by Thomas Breen
In an Instagram video posted by Mayor Justin Elicker to celebrate the opening of the Curtis Cofield II Estates, Reginald Blakey can be seen unlocking a front door, walking up a flight of steps, and standing in the kitchen of his new apartment.
“They called me and they said, ‘Mr. Blakey, we have a key for you for a two-bedroom unit,’” Blakey tells the camera about his journey from homelessness to having an apartment of his own.
Eight months later, Blakey is on the receiving end of an eviction lawsuit — one of 22 filed in recent months by his affordable housing complex’s landlord.
Blakey, 63, lives in a townhouse-style apartment at Cofield Estates near the corner of Legion Avenue and Tyler Street.
Before that, he told the Independent, he lived in a room at the city’s hotel-turned-homeless shelter on Foxon Boulevard.
Blakey’s current apartment is one of 56 all-electric rental units spread across 11 buildings that opened last June atop a 4.3‑acre site bounded by Legion Avenue, Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and Tyler Street. The complex is owned by an affiliate of the New York-based affordable housing developer NHP Foundation. The property is managed by Massachusetts-based HallKeen Management.
Since December, the landlord has filed a total of 22 eviction lawsuits against Curtis Cofield tenants, including formerly homeless renters like Blakey.
The landlord has alleged that these tenants have not paid rent. Some tenants have claimed that their nonpayment of rent was due to miscommunication on the landlord’s part, as well as frequent turnover of property managers.
The landlord has made clear that they do not intend to kick people out of their apartments. Many of the eviction cases have been resolved and withdrawn — though 12 cases, including Blakey’s, are still working their way through housing court.
In an interview with the Independent, Blakey didn’t blame his complex’s landlord or property manager for his falling behind on his $783 monthly rent bill. He said he got injured while working at FedEx last October and ultimately lost his job. He said he’s been working as a home health aide and as a barber since then, trying to catch up on what he owes — including by turning for help to groups like Community Action Agency and Workforce Alliance.
“I’m grateful to be back on my feet, not sleeping in my car, not sleeping in the side of the [train] station,” Blakey said.
“I can’t let depression sink in. I don’t want to go on meds. I try not to think about my condition. I pray a lot [and] I try not to get upset.”
Nevertheless, the prospect of ending up homeless again weighs heavily on him.
New Haven Legal Assistance Association attorney Shelley White told the Independent that she and her legal aid colleagues have encountered a few formerly homeless tenants among those facing eviction lawsuits at Curtis Cofield.
“These are people who live paycheck to paycheck, crisis to crisis,” White said. By definition, these recently homeless renters have found themselves in such unstable housing conditions that “they can’t really predict” what their income might be, or what crisis might be around the corner.
Forty-four of Curtis Cofield’s 56 apartments are reserved for renters making no more than 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), which currently translates to $54,600 for a two-person household. While he lives in one of those below-market-rent units, Blakey said that he is not one of the complex’s eight recipients of a Section 8 Project-Based Voucher, and that he does not receive any other rental help.
A representative for Curtis Cofield’s property management company, HallKeen Director of Community Relations Jannel Satterwhite-Williamson, told the Independent on Monday that the company is not able to comment on individual cases. That said, “supportive services are available to all residents of Curtis Cofield II Estates.”
She said that residents “may choose to engage with the on-site Resident Services Coordinator, who can provide a wide range of referrals and supports, including resident retention services. In addition, formerly homeless residents who are clients of Columbus House receive an enhanced level of supportive services through an on-site supportive services case manager.”
Blakey said he grew up in New York and moved to Connecticut as a young man to be with his dad. He said that he suffered brain damage and other serious physical injuries when he was hit by a car at the age of 12, resulting in lifelong struggles with memory loss and “brain situations.”
The father of a retired city firefighter, Blakey said he used to live in a house that his wife owned on Gilbert Avenue. A messy divorce saw him end up in the street, sleeping in his 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee or at Union Station.
“I was homeless for quite a while,” Blakey said. He then managed to get a room at the city’s hotel-turned-homeless shelter at 270 Foxon Blvd. after calling 2-1-1 for help. “I was so grateful just to get inside of a warm house. I didn’t care what it was.”
Even while homeless himself, Blakey said he took time to feed the homeless — and to cut hair, a vocation he’s always taken pride in. “I kept my clippers with me because that’s the gift I had.”
His life took another turn for the better when he and his teenaged daughter secured a below-market-rent apartment at Curtis Cofield.
They moved in last June to a two-bedroom unit where monthly rent is $783, heat included. Compared to “rundown houses” across the city where he had seen apartments half as nice going for $1,200 and more, this was “definitely reasonable.”
Blakey appeared in Elicker’s Instagram Reel on June 17, 2025 — the day after city, state, and federal officials and West River neighbors gathered for a celebratory ribbon cutting for the Curtis Cofield apartments, which had been decades in the making.
“What’s really important and inspiring is that it’s 56 affordable apartments,” Elicker says in the promotional video, “including a really large percentage of deeply affordable and supportive housing to help folks that are struggling with homelessness.”
The video then shows Blakey turning the key to open his apartment’s front door as a woman’s voice says, “Home sweet home.” Blakey walks up his new apartment’s steps, stands in the kitchen, shows the videographer around the living room. Blakey is the only tenant featured in the video.
As he prepares for trial in his eviction case, scheduled for Feb. 26, Blakey said he’s trying to remain positive, trying to piece together enough money to stay in an apartment he loves.
“I believe that we’re going to be alright,” he said. “I believe that we’re going to be alright.”
In a comment provided to the Independent for this article, Elicker described “the high number of notices to quit” — that is, the legal notices that can precede an eviction filing — at Curtis Cofield as “concerning.”
“While tenants have an obligation to pay their rent, this housing development was built with a commitment to the community to serve low-to-moderate income families and those in need of supportive housing,” he said. “The developers received significant federal, state and city financial support to make that vision a reality. It’s incumbent upon the property owner and property manager to fulfill this obligation and work with the tenants in a responsible manner, establish reasonable payment plans and minimize the prospect of evictions.”
Parking Parking Parking
At the Cofield apartment complex in January.
While Blakey had many positive things to say about the Curtis Cofield apartment complex, even as he’s facing an eviction lawsuit, he did single out the property’s parking policy as causing headache after headache.
He said that his car has been towed twice from the property because he had not been able to receive a required parking sticker from property management after his car registration was stolen. He said he later got a temporary sticker as he works on getting a copy of his registration. Other Curtis Cofield tenants whom the Independent interviewed for previous eviction-lawsuit stories also said that cars frequently get towed from the complex’s lot.
“The parking policy at Curtis Cofield II Estates is designed to ensure fair access, orderly operations, and reasonable accommodation for residents and their guests,” HallKeen’s Jannel Satterwhite-Williamson told the Independent.
She said that parking permits are issued by management only after residents provide “a valid driver’s license, current DMV vehicle registration, and proof of insurance, as required by state law.” She also said that residents “may receive vehicle registration permits for one vehicle per licensed driver listed on the lease agreement, with a maximum of one (1) vehicle per household.”
Satterwhite-Williamson said that HallKeen recently updated the parking policy. She also said on-site parking at Curtis Cofield “is available on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to resident households. Visitor parking is permitted, and guests must receive a temporary parking permit from Management. Residents retain primary access to the limited number of on-site parking spaces.”
In addition to the on-site parking, “residents may apply for city-issued residential parking permits through the City of New Haven. These permits allow for on-street parking on public streets surrounding the property. While management does not administer or oversee this process, we have recently been informed that some residents have successfully obtained these permits.”