Pandemic-era federal funds allocated to advertise housing programs
The Board of Alders last week approved a pair of already-active agreements, totaling $113,600, for the city to market housing-related services.
Lily Belle Poling
Time is running out: New Haven and local governments across the country have less than four months to allocate what remains of the billions of dollars provided by the federal government as COVID-19 stimulus.
New Haven has put $113,600 from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act toward an advertising campaign for the city’s housing services. The plan includes two multi-year agreements — approved by the Board of Alders last Tuesday evening — to market those programs on a digital billboard near I-95 and at the Shubert Theater.
The ads will promote a variety of housing services, such as a security deposit program and a down payment assistance program for first-time homebuyers included in Mayor Justin Elicker’s “I’m Home” initiative, his spokesperson said. The Shubert Theater is promoting the program through a full-page ad in its playbills and, in the future, on a digital display overlooking College Street.
Whatever American Rescue Plan Act money the city does not allot by the end of the year will return to federal coffers. The new marketing agreements will end at different dates in 2026, which the law permits as long as the specific expenditures are set this year. According to aldermanic records, the deals both began on June 1 — two months before the board gave the formal go-ahead.
“They came to us late,” said Ward 10 Alder Anna Festa, who represents part of East Rock and chairs the committee, City Services and Environmental Policy, that considered the proposals in July.
When asked whether the ad deals followed proper procedures for approval, the mayor’s spokesperson did not reply before the publication of this article.
The advertising campaign comes after a municipal restructuring that broke up the Livable City Initiative, the agency mainly responsible for housing code enforcement. Under a new city budget and a new director, LCI narrowed its focus this summer to address housing code violations and neighborhood blight, such as run-down homes, vacant lots and boarded-up buildings.
LCI no longer oversees affordable housing development or the “I’m Home” initiative. Those programs now fall under a new Housing and Administrative Services division in the Economic Development Administration.
The restructuring took effect on July 1, just two weeks before the housing services ads came up for consideration at a July 15 committee meeting. The change may not have immediately registered: Mark Wilson, who moved from LCI to the new housing services division, introduced the agreements as requests from LCI.
“Although there have been some changes in LCI’s structure, their programs and initiatives have remained the same,” Wilson told the alders.
The $46,000, two-and-a-half-year deal with the Shubert Theater, formally the Connecticut Association for the Performing Arts, will make use of the theater’s educational programming to promote housing resources through students, Wilson said, both during the school year and in summer camps.
The $67,600, nearly two-year deal with Barrett Outdoor Communications involves one digital billboard at 145 Water Street, visible to traffic entering New Haven from I-95. The display rotates among various ads for 10-second periods and allows the government to change its image over time.
Ward 9 Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith, whose district straddles East Rock and Fair Haven, pressed Wilson to explain how the city will know if its expensive advertisements are working. He indicated that officials would ask residents who use the services how they came across them.
“This is new to us, to have such an aggressive outreach and marketing program,” Wilson said. “But gathering the data to show just how effective these are will be ongoing.”
The new push comes on top of existing ads in city buses and four LCI billboards throughout the city directed at landlord compliance with the housing code.
Smith told the News she sees the marketing drive as a chance for the city to experiment with its outreach strategy before the ARPA funding dries up.
“Whether we have less funds because of ARPA or because we’re able to get further grants, we have a level of rigor around the best use of funds,” Smith said.
The ARPA funding must be fully spent by Dec. 31, 2026, or will be clawed back by the federal government.
Lily Belle Poling contributed reporting.