Samad Hakani, Photography Editor

Four local organizations received more than $9 million in grants from Connecticut’s Community Investment Fund this month, largely to support affordable housing and social services in New Haven.

The largest grant — $6,121,390 — went to the Greater Dwight Development Corporation for the development of two new affordable housing complexes with 11 affordable units and community space for local nonprofits in the Dwight neighborhood. GDDC won the funding on its fifth application, which Mayor Justin Elicker said showed the organization’s commitment to housing affordability in a press conference.

“This is going to help us really have a further impact in the community and really push forward our core values of community service, public service, community risk reduction, upward mobility, recruitment and retention, especially impacting our youth in the city,” Josh Antrum, president of the Firebirds Society of Greater New Haven, one of the community organizations that works with GDDC, said.

United Way of Greater New Haven also received $2 million, which it will use to support a mixed-income housing project on the corner of Chapel and State streets downtown. 

60 of the 76 units at the downtown development will be affordable, with 46 of these being fully subsidized, according to Dara Kovel, CEO of Beacon Communities, a real estate firm developing the housing project. Beacon Communities is partnering with Columbus House, a New Haven nonprofit that provides shelter and services to homeless residents, and United Way to designate 16 units as supportive housing, meaning they will serve people experiencing homelessness.

Rather than developing a new building from the ground up, Beacon Communities will convert a historic building that has been used as office space into apartments, and 20,000 square feet on the bottom floor will be designated for new businesses

“We know that there are too many people in our city and in our region who are struggling to make ends meet, and we also know that housing is the biggest expense that people have in their family budgets,” Jennifer Heath, president and CEO of United Way of Greater New Haven, said. “So when we saw an opportunity to support the creation of more affordable housing, including deeply affordable housing, we knew this was a partnership that we had to be a part of.”

The Mary Wade Foundation was awarded $700,000 to improve the safety and living conditions of its senior living home, while Mount Hope Temple was allocated $250,000 to use for its warming center and food pantry.

The Community Investment Fund grants come amid a deluge of cuts to federal funding, which has left the futures of many New Haven programs uncertain.

“The CIF process has allowed the not-for-profits and the boots on the ground that do the work every day to be recognized both with resources and now financially, and that’s so important,” New Haven state representative Al Paolillo (D-97) said. “The organizations serve all of our communities and all of the people we live next to … and that are the most vulnerable.”

The fund, chaired by New Haven Senator Martin Looney, was established in 2021 to provide up to $875 million over the course of several years to eligible municipalities, nonprofit organizations and community development corporations located in “historically underserved communities across Connecticut.”
In September, New Haven received $5.48 million from the Community Investment Fund for a roadway and streetscape project, renovations to a rehabilitation center, a commercial kitchen and food business incubator, Goodwill research and city research on the use of accessory dwelling units.