School Reborn As 30 ​“Affordable” Apts

And another property built with the blood, sweat, tears , and taxes of past New Haveners becomes a money-making project for a private developer.... Didn't they used to call them "carpetbaggers"??

"Carpet bagger" was actually a racist southern term for people from the North who were trying to help ex-slaves. It now refers to any politician who doesn't live locally. I have no idea what it has to do with this. I think it is great that historic buildings can sometimes find a new life, serving new people, rather than decay into dust. Homes for Humans!

I appreciate the idea behind including some affordable apartments but, as the article implies, the owners may easily find a bunch of med school students whose current income puts them below some percentage of the median income. Which is fine, but not the actual intent. Getting private developers to build our affordable housing is like the old saw about "pounding a square peg into a round hole."

It might be better to pocket the full tax amount from private development and then use that money to help local nonprofits develop true mixed-income buildings. Or help the housing authority to do so.

The ugly reality is that most of the "affordable"
RMS units have gone to people who don't need the subsidies. (Yale grad students and other young working adults.)

Why the heck is the State of CT using scarce subsidies to help single adults to be able to afford luxury housing? Those monies should be used to help our seniors and families. Instead some lucky grad student ends up paying $900/month to live in a $1900/month unit.

I wish the NHI would do a deep dive into the demographics of who is taking advantage of these "affordable" units. (The State must have the applications for compliance purposes.) A gross misuse of public housing dollars….

Per a 17-year tax abatement deal approved by the Board of Alders last September for this project, Salvatore's company must keep the 30 apartments at those below-market rents for a minimum of 42 years.

And then the city cries to the state and yale that it has too much property it cant tax.

It's a very sad irony that housing is being built on the location of the Welch Annex. Housing was destroyed to build it, then instead of rehabbing it, DeStefano and cronies destroyed more housing in the Hill to replace it with John Daniels School. So two sets of people who had roots in New Haven were displaced to now make way for Yale-affiliated folks. Do we never learn?

Dennis, the building was a school, then empty. It never was on the tax rolls. And given its age and condition, I doubt any developer would have rehabilitated it without substantial government assistance.

Esbey, with regard to your last paragraph, in effect that is the payment option under the affordable housing proposal.

AverageTaxpayer, some of the affordable units may be going to grad students who are only temporarily low income. But you don't know that; neither do I. The rental application forms are not public records. What is (or should be) public are the procedures the property owner uses to verify the income of the subsidized tenants. And why should "other young working adults" be ineligible (speaking as a 67 year old retiree)? They are less well-off, on average than we were at their age. And many of them are carrying student loan debts the size of a mortgage.

Kevin, I understand. No doubt it needed gov't assistance to develop. There is no good reason to provide a 17 year tax break in exchange for "affordable housing". Let them rent it at market rate. Tax it fully. Invest in home ownership. The City needs tax revenue to provide basic services. I've been asking for trash receptacles around Edgewood Park for a year, and am told there is no money.

It's interesting to learn from the article that the building was built as a school. I had assumed from the outward appearance that it was originally an apartment building and was converted into extra classroom space when Welch School outgrew its building.

Its facade, with rows of medium-sized windows rather than the giant windows typical of school buildings, never made its original purpose obvious in the way that some other school buildings do, such as the former Scranton School (now doctors' offices) at Orchard Street and North Frontage Road.

To Billy's comment on "will we ever learn"--

It's important never to forget. A trailer of documentary on the destruction of the Hill North neighborhood, and the abandonment of the Prince and Welch Schools can be seen at:

http://www.thehillfilm.com

The film is available at all branches of the New Haven Free Public Library, and in the Yale University library system.

Esbey: The housing authority is incredibly inefficient in building housing. It spends nearly half-a million for each apartment. One could, at least until the current spike, easily buy a nice suburban home on an acre lot for that price. Last fall, I handled the conveyance of a dated but perfectly habitable, 3,000 square foot home on a two acre lot in Woodbridge for $375K. Private vendors like Pike and Mandy/Netz provide affordable housing for a fraction of the NHHA cost, accepting 40th percentile rent and paying full property taxes, as well as income taxes.

