A complex ‘balancing act’
Housing authority looks to nonprofit to help revitalize Brooks Quarry
BROOKFIELD — Brooks Quarry is stuck in a “death spiral.”
That’s how Michael Steele, chairman of the Brookfield Housing Authority, described the loop the affordable housing complex is trapped in.
It must raise rents to cover its bills, but its apartments are not nice enough for current and prospective tenants to want to pay that much, he said.
“You either refurbish these places or they’re going to be empty,” Steele said.
This is a common problem for housing authorities in Connecticut, said Michael Santoro, director of policy and research for the state Department of Housing.
Some complexes are facing shrinking federal funding, he said. Others like Brooks Quarry, which gain revenue from rents, not state or federal subsidies, need to repair facilities and cover expenses, but their tenants struggle to afford rent, Santoro said.
“It is always a balancing act,” he said. “How can I continue to serve those that are most needy, while still generating enough revenue to keep doors open?”
One of Brookfield’s solutions is to form a nonprofit.
The hope is that the organization, Friends of Brooks Quarry, will enable the complex to upgrade. The facility, which has 35 apartments for the elderly and disabled individuals, has barely been improved over its 36 years.
“We want to revitalize the people,” said Jo-Ann Gargiulo, a tenant and board member on the housing authority. “We want to revitalize the property because this is really a nice place to live.”
Getting it done
Larger local housing authorities have long had nonprofit arms, but smaller housing authorities are just getting into this game, Santoro said.
“The smaller ones are realizing there are more financial opportunities in the nonprofit community,” he said. “Any local housing authority that is progressive in the least is looking at that as a viable option.”
Friends of Brooks Quarry will collect donations, through events like an upcoming giving day sponsored by the local business Health Products For You. Through the nonprofit, high school students have also started volunteering for tenants by carrying their groceries and completing other tasks.
Nonprofits are also eligible for grants that housing authorities are not, Steele said. This includes the Neighborhood Assistance Act, which could provide the $110,000 needed to fix the worn sidewalks.
These sidewalks are too narrow and not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is a problem for the tenants in wheelchairs and with walkers.
“If you have a bad sidewalk, you’re going to fall down,” Gargiulo said. “It needs to get done and it needs to get done soon.”
Brooks Quarry recently repaved the parking lot and replaced its sewer system, but these have been the only improvement projects at the facility. The town helped pay for the parking lot, while a $650,000 state grant covered the sewer replacement.
Before the sewer project, feces flowed back up through the toilets and tenants had to stay in the community room while doing their laundry to ensure water did not spill from the machine, Gargiulo said.
Meanwhile, $2.5 million is needed to rehabilitate inside the apartments, which have aging appliances. Gargiulo said tenants want hardwood floors and bars to hold onto when they step into the shower.
Brooks Quarry planned to apply for a grant from the state to cover this, but the state Department of Housing delayed opening applications for the $30 million former Gov. Dannel Malloy had previously set aside each year for these projects. This further increased the need to create the nonprofit, Steele said.
The new governor still supports these project and eventually plans to offer this money, Santoro said.
“The new administration is getting a handle on what we do, how we do it,” he said. “We’re just not prepared right now to begin taking applications related to that preservation activity.”
Bethel is also working on improving Reynolds Ridge, its affordable housing complex for elderly and lowincome residents, but it used an $800,000 federal grant to renovate those apartments.
Other work, such as redoing the sidings and roof, will be completed in phases over the next three years, said Mark Nolan, who manages the facility.
Half of Reynolds Ridge’s 80 apartments receive subsidies from the federal government, while the other half do not. But in October 2017 the housing authority earned vouchers for rental assistance for the latter apartments, which boosted income, Nolan said.
“Before that, we were very poor,” he said.
With the increased revenue, Reynolds Ridge has been able to rehabilitate apartments before new tenants move in, Nolan said.
Financial woes
The Brookfield Housing Authority is playing catchup after years of poor fiscal management that left the complex in financial straits, Steele said.
The authority finished last year with an operating income of $20,000. But the board still needs to repay a $156,000 state loan that was used to prepare for the rehabilitation grant that has been delayed, Steele said.
Before Steele joined the housing authority in 2012, the board did not set aside money for its capital fund, which only has $86,000, he said. The state has waived its requirement that Brookfield accumulate $15,000 to its capital fund each year, and last year only $4,000 was added, he said.
For years, the housing authority offset its operating loss with $256,000 it received when the state bought a chunk of Brooks Quarry’s land for the Route
7 bypass, Steele said. Those funds have since dried up, but allowed Brooks Quarry for five years to charge
$200 a month for a studio apartment, he said.
By 2013, rent should have been $566 a month to cover the complex’s expenses, but tenants would have been kicked out if they had to pay that much, Steele said.
Ultimately, the board raised rent to $400 a month, with residents asked to pay 30 percent of their income or the base rent, whichever is higher. The state covered the rest through the Elderly Rental Assistance Program, Steele said.
But last year the state froze how much money it gave to Brookfield and other housing authorities through that program, even though rents still needed to rise again to keep up with expenses, Steele said. This meant Brookfield had to kick some tenants off the program.
The residents affected only had to pay a few dollars more a month because what they contributed was close enough to the base rent, but more tenants will have to leave the program this year, Steele said.
“This year, it’s going to be tougher,” he said.