Housing costs, homelessness increasing in city

Because housing costs have increased recently in New Haven, housing has become a major problem. While some options for low-income residents exist, including supportive housing units and Section Eight vouchers for subsidized housing from the federal government, people in need of affordable housing and the social workers who help them are struggling to find decent options.

Homelessness threatens to become a larger problem as Gov. Rowland makes adjustments in the state budget that would scale back anticipated funding for social services. Many residents were recently cut from the welfare rolls because of the states welfare reform in 1996. It remains unclear what the long-term effects of the changes will be.

Elections

This fall, Connecticut voters will elect a governor and five congressmen.

Gov. John G. Rowland, a Republican, is seeking a third four-year term. He will face either state Sen. George Jepsen or former Comptroller Bill Curry, who are vying for the Democratic Party nomination in September’s primary election.

In the state’s heavily Democratic 3rd District, which includes New Haven, six-term incumbent Rosa DeLauro will face weak challenges from Green Party and Republican candidates. A Democrat from a longtime local political family, DeLauro is expected to win re-election.

Connecticut will host four other contested congressional races this fall.

After drop, crime rates level off

After dropping 21 percent from 1999 to 2000, overall crime rates in New Haven remained stable in 2001, while reported crimes against persons increased almost 10 percent, according to recently released Uniform Crime Report data.

The number of murders increased from 18 to 20 — after dropping consistently for four years — and robberies jumped nearly 14 percent, from 662 to 754. Last year’s crime rates did not drop significantly, even though the city and New Haven Police Department implemented a number of initiatives during that span of time.

But the new statistics were not entirely grim for New Haven: Property crime such as burglary and larceny dropped enough to pull down slightly the total number of incidents reported to the police in 2001.

And the overall trend over the last decade or so has been a positive one for the city. Crimes against both persons and property are approximately half of what they were in 1990.

–Yale Daily News