It’s notorious, dangerous, unhealthy and prison-like. Mayor Joe Ganim and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal on Friday announced that they are urging the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to decommission the Charles F. Greene Homes in the Hollow so the public housing units can be demolished and new housing opportunities available to its residents similar to what is occurring at Marina Village in the South End.
Ganim announced the city is working in partnership with Park City Communities, the former Bridgeport Housing Authority, to vacate the public housing complex due to challenging living conditions, violence and damaged elevators that prevent many residents, especially the disabled, from leaving their homes.
“The living conditions at Greene Homes are unacceptable,” said Ganim in a statement. “I made a commitment to improving the quality of life and public housing in Bridgeport and sometimes that means building, but in this instance, it means tearing down. I have fought for the Bridgeport residents who have lived in these unsuitable conditions for a long time. Our residents deserve a clean and safe place to call home for their children and families.”
Park City Communities Board of Commissioners Chair Cowlis Andrews added, “The tenants of the Bridgeport Housing Authority have a right to first class, safe and sanitary housing. The Board will focus to make this a reality and work with the city to accomplish it for the residents of Greene Homes.”
City Councilman Alfredo Castillo, a liaison to Park City Communities Board, said, “For so many years, elected officials and community leaders have argued that the people of the Greene Homes deserve better than their current living conditions. I fully support the efforts being made by the Mayor and Park City Communities to decommission Greene Homes and work towards the development of better public housing in Bridgeport.”
Ganim and Park City Communities are working together to procure a firm with expertise to handle the decommissioning application. This request for proposals was made available last week. Proposals from experienced and qualified firms are due to the Purchasing Office, Margaret E. Morton Government Center, 999 Broad St., Bridgeport, CT by 2:00 p.m. on December 6th.
See here.
This is like watching that Geico commercial…..that’s not how it works, that’s not how any of that works! It’s been how many years and they don’t even have an approved plan or funding to complete Marina Village demo.
More pre-election grandstanding by Joe.This makes headlines and gets conversation started.For 18 months,Joe could have cared less
The two biggest photo whores around with Dennis Bradly right behind them.
I actually agree. We should get rid of all these housing projects in bridgeport.
Month in and month out, financially vulnerable residents of more than one HUD funded, Park City Communities site location find days with no heat, no hot water, plumbing backups of sewage, falling down stair supports, water from holes in roof that go unrepaired, mail deliveries interrupted by PCC personnel, requests for service ignored, etc. These are quality of life issues if not more when you get into black mold and other respiratory issues. Where is the fully authorized by HUD representation of these issues. Where is the resident so afraid of the power of PCC personnel that they fail to disclose the above conditions, for fear of eviction. Where is the “reasonable accommodation” policy fully observed? Why are PCC tenants not fully served by the City complaint technology system where failure to resolve complaints can be seen by, with full oversight by City departments right up to the Mayor? Where does CC member Alfredo Castillo, who has significant knowledge of BHA/PCC operations, file his liaison reports to fellow CC members, regarding problems faced by thousands of City residents and voters? Do any of his reports cite specific issues that become corrected? What would a resident evaluation report card of PCC management look like? Time will tell.
JML, really, you didn’t expect the City Council would look into this? You point out a lot of the major day to day problems in public housing in Bridgeport. Public housing becomes a primary concern when candidates need their vote on election day then the hell with public housing and their problems.
The crux of the biscuit is this: The mayor’s office is looking at the problem as if it is a money pit, a piece of property that will cost too much to repair. Fuck it, let’s knock it down and get the federal government to pay for it.
Ron,
As a matter of fact I do expect each City Council member to care about the plight of the most vulnerable among us who reside in Park City Community housing, without credible and regular representation on their housing matters, without PCC employee who are courteous and respectful of their clients, and who are daily provided much less than what Ganim2, Chair Cowlis Andrews, Executive Director Slaughter (who too frequently fails to respond to phone or email communications) and Council person Castillo list as reasonable expectations. Is this politics of hypocrisy, bad public administration, “power supremacy” by keeping reality in the shadows? Or is it a cynical status quo where the fear of eviction or other penalties to be suffered keeps folks quiet and forces others who have lost trust in PCC even caring to become homeless? And homeless in this regard leads to what? Is that what gets carried in a news column, or another part of the paper? Time will tell.
JML, have you been in touch with those that you have listed with your concerns and what was their reply?
Ron,
You have my phone # and can call me for a discussion on this issue if you wish. Anytime. Wish to keep private the names of those who have allowed me to know and speak their “housing misery” but from the time he ran for office three years ago, Ganim2 has not been interested, Cowlis has been busy, and Ed Adams as accountability and integrity appointee, has assisted on occasion. Council member Castillo perhaps imagines that providing someone with pizza on one or several occasions replaces listening to and serving them in a time of problems? Where is any effort from alumni of various housing blocks to show the path out to current residents? Where is PCC in such an endeavor? Time will tell.
Where are these people going to live?
The original mission statement of Yellow Mill Village included “to provide clean, affordable housing for the workers of Bridgeport”. Workers?
Public housing has devolved into the housing component of a failed social welfare system.
It is time for the Federal (and State and City) government to get out of the taxpayer funded housing business.
The Greene Apartments were renovated about twenty-five years at a cost per unit comparable to the going price of a North End three bedroom cape cod house at the time. Great investment.