Amidst controversy over a mysterious memo, the Hartford Housing Authority has been seeking developers to demolish, then rebuild, the city’s final, as yet untouched, low income public housing project – Nelton Court.  Located in the North East neighborhood, Nelton Court is in one of Hartford’s most depressed areas.  But, HHA’s plan for development calls for cutting the number of actual housing units basically in half, from 156 to 80.   HHA claims that 76 units there are currently vacant.   Cutting overall units has been the Housing Authority’s trend.  Hartford is a poorer city today than when most of these projects were built, so the justification for decreasing the number of units is unclear. 

Other public housing projects in the north end of Hartford have been scaled down in recent years.  According to the Housing Authority website, Stowe Village was once comprised of 598 units, but now currently has 110 duplexes (220 units), with an additional 42 duplexes planned (84 units).  Therefore, instead of almost six hundred families, Stowe Village will max out at a possible 304 families.  Likewise, fellow north end project, Mary Shepard Place, has only 127 units, which replaced the 309 units of Bellevue Square, razed for the new development.

These cuts juxtapose a 2005 city government report entitled “Hartford’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness by 2015.“  Among the recommendations in this report are over six hundred supportive housing units for chronically homeless people.   The report states that in 2004, almost 1300 households were homeless in the Capital Region.  The highest concentration is likely in Hartford.

In its Request for Qualifications for the Redevelopment of Nelton Court, HHA states that the successful developer is to be notified this month.  No public announcement is available as yet on the HHA website.

More information about 2008 homelessness data and supportive housing can be found here.

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