by Lisa Reisman
Neighbors, town officials, and project consultants came together at Hamden’s Keefe Community Center to continue carving a path forward in the decades-long struggle to address their deteriorating home foundations and effect the demolition of a long-abandoned middle school.
The meeting was organized by the Hamden Newhall Neighborhood Association (HNNA), a group formed in 2024 with a mission to fight for funds sufficient to repair the crumbling homes caused by years of New Haven manufacturers dumping industrial waste—and a cleanup effort that didn’t leave the job done.
Last year, the group rode their unofficial guiding principle—“it ends with us”—to a budget of approximately $18 million in federal, state, and local funding to repair their foundations.
The second in a series of quarterly meetings slated to keep Newhall residents apprised of developments in both the foundations repair and the former middle school demolition, the gathering took place last Thursday at 11 Pine St. in Hamden. It included representatives from the town, as well as the engineering consulting firm Haley & Aldrich, 7 Summits Construction, and BL Companies.
“Before this, we didn’t see anybody, other than one person, who would show up here and there, and not answer our phone calls or answer emails about the damage done to our homes,” HNNA President Tina Jennings-Harriott told the audience of 60 residents, referring to the remediation efforts by the Olin Corporation ending in 2013. “Now we have folks standing in front of us, we have faces. Now we’re making sure that what’s done now is done the right way.”
Consultants provided updates for the two projects since the February meeting. Testing to determine which hazardous materials, including asbestos and lead, have to be removed from the middle school prior to demolition, is now complete. There is new fencing to ensure security on the entire site, and an access road for the construction debris and materials.
For the 75 homes eligible for remediation, work addressing the foundation, damage, and water intrusion issues will be organized into groups of 10 to 15 properties. The aim, said Carol Hazen, foundations repair project manager, “is to keep disruption to your daily lives and to the neighborhood manageable.”
None of that can begin, each stressed, until the plans are put out to bid and general contractors for both projects are selected.
Tim Barry, project manager for 7 Summits Construction, discussed the complexity of the foundations-repair project. “It’s not like it’s one enormous construction site where everything fits into its own box,” he said. Hazen agreed. “Every home has its own story and the solutions need to match that.”
There was a sigh of frustration from the audience.
“We know that everyone’s concerned about the timeline,” Hazen said. “We are concerned too. We know you’re concerned about getting things done right. So are we. And we know you’re concerned about transparency. We just want you to understand why it might take longer than we all want.”
With that, Tasha English, among the 75 homeowners eligible for remediation, spoke up. “I’m listening to what you’re saying, but how are you deciding which ones come first?” she asked the panel.
She said her house, which she moved into 20 years ago, “was sold without me being told what was going on.” Over the years, she’s tried to improve its value, but still, she said, “my doors and window don’t open and close properly, I get rodents because of the sinking issues, and cracks.” Now she’s retired and wants to put her house up for sale and move out of the country. “I’m trying to leave, but this sounds like it’s gonna go on a long time.”
“Approximately three years, that’s the duration of the project,” said Barry, counseling patience.
“My house was built in ’40 and ’45,” someone else said. “That was swamp that Olin poured their chemicals into, and it put cracks in my walls, and backed up my basement, and then they came in and put a Band Aid on it, and my taxes went up after that.”
“We hear you, but these people here are not responsible for that,” said HNNA Vice President Tonya Campbell.
Sam Haydock, a representative from BL Companies, chimed in. “It’s my understanding that the conditions required by those orders were met,” he said.
Jennings-Harriott shook her head. “What happened was, from what I understand, the work was signed off on, not by the homeowners, but by the state,” she said. “No one came to assess anything after the work was done. Nobody came to my house. So that’s what happened. They were released. Job done. Check.”
As Jeremy Haugh of the engineering consulting firm Haley & Aldrich explained the plan to resolve water intrusion, someone interrupted. “That typical fix, using a gutter to get the water away from the foundation, does not work.” he said. “They did that, and I still have seepage in my basement.”
Another man spoke up. After he bought his house, he learned that, 100 years ago, the whole neighborhood was swamp. “Now how do you build something on a swamp, and not keep the water from rising?”
Haugh said that in parts of the neighborhood, the groundwater is very shallow.
“We know that the homes should not have been built on wetlands,” Jennings-Harriott said. “We were all taken. I was taken. No one told me anything until there was an issue.”
That said, she added, “what was done was done. The homes were built on it. We bought them. So what we’re trying to do now, is make sure we’re made whole.”
“Just keep coming,” she went on, as the meeting came to a close; the next one is in July. “Keep talking, keep challenging, keep asking questions, so we all can play a part in finally getting our homes repaired.”
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