Thomas Breen pre-pandemic photo
Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, at a Newhallville management team meeting before the pandemic.
Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, who promoted inclusive and affordable homeownership as the former chief of New Haven’s neighborhood anti-blight agency, has been tapped to serve as an inaugural member of the city’s new Affordable Housing Commission.
Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers submitted a communication to her colleagues on Monday with a formal recommendation that Neal-Sanjurjo be appointed to the new permanent commission.
“I am confident she will serve the citizens of New Haven in a most conscientious and productive manner and that her tenure on this commission will provide a great deal of expertise on this issues that it tackles,” Walker-Myers wrote.
If approved by the full board, Neal-Sanurjo — who helped recommend the creation of the Affordable Housing Commission in 2019 through her work on the city’s Affordable Housing Task Force — would serve on the still-in-the-works commission through Aug. 1, 2022. The nascent commission is charged with studying and issuing policy recommendations around affordable housing in the city.
Neal-Sanjurjo, a Hillhouse High School graduate, grew up in the Dixwell neighborhood’s Florence Virtue Homes and previously held community-development posts in New Orleans and Baltimore. She ran the city’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) from 2014 until this fall.
She formally retired from her post on Oct. 9, and has stayed in the city working as a consultant for the quasi-public Economic Development Corporation.
Click here to read an overview of her tenure at the helm of LCI, where she oversaw for the city housing code enforcement, property acquisition, and the development of new affordable multi-family housing, including through new-construction projects on Judith Terrace and Thompson Street and Winchester Avenue.
During a brief interview Monday morning, Neal-Sanjurjo said that, if approved to the commission, she would prioritize pushing for “opportunities for equity, homeownership, and giving people an opportunity to purchase homes here in the city where they’ve not had the opportunity before.”
“This is one of my babies,” she said about the commission. She praised other local housing advocates and experts who have been appointed to and confirmed for the commission.
“This is all part of the vision of the mayor and the Board of Alders for housing for all,” she said.
During a brief interview Monday morning, Neal-Sanjurjo said that, if approved to the commission, she would prioritize pushing for "opportunities for equity, homeownership, and giving people an opportunity to purchase homes here in the city where they've not had the opportunity before."
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