730 George on Friday. More than 100 renters — including Sayed Hamdard, his wife, and their four kids — will have to leave a 58-unit apartment complex on George Street later this year, as their nonprofit landlord moves forward with plans to demolish the structure before building a new 81-unit redevelopment in its stead. “It’s sad,” Hamdard said on Friday about the prospect of leaving, if only temporarily, the building his family has called home since 2019. Especially “when you’ve been in one place” for so long. According to representatives from the property’s landlord, NeighborWorks New Horizons, all of 730 George St.’s current tenants will have the right to return to the new complex once it’s built and open. Dwight and West River neighbors heard updates about the 730 George rebuild and relocation process Tuesday night during the first monthly online Dwight Community Management Team (CMT) meeting of 2026. The meeting took place roughly a month after Aaron Hoffmann, the director of real estate development for NeighborWorks, presented to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) a request for a height-related variance designed to make this 730 redevelopment possible. (The BZA unanimously approved the request.) Tom Cruess, president and CEO of NeighborWorks, presented the plan for 730 George’s reconstruction to the Dwight CMT Tuesday. NeighborWorks has owned the 730 George St. property since the 1990s. Cruess said that due to the major disrepair of the building, NeighborWorks has decided to tear down and rebuild the apartments rather than renovate them. An example of that disrepair is water infiltration, stemming from the building’s original construction, requiring the nonprofit to take some units off-line. The new building will remain six stories tall, though the number of units will increase from 58 to 81. The new construction will preserve the affordability mix of the existing 58 apartments, and the new units will be a mix of affordable and market-rate. “Is that building empty?” Dwight resident Sheila Shanklin asked about the still-standing complex. Cruess said that it isn’t empty, but that it has a high vacancy rate that has risen over the last few years as NeighborWorks has communicated the reconstruction plan to tenants. According to a follow-up interview with Hoffmann, 115 tenants currently live at 730 George St. He declined to state the exact vacancy rate. Cruess said that the nonprofit will start to relocate tenants to other properties in the NeighborWorks portfolio likely at the end of 2026. NeighborWorks will apply for funding in March, and that money will also cover relocation costs when the process formally begins. Tenants can opt to move now or sooner than the end of the year, even if their leases aren’t up yet, and NeighborWorks will relocate them to another one of their properties and transfer their lease over. If tenants move before the formal relocation process begins, NeighborWorks won’t be able to pay for the cost of the move. “The goal would be that anyone living there or who has been there in the past will be able to come back,” Cruess said, after construction finishes, which is expected to be some time in 2028. The majority of the NeighborWorks properties where 730 George tenants might be able to move to are in New Haven, but the nonprofit also has properties in Bridgeport and up the shoreline to the border with Rhode Island. In an interview with the Independent on Friday, Juan Figueroa — who lives in a market-rate, four-bedroom unit with his family at 730 George — said that the reconstruction and move made for an “unfortunate situation.” He also said that the building has suffered from a lack of long-term maintenance. Figueroa said that he and his family are in the process of moving out of 730 George. Rather than use the help of NeighborWorks, they’re looking to buy a house close to the Walmart on Foxon Boulevard. “We wanted to have our own home,” Figueroa said. He said that many of the neighbors he knows in the building are hoping to buy their own homes. Figueroa said that he hadn’t known that tenants would have the right to return to the rebuilt complex. A couple from Afghanistan, who asked to remain anonymous, said that they have lived in the building for almost six years. They have two kids. They took issue with what they described as a lack of security at 730 George. They said they see homeless people sleeping in the elevators. “[We’re] gonna stay here for now,” said the husband, until they’re forced to move. “I’d like to move somewhere, but it’s hard to find somewhere with my low income.” “For staffing, we have a full time custodian at the property as well as a Maintenance Tech who is also a resident,” Hoffmann said in an email statement provided to the Independent in response to tenant concerns around safety on the premises. “They are both tasked (in addition to their normal job responsibilities) with keeping an eye out to make sure that doors are not propped open and that no one who is not supposed to be on the property is there. We have also reached out to residents and encouraged them to report any unauthorized individuals immediately to the police.” Hamdard, meanwhile, hadn’t known of the construction plans for the building but did know that his family would have to move. The family — made up of Hamdard, his wife, and his four kids — lives in a two-bedroom affordable unit. He said they pay $795 a month in rent. Hamdard and his family moved to the New Haven from Afghanistan in 2016, with relocation help from Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS). They lived on Rosette Street until 2019, when they moved to 730 George. “We are excited to see if they rebuild,” he said. They like living in the building, but they liked it more before, when Hamdard said it was “secure.” As tenants have left the building, Hamdard said he has seen an increase in homeless people coming by, entering the building, and using drugs on the premises. He also recalled the murder of 25-year-old Christopher Santana in the building’s parking lot in December 2024. “If it’s secure,” he said of the building after reconstruction, “we will come back.” Hamdard asked for his family to be moved to another NeighborWorks property after someone he described as a homeless woman continued to knock on his family’s door and offer to sell them items. In November, he called police, who then arrested her. “My kids don’t feel safe,” he said. He then made the request — and asked for a three-bedroom unit, as his kids are getting older and need more space. (Their ages are 13, 10, 7, and 2 years old.) He’s waiting to see what happens. “It’s a nice place because you’re close to downtown, stores, Stop Shop,” Hamdard said. Two of his kids attend the nearby Barnard School and love it. All three of the units above his are occupied by Afghan families, and he said in the summer, the women sit together on the porch and the kids play in the grass. Hamdard will have to see where he ends up to know if his kids will continue to be able to attend their current schools. (His oldest daughter attends ESUMS.) “I’d love my kids to stay in magnet schools,” he said. A memorial was held last month in the parking lot for the anniversary of the shooting of Christopher Santana. The post 115 Tenants Remain At Complex Eyed For Teardown, Buildup appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less