Officials canvass neighborhoods to address ‘quality of life’ issues
By Audrey Russo
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NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (WFSB) — Leaders in New Haven have a better idea of how to tackle quality of life issues in one section of the city.
They canvassed the neighborhood streets themselves on Friday morning.
“It’s not us against them, it’s a community effort,” said Regina Rush-Kittle, chief administrative officer, City of New Haven.
It’s hard to downplay a problem in a community when it’s seen up close.
That’s how New Haven City leaders spent the morning. They walked the Dixwell and Beaver Hills neighborhoods to look for blight problems that could turn into something more dangerous.
“Shoddy repair,” said Mark Stroud, housing code inspector. “It’s a violation.”
“It could potentially save a life,” said Mayor Justin Elicker, New Haven. “Often times we’ll knock on the door, talk to the tenant and the tenant will identify that there’s no smoke detectors, things like that.”
While Elicker said most of the issues were things that the landlord or property owner could fix, the sweeps also looked out for things that the city can address like trees that could overgrow.
“Having all the different departments on site allows them to quickly identify who takes the lead on an issue and solve a lot of issues at once,” Elicker said.
Police, fire, health, building and public works officials usually tag along, and they split up into four teams throughout the selected neighborhood.
“I go out with one team and identify maybe 30 issues,” Elicker said.
Seeing the problems up close is only half the equation, the group said.
The sweeps also allow city officials to hear about safety hazards too, from tenants they meet face-to face.
They can advocate for tenants by addressing landlords directly instead of waiting for a complaint to come in over the phone.
“We may end up making a citation to the landlord,” Elicker said.
“When we are made aware of it, we take action,” Rush-Kittle said.
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