Housing authority gets grant

0
672
Oak Terrace on Conrad Street, a 194-unit senior and disabled housing complex in Naugatuck, was awarded a $3.7 million grant for upgrades. –RA ARCHIVE
Oak Terrace on Conrad Street, a 194-unit senior and disabled housing complex in Naugatuck, was awarded a $3.7 million grant for upgrades. –RA ARCHIVE

NAUGATUCK — The Oak Terrace apartment complex will receive some upgrades with the help of the state.

Oak Terrace, a public housing complex located off Conrad Street, was awarded a grant for approximately $3.7 million as part of the state’s 10-year $300 million State-Sponsored Housing Portfolio Revitalization Initiative.

“We are very, very excited, about this grant,” Naugatuck Housing Authority Executive Director Christine Warren said.

Warren said the housing authority will use the money to re-modernize the 194 units at Oak Terrace. This includes updating the electrical work throughout the apartments, installing new cabinets and counters in the kitchens, and removing the glue that contains asbestos on the floor tiles.

In addition to the work inside the units the housing authority will also fix the sidewalks throughout the complex, repave areas and upgrade the sewer lines, Warren said.

The housing authority upgraded 10 of the apartments last year to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Warren said those units will likely only have their electrical upgraded this time.

As the units are being worked on, she said, the tenants will have to be relocated to other apartments.

“In anticipation of this grant we’ve kept 10 to 12 units vacant. We’ll be able to use units for relocation units,” Warren said.

The housing authority has to put in $500,000 of its own money for the upgrades, Warren said.

Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a press release the grant program was started to help residents and the state’s economy.

“My administration has made increasing the availability of affordable housing a key component of our strategy to jumpstart Connecticut’s economy, because more housing means more jobs, revenue, and business activity,” Malloy said. “We have started implementing a detailed plan for the next 10 years that recommends priorities and plots out capital investments to revitalize some of the state’s existing affordable housing and make the properties sustainable for the long term.”

Warren said the housing authority will go out to bid on the work early next year. She was unsure how long the project would take, but said it could take up to a little over a year to be complete.

This grant comes on the heels of a $250,000 grant the housing authority received last year that went toward architectural design and materials testing for the upgrades.

“We’re pretty much lined up and ready to go,” Warren said.