Using levers of justice to empty housing project

Robert I. Reardon and the fellow attorneys and staff at The Reardon Law Firm who assisted him deserve due credit for their magnanimous efforts on behalf of people who could never have afforded such representation. Plaudits too to the tenants who were willing to fight for their rights.

New London attorney Robert I. Reardon Jr. made his reputation winning seven-figure personal injury cases, but a lawsuit for which he and his law firm did not earn even one slim dime has to be among the most satisfying.

In 2004, Reardon agreed to handle pro bono a lawsuit against the New London Housing Authority with the goal of correcting the deplorable living conditions for the residents of the high-rise Thames River Apartments public housing complex. On July 16, 2006, he filed the lawsuit on behalf of the residents of the 124-unit project.

It took 12 years, but mission accomplished.

Reardon’s lawsuit kept the pressure on the city and its housing authority. At times there were improvements, but they never adequately addressed the unsafe and unsanitary conditions that motivated the legal action. Reardon and his law firm always stood ready to make that point to the judge assigned to the litigation.

In 2014, Judge David M. Sheridan signed off on a stipulated agreement between the plaintiffs and the housing authority that set out a plan to move the tenants into new housing. When that approach failed because the new housing could not gain the necessary regulatory approvals from the city, Reardon was back in court in 2017 again pressing the lawsuit.

The solution came when the housing authority was able to obtain rental vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Using the vouchers to subsidize their rents, tenants of the low-income housing complex have been finding apartments and moving out, the last few tenants leaving only recently.

On Thursday, Reardon was back in court, telling Judge Sheridan that the goal of the class-action lawsuit had been achieved and that he would soon move to formally withdraw the lawsuit.

Reardon and the fellow attorneys and staff at The Reardon Law Firm who assisted him deserve due credit for their magnanimous efforts on behalf of people who could never have afforded such representation. Plaudits too to the tenants who were willing to fight for their rights.

Credit goes as well to Mayor Michael Passero and the woman he appointed to chair the housing authority board of directors and lead the effort to find a way to close Thames River Apartments, Betsy Gibson.

Shortly after his election as mayor in 2015, Passero recognized closing the high-rise public housing complex had to be a priority, not only because of the litigation New London faced and it was the right thing, but because deterioration could make the buildings uninhabitable at any moment.

“The city’s at risk. We’ve got to start the process. The situation has gotten so bad, there is a serious concern those buildings will become uninhabitable, and the burden of relocation would fall on the city. It’s become a crisis,” he said in 2016.

Putting that kind of emphasis on getting a problem corrected, and pulling the levers to make it happen, is why this newspaper endorsed a return to a strong mayor form of government in the city. It can be repeated to meet other challenges.

As for challenges, these families will continue to face them. As tough a place as it was to live, the high-rises provided a community. Scattered about in their new apartments, that community support is now largely lost. Rental subsidies could be vulnerable to shifts in the political winds in a way the public housing apartments were not.

But, on balance, this is a great outcome. Those who played a role should take pride in having achieved it.