Fears surface about the future

Written by Susan Hunter
Thursday, 29 October 2009 08:50

ANSONIA — With the approval of an annual plan calling for the demolition of five more apartment buildings in the Riverside Public Housing complex, residents fear the entire complex will be demolished with nothing there to replace it.

“The tenants want to know what’s going to happen,” said Malika Mosley, president of the Tenants’ Association. “What is the game plan?”

On Oct. 21, the Ansonia Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners approved the housing authority’s 2010 plan, including a proposal to apply to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish buildings 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8.

The plan is set to be submitted to HUD, officials said, and following approval, the housing authority would apply for state approval for the demolition.

Once that approval is received, notices would be sent out for residents in those buildings to relocate.

Buildings 1 and 2 have been demolished to ground level, and heavy debris is being removed from the area.

The bad economy has stalled plans to build a new partially subsidized apartment complex on the site, and roadblocks may also include zoning and flood plan approvals for the site that sits across the road from the Naugatuck River.

Residents want to know from housing authority officials whether the site will be rebuilt after demolition or remain as open space, Mosley said.

“Every time we talk to them, it’s something different,” she said. “Is there a plan, or are they going to shut the project down?”

There was opposition to the annual plan at a public hearing that was held prior to the commission’s vote, said Housing Authority Executive Director Jim Finnucan.

Attorneys from New Haven Legal Assistance Association, representing the Riverside residents, also expressed concerns about their clients’ futures.

The current demolition plan will seek federal and state permission to demolish units prior to receiving either the legal authority or financial commitment to redevelop Riverside, wrote Attorney Shelley White in an Oct. 16 letter to James Tyma, chairman of the AHA board of commissioners.

The planned demolition and redevelopment will displace the majority of Riverside’s minority residents, she said, forcing them to find housing in segregated areas of New Haven and Bridgeport.

That would have “serious implications under the state and federal fair housing acts,” White wrote.

Residents want to make sure that improvements and renovations at the site will benefit current residents and those on the waiting list. They want to see no further demolition take place until there are commitments to ensure that replacement housing can be built, White wrote. Plans should also be made to ensure that current Riverside residents can live in non-segregated cities and neighborhoods.

Housing officials respond

Housing Authority officials stand firm in their plans to demolish the Riverside complex.

“The intent is to take down all the buildings,” Tyma said. “We can’t keep them up.”

Officials have said that federal funding for maintaining the housing project has dried up over the years.

The residents said through their attorneys that they don’t want to submit the annual plan to HUD unless they have guarantees that redevelopment will take place, Tyma said.

But the two aren’t linked, he emphasized.

Officials also announced this past week that proposed lease policy changes intended to stem violence at the complex have been tabled.

“We’ve decided to focus on other areas, such as going forward with the annual plan,” Finnucan said.

The lease recommendations were tabled because residents “had strong views,” Tyma said.

Proposals to prevent unauthorized people from being on the property included limiting the time guests may stay in the apartments, registering guests and issuing identification cards to residents 7 years old and up.

Police could remove unregistered guests from the property, and residents in violation of the lease could be evicted or have their rent subsidy eliminated.

Many residents were upset about the proposed changes, saying they smacked of a police state and focused on policing the residents rather than improving security at the complex.

Several residents suggested installing security cameras or hiring security guards.

Two people were murdered at the complex this past summer, and someone fired 14 rounds of ammunition into cars on the Riverside site and in a nearby neighborhood on Oct. 22.

Tyma said he was concerned that the most recent incident happened in broad daylight, at 2 p.m. in the afternoon.

“I’m blown away,” he said. “That’s brazen.”

He said registering guests “would at least give us a starting point. I’m concerned who is living there. They’re drawing dangerous people. These are bad characters that are coming to that location. Speaking as a commissioner, my concerns is we have to have a good handle on who is in the apartments.”

Tyma said he understands the residents’ concerns, but “we can’t have people just shooting.”

He said the cost of hiring round-the-clock security guards would be prohibitive and may not have prevented the murder that took the life of Bernice McFadden in a courtyard last summer.

A police officer was on site the night of that murder, he said.