Lily Belle Poling, Contributing Photographer

New Haven tenants have long struggled to secure fair and safe living conditions from landlords in a timely manner. With new director Liam Brennan, the Livable City Initiative is working to change that. 

On the heels of years of scrutiny, LCI is taking strides to speed up its housing code enforcement policy and anti-blight ordinances. Development work, such as assisting individuals with finding housing or advancing affordable housing, no longer falls under the purview of LCI and was shifted to the Economic Development Administration under the city’s 2024-25 budget.

Despite this shift in responsibilities, LCI has retained the majority of its staff, setting a path for the agency to enforce housing code and anti-blight ordinances more efficiently and timely.

“We need people to live in safe conditions. It’s part of the basic role of government,” Brennan said. “And we also want to preserve properties so they don’t fall into disrepair, so we’ll have them down the line as well.”

Brennan, a former mayoral challenger, was contracted by the city to reimagine LCI in April and was appointed as its director in August. 

Brennan explained that the previous enforcement process — sending out order letters, inspecting and reinspecting properties and issuing citations — took too long, which tenants, tenants’ unions and tenants’ advocates across the city agreed with, he said.

To speed up the process, LCI is nixing its use of certified mail to send order letters and cutting the time landlords have to fix violations. 

LCI is also instituting an automatic reinspection date. For example, if a landlord had 21 days to fix an issue following the first inspection of the violation, then a reinspection will be automatically scheduled for the 22nd day to ensure landlords are making the necessary repairs in fair time.

Of course, Brennan said, this condensed timeline will come with some hiccups, but he hopes these new policies will make LCI as efficient as possible at resolving tenants’ issues.

“Access to housing inspections has been difficult for a lot of our members in New Haven,” Luke Melonakos-Harrison, the vice president of the Connecticut Tenants Union, said. “But then another layer is, once the inspection happens, the follow through and the enforcement mechanisms [LCI has] have been vastly underutilized.” 

CT Tenants Union advocated for the separation of housing code enforcement and housing development before the split was made official with the mayor’s newest budget. Under the shadow of housing development, housing code enforcement was “extremely neglected,” Melonakos-Harrison said. The recent change left the tenants’ union “very pleased.” 

Melonakos-Harrison said that he and the union are optimistic about the changes that have been made, and he hopes to see LCI flex its new enforcement muscles.

Just this Tuesday, LCI presented revisions to the city’s housing code to the Board of Alders’ Legislation Committee that would allow them to effectively impose fines against violators. 

The current language in the ordinance makes it difficult for LCI to levy fines because complaints must go through state housing courts, which means citations “never get imposed,” according to Brennan.

The Legislation Committee voted unanimously to advance LCI’s proposed revision to the housing code. If the full board approves the revision, LCI will have a clearer citation process and will begin issuing fines to persistent violators.

Jorell Alford, who said she has been homeless for two years, testified on behalf of LCI’s revisions because her experience going to housing court with her landlord is what led to her homelessness. 

“I’m on the streets because of housing court. I lost everything. I have nothing. My kids, no child, nothing,” she said. “So I’m here to ask for help.”

The next Board of Alders meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 16.