NASHUA – In Mayor Donnalee Lozeau’s vision for the city, it’s not a matter of if the Bronstein Apartments will be demolished, but when.

Lozeau and the Nashua Housing Authority are moving forward with a proposal to demolish the public housing complex, which has been home to some of the city’s most impoverished residents since 1974.

During an interview with The Telegraph’s editorial board Thursday, Lozeau said removing the complex is part of her “perfect world.”

“I envision them being gone,” Lozeau said of the 49 Nashua Housing Authority-owned units located on Myrtle, Central and Pine streets. “I envision relocating the residents that live in those units into our community, where we have other housing opportunities available.”

Doing so would provide the chance for residents to live among with those with higher incomes, as opposed to feeling defined by their income level by living grouped together, Lozeau said.

The practice of warehousing poor people into complexes needs to end, she said.

Working with the residents to relocate and tearing down the complex is a step in that direction, she added.

With the complex gone, Lozeau would want to see a two-lane roadway through East and West Pearl streets, green space, and a gateway to downtown Nashua.

A group of people are looking at how that might be possible, Lozeau said.

Still to be involved in those discussions are the residents.

Lozeau said the city has met with apartment stakeholders, the Nashua Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about the plans and hopes to meet with residents in the coming weeks.

Lozeau said the city first needs to get over the “early hurdles,” such as determining the needs of the Bronstein residents and Housing Authority, as well as HUD’s requirements.

As of Thursday, however, the city had yet to met with residents to discuss the demolition plans, Lozeau said.

“It was probably a mistake for me to talk about it quite so publicly today, because I think they should have the opportunity to have that conversation,” Lozeau said.

Lozeau emphasized that the plans for the apartment demolition are still in its very primary stages.

“I know that we’ve got a circumstance there where we could change people’s quality of life and transform that neighborhood and have such a positive impact for everybody involved,” Lozeau said. “Now, the job is finding out how we do it.”

Moving the plan forward

In November, the mayor and Housing Authority officials first met with HUD about the demolition of Bronstein Apartments, according to Rhonda Siciliano, public affairs officer for HUD’s New England Region.

The first step in the process is for the city to submit a demolition disposition plan to HUD, laying out their proposal, including how or where residents will be relocated, for HUD’s review and approval, Siciliano said.

“If they’re looking at demolishing it, there’s a whole process involved with this,” Siciliano said. “It’s not an overnight process.”

Longtime Housing Authority Commissioner Tom Monahan said the department had been looking for ways to relocate the 160 low-income residents who live at the Bronstein units for more than 10 years.

“These are the very poor people,” Monahan said. “Some are not working, some are single parents. These are the people that are in dire need of help.”

Monahan agreed with Lozeau that dispersing the residents throughout the city could be beneficial.

“If we can spread them throughout the city and neighborhoods, they’ll realize that there’s an opportunity to get out of ‘the projects’ if you will,” he said.

Monahan said the Housing Authority and the mayor have been meeting in recent days in the hopes of formalizing an approach to the plans.

“I would say in three to four months the plan will be available for the public purview,” Monahan said. “It would be a plan that could at least be brought to the public to see how the city likes it, HUD likes it and the residents like it.”

Monahan estimated that demolition likely would not happen this year.

“I would hope that next year, at this time, we’ve made significant progress,” Lozeau said. “That could include that we’ve already relocated people and we’ve made headway on the site.”

Neighborhood watch

The Bronstein Apartments were put into place as part of an urban renewal development in the 1960s, Monahan said.

“Looking at the development now, you see a fence around Bronstein and you wonder if it’s to prevent people from coming in or going out,” he said.

Low-income families began moving into the $12 million complex in the Myrtle Street area in 1974. They were named for Housing Authority Commissioner Samuel P. Bronstein.

The Housing Authority currently aids Bronstein Apartment residents on rent payments depending on their income, Monahan said.

Today, the minimum income of a Bronstein resident is approximately 20 percent of the median income, Monahan said, about $10,000.

HUD requires cities to consult residents when their housing is to be demolished and to provide for them in demolition plans are approved.

The Housing Authority is in the process of pursuing vouchers to aid relocating families if the Bronstein Apartments are ultimately demolished, Monahan said.

“The ideal scenario, and what we’re going to fight for, is for 49 families, 49 section 8 vouchers,” Monahan said. “They can move into any apartment in any section of Nashua if they can afford the rent space.”

Lozeau said the city wanted to weigh the alternatives available for relocating residents before approaching them about the demolition proposal.

Today, approximately 160 people live in Bronstein Apartments’ two- to five-bedroom units, which are located in Nashua’s Ward 4. Some of the apartments are “undercrowded,” according to Ward 4 Alderman Arthur Craffey, because families that require two-bedroom apartments may only find five-bedroom apartments available to them.

Craffey said he had not spoken to or heard from residents about the demolition under discussion for his ward. On Thursday, he said he was also unaware of the city’s plans to meet with residents on the topic soon.

“The mayor and I have spoken about this before, so it’s not catching me by surprise,” Craffey said. “I didn’t know she was going forward with this as quickly as she was.”

During the interview with The Telegraph’s board, Lozeau indicated that a variety of choices will be available to people if they do have to relocate.

“It doesn’t mean (we) go to Bronstein and say, ‘Hey, all you poor people, you’re evicted,’” Lozeau said. “It’s about going to Bronstein and talking to those residents. ‘What would you like?’ There are some residents over the years, when they’ve talked to them, that are interested in going home. That might be someplace that is not Nashua.”

Some residents might be interested in living in French Hill, and others might be interested in owning their own homes, she said.

“We need to look at them as individuals, and we need to take into the circumstances of their life and help them to improve the quality of their life,” she said.

The long-term view

Talk of demolishing the Bronstein Apartments is nothing new.

While it has been a Housing Authority effort for years, Lozeau said plans for the apartments had been discussed publicly before with the city’s infrastructure committee and some members of the Board of Aldermen surrounding the move of the neighboring district court.

“Conversations with the residents will take place, and we’ll see how that goes, and as that goes it will become more public,” Lozeau said.

Monahan credited the mayor for “coming to the table” on the project.

“I certainly think that the Broad Street Parkway has put an impetus on the city to work with everybody,” Monahan said. “Ever since Donnalee’s come on board, she’s sort of been at the hub of all the negotiations.”

The parkway, which will bring a new roadway through the Nashua Millyard by 2014, includes a two-lane roadway that will start on Broad Street, provide a third crossing of the Nashua River, and end in the Millyard and Tree Streets neighborhood.

Lozeau said there are no official plans for the 4.3 acre site occupied by the Bronstein Apartments, but the hope is to use it in her efforts to open the backside of downtown.

“The Broad Street Parkway plan is linked, because it goes right by the apartments,” Lozeau said. “The courtyard is kind of another potential opportunity now that it’s a vacant building.”

Ultimately, Lozeau suggested, a variety of uses could be possible for the area, including a public health building, a new location for the Police Athletic League or a community center.

Mark Cookson, Alderman-at-Large and Infrastructure Committee chair, said Lozeau first introduced Bronstein’s potential demolition to the committee in fall 2011, during their conversation about the move of Nashua’s district court.

Cookson said the mayor had yet to propose the topic again for future committee meetings.

“Other things have to happen before it comes to us,” Cookson said.

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashuatelgraph.com. Follow Gill on Twitter (@Telegraph_MAG).