A neighborhood destroyed during mid-20th Century Urban Renewal
My recollection is that the neighborhood was destroyed in the 1967 riots. When I was young, my father would bring me to work at the medical school on Saturdays, and I recall the burnt out hulks in the immediate aftermath of the riots. One of Elicker's great achievements was keeping the city from burning again at a similar time of unrest.

Hello 1644 --

It's interesting the way that memories are formed, and what people come to believe. I'm guessing that you may not have been around the Hill much in the 1980s - 2000. Much of the housing remaining after the destruction for RT 34 East and RT 34 West was viable, owner-occupied, and some rehabbed in better than average condition. The 3 1/2 block area demolished -- ostensibly for the school -- was physically intact. Because of its good condition and historic integrity and significance, it had been listed on the State Register of Historic Places -- an honorific which usually lead to National Register listing, not to utter, senseless, destruction. visited upon it.

Anstress Farwell: The 1930 St Anthony School? I fail to see the "senseless destruction". I do believe another nondescript building was razed. There were some pretty plebeian buildings, an old gym with doorways marked for boys and girls, as I recall. Most of this site has been vacant lots for fifty years. (The Daniels School is another issue, but that school is not near this site, nor the subject of this article.)

I'm glad an old building was saved and rehabbed and many units were dedicated for 42 years for affordable housing. There are many retirees, young people just starting out, and working poor who will be able to apply for renting those units. Many workers at YNHH and St Raphael's will qualify besides the doctor-students. The patient transport workers, the housekeepers, the kitchen workers, the security guards, the valet parking attendants, the nurses and nurses aides, the phlebotomists, the lab technicians, the X-ray and other imagery technicians, the cafeteria workers, the reception workers, etc.
Yale U. has custodians, kitchen and cafeteria workers, secretarial workers, library workers, etc who will qualify for these units. Not everybody who works for YNHH or YU in lower paid jobs either qualifies for the homebuyers program or wants the responsibility of owning a home. Being able to rent an apartment at an affordable rate means these workers and also retail and food service, city workers, and others employed in the area don't have to face long commutes to get to their jobs from apartments they can afford. We need more rehabs and remodeled buildings with percentages of truly affordable housing to both save old buildings and house people with lower incomes. The mega landlords and investment developers are buying up properties and building plenty of market rate units where previously no housing was before, there will be lots of luxury and market rate taxable units being built. Let there also be affordable units.

Using Area Median Income--based on the county average household income--is never, ever going to bring truly "affordable housing" (whatever that means). Development in the city of New Haven should use the city's median income.

Better yet, New Haven should be actively engaging in decarbonized social housing, which is true housing for all--not just further displacement to make way for White Infill into Neo Haven.

https://urbandemos.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SHDA-whitepaper-Nov2020.pdf

NeoHavener:

Thanks for the link to the NYU study on social housing movements. Here some other, similar ideas on how to open-up opportunity and equity for low-income homeowners:

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/is-the-starter-home-dead-in-queens-time-is-running-out

https://www.reclaimrealestate.com/

NeoHavener, it really doesn't matter what you use as the starting point for defining affordability, but rather the end result. Let's say the AMI for a four-person household is $100,000 and the median city income for such a household is $50,000 (in reality, both numbers are a bit lower). You could limit eligibility for low-income housing to households earning 25% of the former or 50% of the latter - it's the same number ($25,000).

One reality is that the subsidized apartments will be available to all people who meet the income and other eligibility criteria, not just current city residents. I have little doubt that Welch Annex will fill quickly.

1644, "social housing" is broader category than public housing a la NHHA. It includes housing built by non-profits, church-related organizations, unions, etc. It can be rental or ownership, such as limited equity cooperatives.

I taught school in this building. Fantastic memories.