New Haven residents push back on methadone clinic move
NEW HAVEN — The APT Foundation just bought the former Achievement First Elm City College Preparatory Inc. on Dixwell Avenue in Newhallville for $2.45 million and wants to move its headquarters and a methadone clinic there, but such a move won’t be without significant opposition.
More than 140 people from Newhallville and nearby neighborhoods in southern Hamden — including the mayors of New Haven and Hamden, alders, council members and municipal and state legislative leaders from both New Haven and Hamden — packed a recent Zoom meeting.
As often has been the case with APT Foundation proposals in the past, most who spoke at a community forum moderated by Ward 20 Co-chairwoman Barbara Vereen appeared to oppose the plan.
Many peppered APT Foundation CEO Lynn Madden with questions, which she fielded one-by-one. Others shouted down the proposal and said the APT Foundation should find a more suitable spot for the methadone clinic, currently at 1 Long Wharf. Some even suggested the city or state should “buy the property back,” even though neither was involved in the sale.
The proposed site, the onetime St. John’s Church school at 794 Dixwell Ave., just a few yards from the Hamden line, is on a commercial strip that is surrounded by homes.
“This is not needed in this community. It’s not wanted in this community,” said Alder Kimberly Edwards, D-19. “It’s like a slap in the face for us. ... I’m against it and I’m going to fight it.”
Madden said later that she wasn’t surprised by the “community apprehension,” which she said often is the case when the foundation proposes a new facility.
“It’s clear to me that I could have done more to reach the community,” she said. “This by no means was intended to be a secret process but was a process through which we could purchase enough space” to move all of its existing programs from 1 Long Wharf.
“We have for years been looking for space in New Haven to allow us to move out of 1 Long Wharf” as part of a broader effort to get out of rented spaces and into ones it owns, Madden said.
Among those who attended the forum were residents of the Hill neighborhood across town, several of whom complained about the state of the neighborhood around the APT Foundation’s largest facility at 495 Congress Ave. The site has seen issues over the years with litter and loitering, among others.
Madden said she wished she had a better answer for why such problems are seen outside the Congress Avenue facility,
“There’s a lot of density. I also think it’s hard, once people have an opinion,” to change it, Madden said.
“I also think that some people really struggle, and there are people in New Haven who are our patients who hang around,” she said. “Some of them live there” and some don’t, she said.
But “we have continued to really work with the neighborhood there. ... We really want to be part of the solution,” Madden said. “You heard me say that we’ve made a constant effort to reduce the census” on Congress Avenue. The APT Foundation also reorganized all the waiting space in that location so people are waiting inside, not outside, she said.
The proposed Dixwell Avenue facility has more in common with the Congress Avenue facility, which also is on a busline and in the middle of a residential, largely Black and brown, neighborhood, than either do with the West Haven facility on Front Avenue or the North Haven facility on State Street.
Both suburban locations are in largely industrial areas, with a few homes nearby. Patients largely arrive by car.
West Haven and North Haven officials told the New Haven Register that, despite opposition from the public when the APT facilities in their community first were approved, they have seen little or no complaints since they opened.
Madden told people that what is now the Long Wharf facility is by far the smallest of the four methadone clinics APT operates, with a total census of 395 people and an average of about 85 patients per day for all of the facilities’ services, including methadone.
That is not expected to change — and the Newhallville facility largely would be used as office space for APT Foundation’s administration, including about 80 employees, she said.
Many residents, and some leaders, seemed most upset about how they found out about the purchase — from a news account, after the fact.
“Where we’re at really is with a lack of information,” said Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith, D-20, in whose ward the property is located. “So far the APT Foundation has not made a good-faith effort to work with me and the city.” Avshalom-Smith took office Jan. 1.
After hearing that the APT Foundation had in fact spoken to city officials earlier in its quest for a suitable site for the move, some blamed Mayor Justin Elicker’s administration. But Elicker said it wasn’t his choice.
“I know there have been a lot of questions and concern about the APT proposal in the neighborhoods,” he said. “I know it’s important to hear from Lynn and I’m happy to see that she’s here.”
Generally speaking, “We encourage people to reach out early” to neighbors. “Unfortunately that did not happen here,” Elicker said. “... We did encourage APT to do that here but unfortunately that did not happen.”
Nevertheless, “This is a private transaction between two parties,” he said. “APT purchased this property from Achievement First and the city was not involved.”
Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett said she was at the forum to listen.
Madden acknowledged that she had some initial problems getting in touch with the correct alder. She said she initially reached out to Alder Steve Winter, D-21, who she thought was the alder, and later was given a number. She also was given a number to call, but couldn’t reach the alder in question.
