Hartford using $16.5M to try and reduce juvenile crime, boost home ownership

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Hartford leaders announced Thursday that the city plans to invest $16.5 million into neighborhood and community youth programs that seek to reduce crime.

“We won’t have all these guns killing, we won’t have all this, because, you know, we are saying to them, ‘We are prioritizing you, you are our future,'” Hartford City Council President Shirley Surgeon said.

Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said that $5 million will go to a children and youth investment fund, and the other $11.5 million will be for the neighborhood investment fund that targets housing and business development.

Arulampalam said that the money is desperately needed along streets like upper Main, Albany and the south end, where he said 40% of businesses are empty.

Some of the funds will also go toward boosting home ownership.

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