandated by the state, independently run, and ​“entirely out of our hands.” 

He argued that the programs he and other candidates are advocating for require tax revenue: ​“These things cost money and we’ve been in a financial crisis. And if you’re sitting in your seat, ask yourself, how would you pay for things, sir?”

He celebrated his administration’s successful advocacy for more funding from Yale, which struck a deal to increase its contribution to the city by a total of $52 million over six years, and from the state’s PILOT program. 

“Where were the people on this stage when we were fighting for more money to come into our community?” Elicker asked. ​“That’s what I think we need to ask ourselves, instead of taking pot shots about taxes.”

Goldenberg asked for a chance to reply, but moderator Douglas-Givan moved on. 

Brennan addressed Elicker’s words in his next answer. ​“That’s something I’ve heard — if you’re not a political insider, you’re not in these fights. Y’all know where I was in these fights,” he said, alluding to his career in legal aid, anti-corruption, and police accountability. ​“I was on the streets with you. I was in the courts, fighting for economic justice. We are out there. The people.”

After Brennan’s response, Douglas-Givan gave the remaining candidates a chance to answer Elicker’s question: ​“Where were the people on this stage?”

By that time, Goldenberg had left. The next day, he said, ​“I think the mayor’s just being defensive. He’s shown an inability to take constructive criticism. I don’t feel the need to respond to that question, honestly.”

“Where have I been?” asked Hamilton. ​“I’ve been thrown out of City Hall!” (Indeed, she has been asked to leave meetings of the Board of Alders, whom she called ​“30 self-serving amateurs” and ​“unpaid interns” on Thursday’s debate stage, after breaking meeting rules and accusing the legislators of fraud.)

“Where have I been? I was born and raised here,” said Abdussabur. ​“Where have I been? I’ve been a police officer with a challenging career that you’ve heard of. I was keeping the city safe. I was your district commander. I was holding some of your family member’s hands when they died from gun violence in this city.” 

He moved on to describe his post-police career founding Eco-Urban Pioneers, an environmentally-conscious construction and cleaning company. ​“I gave them a job during Covid when they couldn’t get a job. I gave your family members a job when they got out of prison ​‘cause nobody would hire them. I gave your family members a job when they slept in their car ​‘cause they couldn’t find a job anywhere else.”

Activist Leaves With Open Mind

By the end of the debate, Camilla Crowell was less certain that she would support Elicker’s bid for re-election — not necessarily because of anything he’d said, but because she had found something in each of the other candidates she appreciated. 

She liked Brennan because of ​“the fact that he used to work for Legal Aid.” She liked Goldenberg because he was ​“kind of laid back” and ​“quiet.” She liked Abdussabur because of ​“the fact that he was a policeman” and seemed to ​“really know the community.”

And Hamilton? ​“She’s a firecracker,” Crowell chuckled. 

“I got to see more than what I expected” from each of the candidates, she reflected.