APT Approach Divides Hill Candidates

by Laura Glesby The New Haven independent

To Wanda Dawson, the APT Foundation’s methadone clinic around the corner from her home in the Hill is simultaneously a hub of disruptive behavior in her neighborhood and a lifeline that led to her own recovery.

She told her alder, Angel Hubbard, on Monday afternoon that she doesn’t necessarily want to see the clinic move — just that she wants the organization and its clients to be more cognizant of their neighbors.

The Hill’s Ward 3, which Hubbard represents, is one of three wards in the city with a Democratic primary election on Tuesday. (The other two are Yale/downtown’s Ward 1 and Morris Cove’s Ward 18.)

Hubbard became the ward’s alder one year ago after winning a close special election against Miguel Pittman, who is running against her this year once again. Pittman, a registered Democrat, is challenging Hubbard not only in the Democratic Primary but as the Republican and Independent Party-endorsed candidate in November’s general election.

The APT Foundation’s Congress Avenue location has long been a source of concern for Ward 3 residents, who have for years called out open substance use, public urination, trespassing, and drug sales in the vicinity of the clinic, which is located right across the street from a school.

It’s also been a source of life-saving treatment, including but not limited to medication-based treatment, for people struggling with addiction. 

The organization has marked a defining difference between Hubbard and Pittman; while Hubbard has called for APT to relocate to a to-be-built new building on Long Wharf, Pittman has advocated against the organization’s presence in the city entirely.

When Hubbard knocked on supporters’ doors over the course of Monday afternoon, she heard a variety of opinions on the subject from residents.

“I’d like to see that place over there gone,” said Debbie Fisher, who lives around the corner from APT. 

“I have no ill will” toward the clients who receive treatment at APT, she said, adding that she offers water and food to the clients when she can. But she’s tired of seeing substance use and drug dealing on a daily basis in her neighborhood. 

While APT’s mission is to help people break addiction cycles, both Fisher and Hubbard believe that the organization’s clients are substantial contributors to open substance use in the area.

Dawson, meanwhile, who has lived on Daggett Street for decades, said that she supports the APT Foundation’s presence in the neighborhood, even though she wants the organization to take further action to curb certain public behaviors.

“I love the APT ​‘cause I was on the APT,” Dawson said. ​“I took methadone… I’m sober 25 years.” After first being a client of APT’s, Dawson said she became a recovery coach helping others find healing and support through their addiction.

Dawson said that she’s stern with both drug users and drug dealers who regularly frequent the area that they cannot bring destructive behavior to her block. She said she wants APT to take a similar approach. ​“I don’t care if you stay here,” she said, but ​“there needs to be more consequences for your actions.” 

Hubbard said she’s most concerned about the impact of the frequent substance use on the children attending John C. Daniels School across the street from APT. 

She said she received a call from a constituent on the second day of school last week about an encampment in the yard behind the school, where kids come out to play. 

Hubbard said she went to the school to speak to the people who were camping. She said she woke them up and offered to connect them to aid from nonprofits. ​“The thing is, I don’t want to tell you ​‘you have to go’ and you have nowhere to go,” she said. ​“They rejected the services but they were very respectful,” she said, and they left the school grounds.

Hubbard said she later joined Hill organizer Howard Boyd and the Yale Needle Exchange in picking up dozens of syringes from the yard behind the school.

Regardless of whether those particular individuals were APT clients, Hubbard argued that the APT Foundation is not currently ensuring that its clients are behaving respectfully in the neighborhood.

“I’m not against APT. I’m totally not against APT,” she said. ​“My problem is that we need to find a median ground… a way to work together” to better the neighborhood without taking away addiction services.

“So far, the best solution is to relocate APT off of Congress Avenue,” she declared. She reiterated her support for a plan to build new headquarters for APT within a currently industrial, soon-to-be-redesigned portion of Long Wharf. 

Mayor Justin Elicker had negotiated that proposal with APT after a prior plan for the organization to open a new location in Newhallville faced extensive neighborhood pushback. APT planned to construct a building specifically designed for addiction services, including an indoor waiting area for clients to spend time in until they are ready to go outside. On Congress Avenue, ​“they don’t have the space” for clients to linger indoors, Hubbard said.

Now, Long Wharf and Hill South residents — joined by Pittman — are expressing adamant opposition to APT’s relocation there. After the City Plan Commission denied necessary approvals this summer, the Long Wharf relocation plan hangs in limbo — and APT remains on Congress Avenue.

Hubbard said she plans to continue fighting for a solution to neighbors’ concerns about substance use. 

She’s also running with support from the local Unite Here unions and New Haven Rising, with a message of advocating for more affordability in the city. ​“I am a mom of seven,” she noted. ​“We do need affordable homes, better jobs, more resources for schools.”

In the last year, Hubbard said she’s learned that ​“this is definitely a demanding, 24/7 job.” It’s not only about imagining substantial change — it’s about advocating for every dangerous tree to be cut down and every rickety sidewalk to be repaved. ​“If your heart is not in it, this is not for you. My constituents, they call me at 2, 3 o’clock in the morning and I do answer.” 

Dawson recalled that when she first met Hubbard in the midst of last year’s special election, she felt skeptical at first. 

In the year that’s passed since, Dawson said, Hubbard has earned her vote wholeheartedly — in large part due to the community gatherings she’s organized.

Hubbard organized a 300-person field trip to Quassy Amusement and Water Park for Juneteenth as well as an Easter Egg hunt that drew a thousand participants. She convened vigils and backpack giveaways. 

These events reminded Dawson of a Hill community spirit all ​“about looking out for other people.”

Growing up in the Hill, Dawson recalled, ​“We used to do field trips. We had parks. We had teen centers. We protested and we looked after each other.” She felt that spirit of community lagging — and believes that Hubbard is ​“bringing it back.”

Debbie Fisher said she’s supporting Hubbard in part because the alder ensured that the city took down a dangerous, about-to-fall tree on a city property next to her home.

The tree stump remains as evidence.

Meanwhile, Hubbard calmed Fisher’s baby, who’d been crying in resistance of a nap she sorely needed. “I’m not gonna shush you,” Hubbard told the baby. “Sometimes it’s good to let it out.”

Porter Street resident Francis Howard praised Hubbard’s advocacy for repaved sidewalks on his block.