Urban Suburban Affordables

The housing efforts of the Center for Leadership and Justice fall into two major phases. From 1957 to 1990 they were concentrated mainly on affordable rental housing for families and the elderly. Acting as the umbrella “sponsor,” CLJ established affordable rental housing for families and the elderly such as Vine Court, Avery Heights, Horace Bushnell Congregate Homes, Horace Bushnell Apartments, and Vine Street Cooperative.

From 1990 to the present time, CLJ has concentrated mainly on homeownership for very low to moderate-income families, with the one exception of the Zezzo House, permanent subsidized housing for people with HIV/AIDS, which was completed in January 2001.

The Center for Leadership and Justice’s venture into home ownership for the “working poor,” began in 1989 when an analysis of the housing crisis showed that moderate-income working families in Hartford were being locked out of traditional homeownership opportunities and therefore, were continuing to occupy subsidized rental units in public housing, forcing low-income families in desperate need of subsidized housing into emergency homeless shelters and other such substandard living facilities. The Center for Leadership and Justice began to explore ways along with other groups and community development corporations, could address the affordable homeownership options in Greater Hartford.

In 1991, CLJ formalized its partnership with the Hartford Housing Authority, forming a new 501(c)3 called Urban Suburban Affordables, Inc (USA). Through a Land Bank Land Trust Grant of $808,000 provided by the State of Connecticut, the Department of Housing, Urban Suburban Affordables, Inc. undertook its first development, the award-winning Pinewood Condominium complex in West Hartford. Ten families completed a twelve-week homeownership training program and each family contributed over 200 hours of “sweat equity” in painting, cleaning, etc. during the construction process and then purchased their units on a sliding scale according to need. The long-term affordability of these units was insured by a “silent” second mortgage running to Urban Suburban Affordables, Inc. on the town land records. The Pinewood development received a “grassroots housing action” award from the State Housing Coalition and was honored by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials for outstanding inter-jurisdictional coordination by the West Hartford and Hartford Housing Authorities.

The second major venture of USA, Inc. was a pilot Scattered Site Program in which the proceeds from the sales of Pinewood Condominium units were used to purchase the underlying land for existing family homes while eligible families purchased the homes. Ten additional families were able to purchase condos or individual homes through this process and its success led to a $1,014,125 grant for the expansion of the USA program in 1992.

By 1996 an additional 65 families had purchased homes. USA had proven so successful that when they requested further funding, the state allocated multiple grants totalling over $2 million for the scatter-site program between 1996-2001. To date, USA, Inc. has enabled 206 families to purchase their first home in the Greater Hartford Region.

Homeownership efforts in the Upper Albany neighborhood of Hartford, specifically, have resulted in the renovation of dozens of historic homes and have been widely recognized as a significant deterrent to neighborhood decline. On Deerfield Avenue alone, CLJ has renovated five abandoned two-family homes and built three new houses mirroring the original historic design. In total CLJ has invested over $7 million in housing in Upper Albany along with initiating community leadership efforts that increased civic engagement.