Hazel St. Homes Near Completion; Yale Profs Slam Guv For Housing Veto

by Alina Rose Chen

Construction is roughly 70 percent complete for four new affordable two-family homes on Hazel Street — prompting a visit and praise from the governor, as well as a housing-veto-focused critique of the governor by Yale faculty who worked on the project. 

The four new houses are being built by the local nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS), as part of the state’s Urban Investment Initiative.

The project broke ground in December 2024. It’s now targeting a mid-September completion date, with families expected to move in before the end of the year.

This effort, in collaboration with the Yale Urban Design Workshop, is part of a long-term strategy to address the housing affordability crisis across the state by creating opportunities for stable homeownership. Each of the two-family houses, which will measure in at just over 3,500 square feet of living space, will allow the homeowners to live in one unit while renting the other to generate income and build equity.

“These houses are being sold for below market rates,” NHS Executive Director Jim Paley said during an interview Wednesday. ​“We always read about the affordability crisis, and these houses, because of the Department of Housing (DOH) and the subsidies, make it affordable to families who are earning up to 80 percent of the area’s median income.”

These homes are part of NHS’ broader mission to revitalize and stabilize neighborhoods by supporting first-time homebuyers. This $4.3 million project is supported by grants from the state Department of Housing, the City of New Haven’s HOME fund, and the State Housing Tax Credit Contribution (HTCC) program. Paley noted that this cost includes purchasing the lots, demolishing existing structures, and constructing four entirely new homes.

Each home will be sold for approximately $285,000 and include resale restrictions preventing owners from selling to buyers who do not intend to live in the home or who exceed 80 percent of the area median income (AMI).

There are already buyers lined up, NHS HomeOwnership Center Managing Director Bridgette Russell told the Independent. For them, the process will begin in September or October and will include securing financing and down payments, along with informational sessions on credit and budget coaching.

“We work with any prospective home owner at the HomeOwnership Center with our [Housing and Urban Development] certified housing specialist,” Russell said. ​“We’re going to provide the home buyer education and landlord education, which is equally as important. These are for two family units, so for whomever’s purchasing it, they’re going to be well versed with landlord-tenant regulations and law as it relates to Connecticut.”

On Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont visited the Hazel Street site to see the progress firsthand as part of a broader press conference highlighting the work of Efficiency for All and their initiative to retrofit 30 homes in the Newhallville neighborhood. 

During his visit, he greeted the Hazel Street construction crew and thanked them for their role in expanding affordable housing in New Haven.

Although Yale faculty and students played a key role in the project, no university representatives were present at the event. Instead, four faculty members who collaborated on the Hazel Street development — Anika Singh Lemar of Yale Law School, Andrei Harwell and Alan Plattus of the Yale School of Architecture, and Kate Cooney of the Yale School of Management — issued a joint statement praising the project while criticizing Lamont’s recent veto of House Bill 5002, a comprehensive housing reform measure. The bill would have required municipalities to establish affordable housing targets, prioritized state funding for new housing, and simplified the approval process for residential buildings containing two to nine units.

“While we are proud to have worked on the Hazel Street affordable housing development that Governor Lamont is touring today, we believe it is crucial to put these 8 units in the context of the over 110,000 units that Connecticut must build in order to address its housing shortage,” the statement read. ​“Governor Lamont had a golden opportunity, handed to him by legislators in both chambers to take steps to address that crisis. Instead, he ignored business and civil rights leaders’ pleas to address our statewide housing shortage, privileged the views of angry, uninformed, irrational suburban NIMBY’s, and vetoed House Bill 5002. In doing so, he ignored the scale and immediacy of the crisis and failed to act to produce the forward momentum our state needs to lay the economic foundation for the future.”

In response, the governor’s office reiterated his commitment to tackling the housing shortage by working with legislators and advocates on drafting legislation to boost housing availability.

“Governor Lamont agrees that Connecticut needs to increase its housing stock and hopes to collaboratively achieve this goal with legislators and local leaders,” gubernatorial Director of Communications Rob Blanchard said to the Independent. ​“Additionally, pilot programs such as the one recently highlighted on Hazel Street in New Haven, are another example of ways that the state, local communities, non-profits and our universities can work together to address our housing shortage.”