Markeshia Ricks File Photo
Believe In Me's James Walker at 53 Shelton.
Eighteen affordable single-room apartments might soon rise from an empty Shelton Avenue lot, if Believe In Me Empowerment Corporation’s plans come to fruition.
Believe In Me Empowerment Corporation (BIMEC), a non-profit providing housing, counseling, and case management to individuals and families impacted by incarceration, is planning to build those apartments in a pair of three-story residential buildings atop a vacant lot at 53 Shelton Ave.
But first, it needs to secure a parking-related special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals.
While the lot technically remains city property, the city “disposed” of the lot for BIMEC’s proposed project in 2019 for $1,000.
BIMEC currently runs two transitional shelters for individuals who have recently left prison. Those housing programs allow tenants to stay for up to 60 days, living in their own bedrooms while sharing communal kitchens and bathrooms.
At 53 Shelton Ave., BIMEC plans to build 18 single-room occupancy (SRO) units with individual bathrooms and kitchens in each apartment, according to BIMEC leader James Walker. The new units would be a permanent housing option for tenants, who would have access to counseling through the organization.
The apartments would be open not only to formerly incarcerated people, but to any resident making a low income. Unlike at the organization’s other buildings, which entail a degree of communal living, tenants at 53 Shelton “would have their own privacy,” Walker said.
Details such as the rent per unit haven’t been decided yet, according to Walker. He said he plans to discuss the possibility of rental assistance for tenants with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as the Housing Authority of New Haven.
Over the past decade, local affordable housing advocates have pointed to rooming houses and SROs as a potential pathway to address homelessness and housing insecurity.
“It’s very difficult to find permanent housing,” said Walker. “A lot of people are on a fixed income, making 700 dollars a month” — hardly enough to make rent without assistance, he said. “I think there’s a need for housing everywhere.”
A preliminary sketch of one of the proposed buildings.
In order to proceed with the project, BIMEC needs a special zoning exception that would allow it to build just three parking spaces, rather than the 18 spaces required for an 18-unit set of buildings. Walker explained in the special exception application that “site constraints” including the “property line configuration” do not allow for 18 parking spaces.
The Board of Zoning Appeals had referred BIMEC’s application to the City Plan Commission, which in turn voted on Wednesday evening to recommend that the zoning board approve the special exception. Now the matter returns to the BZA for a final vote.
City Plan Commissioners responded to the exception request enthusiastically, noting that many SRO dwellers do not have cars.
The buildings would be well-placed for residents who don’t have cars, said Commissioner Adam Marchand, given its proximity to Dixwell and Shelton Avenue bus lines. Marchand also noted that the lot is “a block away from the best biking and pedestrian infrastructure in the state of Connecticut” — the Farmington Canal Trail.
And the commissioners noted that affordable housing options are sorely lacking in the city.
“It’s needed in that community,” said Commissioner Ernest Pagan of the project.
“It’s very difficult to find permanent housing,” said Walker. “A lot of people are on a fixed income, making 700 dollars a month” — hardly enough to make rent without assistance, he said. “I think there’s a need for housing everywhere.
Now we are talking.Well need it.