Photo by Lester Smith
Jack Muska, a consultant to the Public Works Department who supervised the project, describes recent improvements in the Suffield Housing units to visiting officials. From the Left: Suffield Housing Authority Executive Director Debbie Krut, State Representative Tami Zawistowski, Selectman Krystal Holmes, Selectman Joanne Sullivan, First Selectman Melissa Mack, Connecticut Commissioner of the Department of Housing Evonne Klein.
Evonne Klein, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Housing, visited Suffield with a small entourage on September 27 to view the improvements recently completed at the town’s public housing – the 70 apartment units comprising Maple Court, Laurel Court and Broder Place. They were greeted in the Maple Court community room by a number of Suffield officials, who escorted the commissioner on a brief tour of the facilities. Lunch at the Suffield Senior Center followed. It was a happy event.
The work was supported by $800,000 given to Suffield two years ago by the State from a U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Small Cities Community Development Block Grant that included 24 Connecticut communities.
Included in Suffield were repaving the driveways and parking areas, the conversion of two units to become handicapped accessible, accessibility improvements in the community room bathrooms, and new roofs on all the buildings at Laurel Court and Broder Place. (Maple Court, the oldest of the three, had been reroofed in 2013.) Other improvements were energy-efficient windows in Broder Place, energy-efficient doors replacing old, cracked wooden doors, updated kitchens, and gutter and siding improvements.
The apartment units are managed by the Suffield Housing Authority; they are available to elderly (62 or older) and/or handicapped Connecticut residents capable of independent living. Income limits determine monthly rent, reviewed annually. The 20 units at Maple Court, Suffield’s first such housing, were opened in 1962; 20 at Laurel Court and 30 at Broder Place were opened in 1971 and 1988 respectively. Executive Director Debbie Krut advises that there is currently a waiting list of 30 names.