The New Haven Housing Authority has a plan to turn the property on Church Street South into affordable housing.
Sitting right across from Union Station in New Haven are acres of land left untouched after the Church Street South apartments were torn down.
The conditions were so bad at the end, residents were awarded thousands in a class action settlement in 2020.
Now, it’s officially owned by the city and the housing authority, and leaders say it should be gleaming first impression for people arriving by train.
“It should be a statement piece. It should really say ‘Welcome to the greatest small city in America. You’re here,’” said Karen DuBois-Walton, president of Elm City Communities.
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That’s the task ahead for the property: to redevelop it into affordable housing, and more.
“What I said the other night at the kickoff to the planning is this is a chance to dream,” Walton said. “And it’s a chance for us to put on the table all of the things that we think will make for a really great transit-orientated, welcome to New Haven community.”
Some of those include social supports like education, daycare, childcare, employment and healthcare needs. Plus, environmental designs like parks and streetscapes, community amenities and commercial businesses.
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Mayor Justin Elicker calls it an exciting chance to do something new.
“Big picture thinking: this property, because it’s so large, has much more potential even beyond affordable housing, and I think that we need to be thinking as a community about what that potential is on that property,” Elicker said.
“It was nice over here. They had stores, they had daycare, they had laundromat, they had nice parks, it was a really nice place,” William Outlaw said about the property. “A lot of residents here, went on to do real good things in life.”
The land brings back a lot of emotions for Outlaw, who once named Church Street South “the Jungle” because of its intricate design he says was like a maze. It was a landscape fit for his expansive drug ring, hidden behind pine trees.
“The drug trade hit just like it did everywhere else in America, in all the urban cities,” Outlaw said.
The empire ran until his life changed.
“I caught a manslaughter right here, where we’re standing at right here,” Outlaw said Thursday morning, looking over the vacant land. He said it was a rival named Sterling Williams.
Outlaw came home from prison and vowed to make a difference in New Haven by changing the lives of young people involved in street violence.
“God led me to this work. And I thank him every day. And I say every day when I get up, my prayer, ‘God just keep using me to better myself and better my community.’”
And he carries an extra weight.
“So, he lives with me. And that's one thing that I don't think a lot of people understand when it comes to me, that I don't just live with myself,” Williams said. “I understand I have a victim in my life. And I also honor him by everyday getting up making the right decision, and doing the right decision, for having a second chance at life.”
He said he looks forward to the new complex.
“I can’t wait to see the new Church Street South and take away the 'Jungle' because the 'Jungle' was a negative name,” Williams said.
Construction could take a few years before the new “Union Square” neighborhood comes to life. The plans also include tearing down the apartments at 49 Union Ave. to include that land in the development as well.
Up next is a year of planning and community input.
“We’re really trying to figure out what are the pieces of the past that are part of that history that we want to interweave into the new development, but also what meets today’s needs,” DuBois-Walton said.
