A community of tiny homes created to house homeless residents in New Haven now have electricity and heat after months of back-and-forth with the city.
Rosette Neighborhood Village, a community of six “tiny homes” in the backyard of a private residence owned by Mark and Luz Colville, was constructed in October.
For the last four months, Rosette residents and their advocates worked with the city of New Haven to bring the units up to code and get electricity connected. The electricity, and heat, was recently turned on.
Electricity was approved by city building and fire department officials Saturday, and connected Monday. The development followed an in-person meeting with New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and his team on Jan. 12.
Jacob Miller, son-in-law of the Colvilles, said they’re optimistic about the community’s upcoming Jan. 30, Board of Zoning Appeals meeting.
“Doesn't seem like the type of thing that we're gonna get a lot of pushback on when again, ultimately, what we're providing is a privately-funded social service that's filling a vacuum in a city that doesn't have nearly the amount of resources to serve this community, ” Miller said.
To get the electricity connected, Rosette Village had to comply with a list of state-mandated safety measures. City officials were also required to conduct an inspection and submit a plan to the department of zoning and regulations.
Miller is confident other, similar developments will be proposed in the New Haven. He hopes Rosette’s residents and advocates can help pave the way.
“We need to figure out how we're going to handle this systemically going forward, and I think our hope is that we can be involved in that conversation, because we're kind of the first people to have introduced this concept,” Miller said.
Part of the concern in approving the structures for electricity hookups was the gray area in which the homes are categorized, not fitting the criteria for single family homes or accessory dwelling units.
The homes are not up to code and do not include kitchens or bathrooms, New Haven Building Officials Bob Dillon previously said. Residents use the bathroom and kitchen located inside the main house on the property.
City employees worked hard to get the community approved and bring in a form of housing previously unseen in New Haven, Elicker previously said.
The tiny homes are under a 180-day temporary permit, allowing them to remain standing. However, the structures are required to be disassembled when the permit expires.
Elicker declined to specify what repercussions Rosette Village residents and owners may face if the buildings aren’t removed by the deadline.
While using different methods, Elicker said the city and Rosette Village have the same goal of ending homelessness and funding alternative housing solutions. The city’s similar approach as Rosette Village is to expand accessory dwelling unit allowances in New Haven.
Accessory dwelling units are essentially tiny homes, but include a kitchen and bathroom, and abide by city code.
“I don't anticipate that all of a sudden, there's going to be a lot of property owners around the city that are going to want to put small temporary structures on their properties. That being said, I do think it is a very good policy to increase the options for housing in the city,” Elicker said.
“That is why we submitted a proposal to expand the ability for property owners to install accessory dwelling units, which effectively are tiny homes, but they're different than the structures.”
