A new residential development promising to offset air pollution and offer affordable units is now ready for tenants in New Haven.

State and local officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Valley Townhomes on Valley Street. The townhomes are carbon neutral, meaning they offset greenhouse gas emissions.

The project is managed by a private and public partnership between the city public housing authority and developer, the Glendower Group.

Senator Richard Blumenthal attended the ribbon cutting and said the townhomes will help alleviate an affordable housing shortage.

“It’s really 21st century affordable housing and built not just for today, but for decades to come,” Blumenthal said.

The townhomes consist of 40 units. Four of them are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Thirty-two of the units, a mix between two, three and four bedroom homes, are considered affordable.Utilities are included with rent.

Yadira Vargas, a project manager with the Glendower Group and Elm City Communities, the city’s housing authority, says the rent for affordable units are income based.

“It’s always 30% of their income. So for every resident it’s different,” Vargas said.

The project broke ground in 2023 and came as the city promised to do more to increase affordability for residents. The initiative came as housing and rental prices increased during the pandemic, reversing years of increasing affordability, per previous reporting by Connecticut Public.

But according to Karen DuBois-Walton, the executive director of Elm City Communities, the city’s housing authority, around 40,000 people are now on a waiting list for affordable housing.

Dubois-Walton said more needs to be done, and highlighted several projects underway.

“We think the solution to the rising rents is to bring more inventory online,” DuBois-Walton said.

Tenants of the new Valley Townhomes are fortunate in that their rents are capped, and utilities are included which will be manageable due to energy efficient HVAC systems installed in each unit. All of the units, Vargas said, have since been rented out.

Tenants walked around the new units, and Vargas spoke by a playground, located by the offices. It means a lot to residents which existed for years on what used to be public housing where many of them once lived.

So it stays, she said.

“This was built by the residents themselves so we felt it was important to keep,” Vargas said.