Volunteers spruce up NL property

Parcel at 46 Gorton St., purchased by nonprofit, continues improvement

— City resident Allison McGuire was among a group of volunteers on Saturday sprucing up a garden behind a home at 46 Gorton St. to help get it ready for a family to move in one day.

McGuire loves gardening and also what the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust is doing to increase affordable housing in the community.

The nonprofit organization bought the property, is renovating it, and then plans to sell the home at an affordable rate to a lower-income family, while holding the deed to the land to ensure permanent affordable housing.

“I love the fact that they’re restoring this community property, and in a sense our whole community,” said McGuire, who was sifting out leaves from the garden. “It takes nothing but hard work.”

During the organization’s neighborhood clean-up day on the chilly March day, land trust members and volunteers, along with their children, filled paper bags with sticks and leaves in the driveway of the New London home, worked on the home’s garden, and cleaned up outside in the street.

Regina Mosley, community organizer with the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust, said the nonprofit organization holds land in trust for the development of permanent affordable housing, food production, green spaces and facilities for community organizations. The housing is for people who have an income of 50-80% of the area median income.

The organization closed in September on the 46 Gorton St. property and hopes the renovations, being done under a local contractor, of the four-bedroom and two-bathroom

house will be completed by the fall, Mosley said.

Danny Spurr, a land trust member, was working with his two children, Joanna, 10, and Bronwen, 7, and other members’ children to help landscape and clean up the property. Spurr said he thinks it’s important to show his children what a community looks like and how to help neighbors and fellow New Londoners.

“Together we can do more and be more than we can do on our own,” said Frida Berrigan, the land trust’s New London chapter convener.

Maya Sheppard, a member of the community land trust, said she’s excited about the land trust’s mission to keep land stewardship affordable for families. She’s all about any opportunity to work as a community to take care of land for the benefit of families.

“It makes me feel really happy,” she said. “I feel honored to be a part of this process.”

Second property purchased

Joanne Sheehan, president of the land trust’s board, said 46 Gorton St. is the second home property the organization has bought. Sheehan said one of the ways to make the home affordable is to have some volunteers pitch in, when possible, to clean up the property. She also said the organization has federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the Gorton St. house project, which will make a big difference.

The city supplied on Saturday a trailer, available for neighborhood clean-ups, with buckets, gloves, trash pickers, a lawn mower, wheelbarrow, weed wacker, and leaf blower, among other items.

Mosley said the organization’s other holdings include land at 34-36 Prest St. in New London, where a two-family affordable house was sold several years ago; land at 198 Ledyard St. in New London leased to FRESH New London for a community garden; and commercial space, called The Place for CommUNITY Wellbeing, at 74 Garfield Ave. in New London, in partnership with Ledge Light Health District, along with FRESH New London and other community partners. A ribbon cutting for the Place for CommUNITY Wellbeing will be held at 4 pm. March 14.

In September, the community land trust closed on an approximately 15-acre farm on Hartford Road in Salem for a community farming space and is working with farmers of color based out of New London and New York, Mosley said.

More information on the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust is available at https://sectclt.org or on its Facebook or Instagram pages.

People interested in the trailer for neighborhood cleanups can contact the City of New London’s Neighborhood Coordinator Yamilla Mateo.

PHOTOS BY DANA JENSEN/THE DAY Above, from right to left, Regina Mosely and Maya Sheppard trim the mint in a raised garden bed, while Bob Spuller trims the rose bushes along the fence Saturday while in the backyard of a house located at 46 Gorton St. in New London. The cleanup was organized by the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust. Below, Mela Mango, left, and Sharmaine Gregor, both of New London, reduce the compost piles to a more manageable size. They were bagging the rest of the compost to take it to the city compost location.

DANA JENSEN/THE DAY Danny Spurr and his daughter Joanna, 10, clean up leaves Saturday in the driveway of the house at 46 Gorton St. in New London. Spurr’s daughter Bronwen, 7, right, looks on. The cleanup was organized by the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust.