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05/15/2024 08:30 AMHope, of course, springs eternal. The HOPE Partnership has been around for 20 years, and the non-profit organization has built up an impressive record of accomplishments during that time. HOPE is marking its 20th anniversary with a celebration at The Kate in Old Saybrook on Monday, June 3 at 5:30 p.m.
The evening will include music provided by a duo from the Community Music School in Centerbrook and hors d’oeuvres from Coffees Country Market in Old Lyme.
According to Executive Director Karla Lindquist, The HOPE Partnership creates affordable housing for people living and working in Southern Middlesex County.
“The biggest issue in real estate in Connecticut is the wildness of prices to purchase or to rent single-family homes, both for people on their own and for families,” Karla says. “There are far more people looking than there are homes available. A lot of people who have not changed housing in many years have no idea what it costs to rent or buy.”
Karla emphasizes that housing is about much more than roofs over heads. Housing, she points out, involves the entire community.
“It touches everyone. It reflects what kind of folks can live in a community, what the economy and the culture of the community will be,” Karla says.
Rent for the affordable housing provided by the HOPE Partnership depends on the income of the applicant relative to the median income of the town’s residents. Karla makes a point that takes a listener back to middle school math class in that mean and median are not the same thing. Median is simply the middle value.
“It’s dead center,” Karla says.
Mean, on the other hand, is the average.
“If we used the average, the figure would be too high because there is such wealth in these towns,” Karla explains.
So far, the HOPE Partnership has completed two projects: Ferry Crossing in Old Saybrook and the lofts at Spencer’s Corner in Essex.
Currently, the group is involved in a new project in Madison called Wellington, where four units have already been completed and occupied, and plans have been approved for a total construction of some 31 units in all.
“It’s by Cohen’s Bagels,” Karla says, giving both a gastronomic and geographical reference.
The financing for HOPE’s projects has come from local businesses, individuals, and some church groups.
The architectural goal of the HOPE projects is to capture the feel and atmosphere of the areas in which they are built. Karla notes that Ferry Crossing consists of “substantial town houses,” and she describes the lofts at Spencer’s Corner as “a place where anybody would want to live.”
HOPE had its beginnings in 2004 with a group of ministers in Old Saybrook, among them Les Swenson, who was then the pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church.
“They saw people, families, living in motels and saw it was an issue, a public issue, and no one was talking about housing then, and that’s how things began,” Karla says. “Today, people have more understanding of the issue.”
Karla, who grew up in New Hartford, knew she was interested in a career that involved public policy, but she also knew that she was not interested in elective office. She had some personal experience. Karla’s grandmother, Beatrice Murdock France, was both first selectman of Avon and a state representative.
“I realized early on I did not have thick enough skin for elective office,” Karla says.
Karla graduated from the University of Vermont in 2011 with a degree in political science and history. To earn pocket money while in college, she taught both voice and piano at a local music school. She had sung in an auditioned children’s group, Chorus Angelicus, for five years as a child and had taken piano from the age of 5 to when she was 17.
Still, despite her experience, Karla has a disclaimer.
“Music really does not come naturally to me, nor does music theory,” she says.
Karla earned her master’s in public policy at Southern Connecticut State University in 2013 and had a public policy fellowship at the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development in 2014-’15. She was deputy director and then interim director of the City of New Haven’s Department of Transportation.
When she started the job, Karla thought it would be more about the general issues involved in transportation. What she learned was something else.
“I never thought so much about parking in my life, and I never want to think that much about it again,” she says.
Karla and her husband relocated from New Haven to the shoreline in 2020. With three small children ages 7, 6, and 2, her schedule now demands the balancing that is a frequent part of the lives of young parents.
“A definite juggling act,” she says.
As she looks forward to the path her career will take, Karla wants to keep an open mind.
“I want to let my career go as it goes,” says Karla. “I am opposed to being prescriptive about what I want, but I know it will be in the public sector.”
Yes, people still ask Karla about where to park in New Haven, but she has a standard answer.
“I tell them to take the train. Take Shoreline East and get off at State Street,” Karla says.