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Schools For A Price
Hill residents score school plans
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Business New Haven
4/1/2002
By: E. A. Linden
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Save the Upper Hill Now (SUHN), a citizens' organization fighting the city of New Haven's plans to demolish 64 houses between Congress and Davenport avenues to build the Prince-Welch replacement school, held a March 14 press conference on the steps of City Hall. The Rev. Ruth Drews of the Resurrection Lutheran Church read SUHN's demands as a small group of upper Hill residents and supporters looked on.
SUHN's demands include a 90-day moratorium on evictions, additional site committee meetings involving area residents and parents of Prince-Welch students, a reevaluation of the chosen site, and a guarantee that evicted residents will receive adequate compensation for housing in comparable neighborhoods within a half-mile of the school site they desire.
Upper Hill resident Shanon Smith expressed dismay over city plans to raze her neighborhood. Smith explained that neither she nor her mother, who owns her house, knew of the possibility of eviction when they moved in five years ago. According to Smith, although the city did offer to move her house, it failed to supply a lot.
A major problem faced by Smith and other Hill residents, explains Anstress Farwell of the New Haven Urban Design League, is that there are few comparable neighborhoods left in New Haven that aren't also threatened by redevelopment campaigns.
“The affordable-housing crisis is severe,” Farwell explains. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. There isn't a plan for where these people can go.”
Not so, says Karyn Gilvarg, executive director of the city's Planning Department. Although Connecticut has seen a housing shortage for the past 20 years, she says, New Haven can support the displaced residents.
Explains Gilvarg: “More than 30 percent of New Haven's housing stock qualifies as 'affordable,'” and there are certainly enough homes available for relocated residents of the upper Hill. Adds Gilvarg: “There is no question in my mind that there are hundreds of vacant structures that can be rehabilitated and we are trying to bring all the non-profits into renovating these structures into affordable housing.”
Not wishing to allay themselves against progress, many upper Hill residents have revised their demands to focus on fair reimbursement for their homes. Residents point to cases where the standard relocation package offered by the city failed to meet the revaluation of the property just a year earlier.
Gilvarg acknowledges that “In some places [the package] is inadequate, which is why we advised people to consult a lawyer.” Residents were advised to contact the New Haven County Bar Association for referrals to attorneys for low- or no-cost legal consultation.
In the meantime, though, for SUHN and other residents of the upper Hill neighborhood, good intentions may not be enough.
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