“What is the city for?”: Protesters condemn New Haven’s current housing budget A coalition of ralliers demanded that $62.5 million of the $115 million New Haven received via the American Rescue Plan be directed towards attenuating the city’s housing crisis. Words by Staff reporters Rachel Shin & Brian Zhang. Photos by Rachel Shin and Ernest Saunders.

On Saturday morning, the voices of New Haven protesters rang out in front of City Hall as they demanded $62.5 million to address the city’s housing crisis.

Locals joined the Sisters in Diaspora Collective, a refugee and immigrant led housing justice movement, and a coalition of other groups at the rally. The other organizing groups included the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Connecticut Tenants Union and the Democratic Socialists of America. The protesters gathered to contest the city’s current allocation of its $115 million package from the American Rescue Plan (ARP), also known as the COVID-19 stimulus package, which was distributed in 2021. The city has already allocated $10 million of the package to housing initiatives. Still, the ralliers condemned the budgeting and demanded that an increased sum of $62.5 million, or 54 percent of the funds, be funneled into the housing crisis. The Sisters in Diaspora chose the 54 percent figure to reflect the 54 percent of New Haven residents who face housing insecurity.

“The way that this money is spent says a lot about the priorities of our city,” Camila Guiza-Chavez ’19 of the Sisters in Diaspora Collective said. “It makes no sense that housing is not a bigger priority, because it is a basic, fundamental necessity of human life. What is the city for? What is the government for, if not to provide these basic necessities for its people?”

The Sisters in Diaspora proposed that the demanded $62.5 million be divided between property purchases and stipends. The collective called upon the city to spend $50.5 million on reserving properties for social housing — housing owned by the local government and affordably rented to low income families and individuals not for profit.

The protestors called for the remaining $12 million of their demanded total to be spent on monthly living stipends for a thousand families on the city’s Section 8 waiting list. Section 8 is a voucher-based rent subsidy program run by the federal government but administered locally.

“My family applied for Section 8 in 2015 and since then, no one has contacted us regarding our application,” Guiza-Chavez read from a written statement by Dina Tariq, an immigrant from Iraq. “I called, I emailed, I went to the office and no answer. They have told us to be patient and wait for the interview. We've been waiting since 2015, almost seven years now. Every time I ask them when we are going to be interviewed, their answer is ‘we don't know.’”

Leaders at the rally emphasized that increasing the number of job training programs is a shortsighted solution to getting people off the streets, saying that the more effective approach would be to create new living spaces for the unhoused and to financially assist those who are struggling to pay rent. Norman Clement of the Party for Socialism and Liberation echoed Guiza-Chavez’s sentiment that the responsibility should fall upon the government — rather than nonprofits in the city — when it comes to supporting the unhoused.

According to Clement, the city is allocating its funds into programs that are exacerbating its problems. New Haven is investing too many resources towards criminalizing its most vulnerable residents by overpaying police officers and installing excessive surveillance cameras, he said.

Kyle Buda, the city’s director of communications, did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

Beyond the quality and affordability of housing, the rally also aimed to communicate a sense of urgency regarding the proper allocation of ARP funds. Karen DuBois-Walton, president of the Elm City Communities Housing Authority of New Haven, spoke about the scarcity of resources and funds allocated to serve the unhoused and evicted. Currently, the Housing Authority is only able to serve 6,000 families, while 17,000 families remain on the waitlist, she said. According to DuBois-Walton, some families spend decades or longer on the waitlist.

“New Haven is growing but it's not keeping pace with the need for affordable housing, and so the calls that I receive every day are heartbreaking,” DuBois-Walton said. “We have a crisis in New Haven … but we also right now have an opportunity to fight right here in New Haven, to fight in Hartford, to fight in DC for the appropriate resources for affordable housing.”

Housing issues have always existed in New Haven, but the pandemic has exacerbated them and brought them to light, DuBois-Walton explained. She described the ARP as an opportunity to offset some of the immediate challenges confronting the community, and to “move forward” as a city.

Organizers later opened the mic for public testimonials. Robert Santiago opened up about his own experiences not knowing where to stay some nights, saying that some of the administrators who were supposed to help him during his period of housing insecurity cared little for his problems. One of the workers at a shelter that Santiago went to asked him to take a shower before entering, but refused to address his request for warm water.

Siham Osman, a mother supporting her children, requested that Guiza-Chavez read aloud a speech she wrote, in which Osman detailed the challenges of straddling working and welfare programs. Much of her income is devoted to paying for “exorbitantly” priced housing, she wrote.

At the end of the rally, protesters were invited to Havenly, a refugee and immigrant-led business at 25 Temple St. for free coffee.