At that point in time, former 20th Ward Alder Delphine Clyburn had resigned, there was an interim alder, Oscar Havyarimana and current Avshalom-Smith had not yet taken office. The sale closed on Dec. 15, she said.
Others who attended the meeting included state Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, state Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, state Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker, D-23, Hamden Legislative Council Chairwoman Dominique Baez, D-At Large, and several members of both the city Board of Alders and the Hamden Legislative Council.
“I think the thing that really bothers me” is, “You say you’ve been on Congress Avenue for 21 years?” said Porter. “Well, that’s a scary site.”
She asked how the APT Foundation could not adequately address the issues in 21 years.
Madden said the problem “predates me,” but said, “We have attempted to be good neighbors. We maintain that facility very well. We pick up trash. ... I think the neighborhood is congested. ... I don’t think (its problems) are entirely related to the APT Foundation being there.”
Winfield said he knows the APT Foundation “does good work with the people that it has,” but “this is about when you don’t start off a relationship with the community ... talking to that community.” He said he got the feeling “that it wasn’t important enough to talk to the community.”
Looney said the APT Foundation “should really know how to go about things ... and to proceed without community input always results in opposition. This really is an example how not to go about something,” he said.
Walker said, “It’s not about the agency. It’s about the procedure and the process.” She said she checked with the state Department of Public Health — and spoke to the commissioner — and said “it does need to be authorized from up there.”
“We want to make sure that we are respected in the process,” Walker said.
“My concern was still that this community had not been notified, had not been given the opportunity to weigh in on this,” said Porter.
“I think the other thing is, they haven’t been good neighbors” elsewhere, Porter said. “This is a community that’s already extremely distressed. ... We have enough going on ... and I can tell you that the one thing we don’t need is a methadone clinic.”
But in the two most recent places where the APT Foundation opened methadone clinics, West Haven and North Haven — both of which faced stiff opposition when the foundation went through the zoning process — officials said there have been few, if any, complaints since they opened.
“In the beginning, there was some pushback,” said North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda of the clinic at 352 State St. in that town. “We worked with the APT Foundation to put it in sort of a commercial and industrial district. Occasionally maybe there are some complaints about traffic, but largely, no.
“I think what we see in today’s society — and we see it as chief elected officials, clearly — is that these clinics, they really are part of a tremendous level of service that they offer to people in need,” Freda said. “I know first-hand here in North Haven that that clinic has saved lives.”
The West Haven clinic, at 184 Front Ave., also has had few if any problems, according to the two City Council members whose districts it straddles.
“It’s a beautiful facility and I do not get any complaints about it at all since it’s been there,” said City Councilwoman Robbin Watt Hamilton, D-5. “I think one thing might have come up and they were sensitive to it and they took care of it.”
She didn’t recall the exact nature of that issue, she said.
“But it’s not around other businesses and it’s not around residential,” said Watt, who occasionally drives by the Congress Avenue site and said that one is “a mess.” Watt, who has family members living near the proposed Newhallville location, said, “such a facility does have to be sensitive to its surroundings, and it needs to be put in a place where the need is most.”
West Haven Councilman Mitchell Gallignano said there was plenty of opposition when the proposal first came up in 2015, but “I don’t think, to my knowledge, there’s been one arrest” or major incident there, he said. “Not even the police going there. You don’t hear anything.”
Gallignano said he recognizes the need for treatment and recovery, “but people there that I represent did not want this in their backyard.”
After the approval, however, he had additional conversations with Madden and ended up joining the APT Foundation board of directors, he said. “The APT Foundation does more than just treat addiction. ... They are so good to the community,” Gallignano said.
But in Newhallville, people remain unconvinced.
“I’m less than a mile from this,” said Baez, the Hamden council chairman. “This is my neighborhood. The elected officials on this call, we have listened, and now we are telling you that we do not want this in our neighborhood.”
Resident Dave McKinnie said, “We have multiple schools in this area. We have Eli Whitney and Amistad and Hillhouse. ... We don’t want to have our kids having to interact with people who are going to get treatment.”
Rajeeyah James, who said she is both a homeowner and a substance abuse counselor, said, “It shouldn’t just be everything coming to New Haven. ... Why can’t we build something in Westport or Norwich? ... I think we really need to push the issue. ... Things need to change.”
mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
Mark Zaretsky, a Chicago native and longtime New Haven resident, is an award-winning reporter and music writer for the New Haven Register and Hearst Connecticut Media. His beats include East Haven and Branford, regional issues and occasional blues and roots music stories. He also makes a point of knowing where all the good ethnic and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, bars and bakeries are -- and is an unapologetic Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls fan. In addition to his work as a journalist, Zaretsky is a front man for The Cobalt Rhythm Kings and The Chicago Dawgs and occasionally performs with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Mark Naftalin and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
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