Destiny McKnight and her 5-year-old son, who has autism, moved into her Harttford apartment last fall.
But, McKnight hasn’t been able to live in her apartment since August, when her unit, along with 49 others, were damaged in an apartment fire.
Now, residents of the damaged units in Concord Hills apartment complex, on Sherbrooke Avenue in Hartford, are being told by the city to find new housing.
Displaced residents were informed, come December, the city will no longer be paying for temporary hotel housing.
“I feel written off. Like you're not gonna write me off and tell me to wash my hands with everything when you haven't given me anything to go off of,” McKnight said.
Initially, the displaced residents were housed in nearby hotels, without access to kitchenettes. After calling on the city to find proper shelter in September, the residents were moved to hotels with kitchen access.
With a Dec. 10 deadline looming, residents are struggling to find new apartments, and to access their belongings.
“There's no communication. There's nothing clear. There's nothing concise,” McKnight said. “My game plan is to pretty much get my stuff out of there, because it's molding, and put it into storage while I pretty much wait for what's going to happen next.”
McKnight said she’s contacted the governor’s office and Connecticut’s U.S. senators for support.
City offers few alternatives
While the city offered help with moving and provided a list of nearby, available apartments, McKnight has yet to find one that fits her criteria or would accept an application based on her existing credit score.
Several of the apartments at Concord Hills were burglarized. Residents say some of their property was damaged and stolen, by a thief with key access to the building, according to Connecticut Tenants Union Vice President Luke Melonakos-Harrison.
No residents have been able to take advantage of the relocation services, with movers, since the company chosen by the city won’t enter the damaged apartment building in its current condition, as a construction site without electricity, Melonakos-Harrison said.
The tenants union members are advocating for an extension of the hotel period, while the city waits for the New York-based landlord, Greyhill Group, to complete renovations.
“It’s not fair to let the next three weeks pass with the same ambiguous status of needing to get out of hotels,” Melonakos-Harrison said.
Concord Hills landlords face backlash
A violation order was submitted to Greyhill Group, for failing to make the repairs, and a lien was placed on the property by the city. Come Nov. 18, if Greyhill doesn’t reach an agreement with the city, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam will be able to step in, hiring chosen contractors to complete the necessary work.
"We are going to hold these landlords accountable and also demand that they continue to make the repairs to their property that they legally need to make,” Arulampalam said.
Arulampalam said the city set the December relocation deadline, recommending the residents begin finding other housing, as he doesn’t trust Greyhill’s proposed timeline for repairs.
“It was never our intent to have residents staying in hotels indefinitely. That'll be four months since the relocation first started, and we have a number of options available to all of these tenants,” Arulampalam said.
About a quarter of the displaced residents have since chosen to move on, finding new homes. Arulampalam said there should be several Concord Hills apartments available soon, but with Greyhill’s slow response with repairs, tenants should wash their hands of the building.
“Greyhill group has clearly misled us several times, has been dragging their feet, and we're not sure that any of the timelines they’re giving us are real,” Arulampalam said. “We don't want to rely on Greyhill Group for these residents’ livelihoods. We're encouraging them to create individual plans in order to ensure permanent housing.”
Arunan Arulampalam's father-in-law is Gregory B. Butler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Public.
