At Senior Complex, The Heat Is On

A confrontation inside a Newhallville community room started with a heater that had been broken for a year and a half — and ended by shedding light on how elderly tenants can work better with their public-housing landlord to keep their homes safe.

The confrontation took place Thursday afternoon inside the L‑shaped Newhall Gardens complex community room on Daisy Street.

The occasion was a special meeting of the senior public-housing complex’s tenants council. The topic: The heat in Jacob Hammond’s apartment.

Hammond has been trying to get the heat fixed there for a year and half, with the help of his alder, Delphine Clyburn, who is known for pushing hard on government officials to respond to constituents’ day-to-day concerns.

The meeting became a broader discussion about how tenants can get the word to housing authority managers about problems needing fixing, and whether the right channels are always pursued.

At the start of the meeting, Hammond reported that his heater had just been fixed that morning. According to Hammond, the machine had been broken for more than a year and a half, ever since he and other tenants were relocated to a hotel while the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) renovated the complex.

He recalled that after an inspection, he was told that the heater would need to be replaced. He maintained that no one followed up on the issue. He said he called the property manager and left a message, and he also told a maintenance worker about the problem, but never heard back.

In the meantime, during the frigid winter months, Hammond kept his apartment warm by turning on the front burners of his stove.

“You can have a fire in here,” said fellow tenant Edwina Brown one week prior to Thursday’s meeting, as she visited Hammond’s house with a reporter.

“This isn’t 1956 anymore,” Brown said. ​“These kinds of things should be addressed.”

The Work Order Line

A week before the meeting, Housing Authority President Karen DuBois-Walton told the Independent over the phone that she had not known of the issue or that there were no outstanding work orders for Hammond’s unit. She said that staff came to Hammond’s apartment at least once a month and ​“know him quite well.”

After the phone call, maintenance officials arrived at Hammond’s apartment to begin fixing the heater, a process that finished the morning of the tenants’ meeting one week later.

Newhallville Alder Clyburn, who has long been an advocate for the Daisy Street tenants, argued that HANH has a ​“deep” issue of non-responsiveness, arguing that efforts to fix Hammond’s heater would just be a ​“band-aid.”

At Thursday’s meeting, Hammond explained his situation before a handful of other tenants and housing authority officials, including the new property manager, Griselle McFadden.

Clyburn, who was visiting her grandchildren in Florida, called in on the meeting. Patricia Johnson, the vice president of the New Haven Housing Authority’s 360 Management group, also called in. The two phones lay next to each other in the room.

In response to Hammond’s complaints, HANH officials stressed the importance of placing formal work orders.

“It’s extremely important for everyone to call the work order line, because if we don’t know if something is going on, we can’t address it,” Johnson implored. ​“Call either the property manager or the work line — preferably the work line. I do not recommend that you stop a [maintenance] worker” about a problem.”

Clyburn argued at the meeting that the residents shouldn’t have needed to place work orders in the first place, particularly after the renovations a year and a half ago.

“It’s not fair to the weak part of our community, constantly communicating and calling and this and that,” she said earlier that week. ​“The elderly, they’re quiet. A lot of them don’t like to complain. They’re afraid. They know, at their age, there’s not another place to go.”

Johnson said that she is cognizant of a need for ​“alternatives” to work orders for elderly residents. She said that McFadden had been hired as the new property manager because she had experience working with the elderly.

New Process Introduced

McFadden handed out a sheet of paper that informed residents in both English and Spanish about a ​“new process for work orders and emergency work orders” that began in January. The phone number to call for the work order line was highlighted in bright yellow on each sheet. Contact information for both McFadden and Assistant Property Manager Nayara Colon was also listed, and Johnson said she would give out her extension number as well.

When Clyburn asked the tenants in the room whether they had received this information previously in writing, Brown said that McFadden had indeed stopped by her apartment with the notice, which she pinned to her refrigerator.

Hammond said he did not remember receiving the notice.

McFadden said that she had delivered one to him. ​“I put it in his mail slot,” she said.

Hammond communicated several other concerns about his unit to McFadden, face to face — and revealed an issue he hadn’t realized could be dangerous.

His rent had increased nearly a hundred dollars without explanation, and his hearing to contest the amount had been scheduled during his work hours; he hadn’t heard back from anyone when he tried to change the date. In response, McFadden said she would help him schedule a grievance hearing.

His mirror was too low down, and he had to bend over in order to see his reflection, exacerbating his back problems.

“Because you’re six-foot, six-foot-two,” McFadden said with a smile as she committed to seeing what she could do.

And he just discovered that the outlet behind his refrigerator no longer worked, either.

And About That Refrigerator …

Fire Inspector Douglas Wardlaw, who came to the meeting in order to give an unrelated presentation, interrupted.

“How is your refrigerator plugged in?” he asked Hammond.

Hammond answered that he used an extension cord to connect the fridge to power.

“That needs to be fixed right away,” Wardlaw said. He explained that an extension cord isn’t typically capable of channeling enough energy to power a fridge, posing an urgent fire hazard.

McFadden nodded to Colon, who immediately called maintenance.

A worker arrived at Hammond’s apartment within minutes to address the problem.