Maya McFadden Photo
New and returning residents of Rockview Circle phase ll were welcomed home Wednesday and reminded to “keep out the violence” by West Rock Alder Honda Smith, as a ten-year long redevelopment journey nears completion.
Local and state officials gathered to cut the ribbon on the rebuilt Rockview public-housing development. It is one of a series of once-rundown developments that have gradually been rebuilt in the neighborhood.
The new Rockview housing development includes 510 rental and 12 homeownership units. The Elm City Communities/Glendower Group project used $210 million of public investment and $163 million in private investment to fund the redevelopment.
The plan also includes 16 market-rate rental units. The project provided 1,200 construction jobs, with over 40 percent of construction dollars set aside for minority and women-owned businesses.
During the development journey, Smith and others involved in an advisory committee took trips to Atlantic City and Boston to seek out the perfect design plan to fit the community. The team demanded the residents of Rockview Phase ll be provided better living condition than before and the opportunity to “live as though we were living in suburbs,” Smith said.
Honda Smith.
Smith (pictured), who joined the team as a resident advocate in its start, also reminded residents Wednesday to keep the community clean and to police themselves along with working with the New Haven Police Department.
Smith said she has many plans to bring to the community in the near future. “We need more money,” she told Mayor Justin Elicker, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and State Rep. Toni Walker. “I’m not settling, Mayor Elicker, for less.”
Karen DuBois-Walton, Justin Elicker, Rosa DeLauro.
Elicker said that resident leadership and community involvement in the process of redevelopment have motivated him to support ongoing work to deepen the definition of affordable housing to include resources for families to live comfortably and make it home.
Affordable housing options should be offered in every town, said Elicker. “We live in a very segregated state in many ways, and I think that not only is that unethical but it also makes us weak. We learn from each other from living amongst each other. The only way that we can ensure that we as a society start to come more together is to live more closely together.”
After a walk-through in one of the units, Elicker said he can imagine his own family living comfortably there.
A playground within the community was added with disability-friendly play options and equipment that incorporates children’s literature.
William Kilpatrick, Seila Mosquera-Bruno, Nandini Natarajan, and Suzanne Piacentini.
Other supports and partners of the project in attendance Wednesday included housing authority Commissioner William Kilpatrick, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) CEO Nandini Natarajan, state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno, and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Field Office Director Suzanne Piacentini.
About 30 percent of the residents are returnees who were guaranteed housing after the renovations were completed, said housing authority President Karen DuBois-Walton.
The authority’s next project in the neighborhood will be Westville Manor. Half of the development will be demolished, then rebuilt. The residents in those 60 units set to be demolished are given the choice to relocate to Rockview Phase ll.
I remember when they first were building in this area and my mom used to take my brothers and me to play in the West Rock
Nature Center and the skill run that had a tow rope to bring you back up to the top of the hill where neighborhood kids were sledding. It's a beautiful location, but was very isolated and the fence that cut you off from Hamden made it even more so. I sincerely hope that the rehabbing of Rockview and Brookside and the fence being removed and the streets connected will make living in these apartments pleasant and safe and that the residents will enjoy it tor years to come.