Loan on way to convert building to house city homeless, addicts

Joseph Straw
New Haven Register
03/27/2003

NEW HAVEN — The state has approved a $2.96 million loan for conversion of Ninth Square’s F.D. Grave & Son building into an apartment house for ill and drug-addicted residents struggling with homelessness, officials said.
Liberty Community Services, formerly the Connecticut AIDS Residence Program, bought the building at 210 State St. in 1999, after the 119-year-old cigar company left town for North Haven.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave Liberty Community Services $3.4 million under its Safe Haven program for the building’s conversion, pending added funding from the state.

Gov. John G. Rowland placed the 30-year, interest-free loan for the project on the agenda for Friday’s meeting of the state Bonding Commission, which summarily approves such items.

Sarah D. Caldwell, Liberty Community Services’ executive director, said that work on the building will begin with the state’s approval.

The apartments are expected to open next year, Caldwell said.

"We’re very grateful to HUD. They’ve been very patient," Caldwell said.

The building will house 1,000 square feet of retail space on its first floor, along with administrative and program space, with 11 apartments on each of the three floors above.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who has called for added state support of the city’s homeless services, called the project "an important part of the proper housing mix, and we appreciate the state’s support."

"It isn’t a major amount of support, however, and it doesn’t begin to address the 200 homeless people we shelter each and every day," DeStefano said.

In a prepared statement, Rowland acknowledged that the city spends $1.4 million each year, more than any other town in the state.

Caldwell said that the close to 17 tenants now living in the building, most of them artists, will have to go.