Back to News

Class Assignment in Affordable Housing Now Under Construction

5 people standing in winter coats holding shovels at a groundbreaking
Clinical Professor Anika Singh Lemar (right) at the Dec. 2 groundbreaking of new housing in New Haven.

Houses conceived by law, management, and architecture students in a course on affordable housing just two years ago are now under construction in New Haven.

Partners who helped bring the four new two-family houses to fruition celebrated groundbreaking in the city’s Newhallville neighborhood on Dec. 2. Yale Law School Clinical Professor of Law Anika Singh Lemar, who co-taught the interdisciplinary clinic that led to the new houses, was on hand for the event.

The houses are the product of the course assignment in Housing Connecticut: Developing Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods, first offered in 2022. The first-of-its-kind course was co-taught by faculty from Yale Law School, Yale School of Architecture and Yale School of Management and organized by the Yale Urban Design Workshop. 

Students from the three schools were charged with creating detailed development proposals anchored in affordable housing while also considering other community needs. Students worked in teams with local nonprofit housing developers with the ultimate goal of getting their proposals built. The state of Connecticut, seeking new ways to address the state’s urgent need for affordable housing, committed funding for proposals deemed feasible. The state’s involvement created the opportunity to bring projects to life on a faster timeline than usual for housing developments.

A rendering of a series of two-story houses along a city street
A rendering of the houses, which are expected to be completed summer.

Local nonprofit housing developer Neighborhood Housing Services will sell the houses now being built to four families, who have already been selected. The new homeowners will be able to rent the second apartment in their houses, creating affordable homes for four more families. Construction is expected to take six to eight months, according to the nonprofit.

The course, which won a design education award last year, was offered as a three-year pilot with funding from Yale Law School’s SNF Fund for the Integration of Theory and Practice. After the first year, students worked with community organizations in towns beyond New Haven.

Those involved in the project since its inception include Natalie Smith ’23 and Nketiah Berkom ’23, members of the inaugural class of Housing Connecticut; Jungi Hong and Charlie Scharf, summer 2023 interns in the Community and Economic Development Clinic; and clinic members Dima Balut ’26, Sam Haddad ’26, and Ross Puritty ’26.