A Corner For Reverend Grubbs

Rev. Bonita Grubbs speaking at a vigil for the Diyanet Mosque in 2019, after alleged arson destroyed part of the building during Ramadan. Lucy Gellman File Photo.

A longtime anti-poverty crusader and champion of mothers, children, and the right to safe and affordable housing is getting her due in a neighborhood that she helped nurture for three and a half decades—even if it's not over the finish line quite yet.

That crusader is Rev. Bonita Grubbs, who led Christian Community Action (CCA) for 35 years before her retirement last year. One year after stepping down, she is on track to have a corner renamed in her honor in the city's Hill neighborhood, at the southeast corner of Davenport Avenue and Ward Street. Last Thursday night, the New Haven Board of Alders' City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee voted favorably on the measure, which will now go back to the full Board of Alders for a vote. 

It is expected to pass; Grubbs is deeply and universally beloved in the city and the state, where her footprint radiates from the Hill to Newhallville to Hartford and back.

"Reverend Grubbs has been the voice of hope and an instrument of good trouble," said Shellina Toure, director of housing and resident service at CCA. "No doubt through Reverend Grubbs' work, her staff, and programs, countless lives have been made better."

Grubbs, who grew up in Hartford and began her tenure at CCA in 1988, has made that advocacy and compassion a core part of her life and work in New Haven. After moving to the Elm City for her academic studies—she holds degrees from both the Yale Divinity School and the Yale School of Public Health—she chose to stay, steadily growing CCA's footprint in the community. On Davenport Avenue, she oversaw the growth and flourishing of the Hillside Family Shelter, which provides emergency housing to families that find themselves homeless, including mothers and children fleeing domestic violence. 

Katherine Tombaugh, artist Kwadwo Adae, Rev. Bonita Grubbs (who was then still leading CCA), and Kwasi Adae at the 2022 unveiling of a mural at the Hillside Family Shelter. Lucy Gellman File Photo.

The longer she stayed at CCA, the deeper her reach became. In 1993, Rev. Grubbs founded Mothers and Others for Justice, which has become a locomotive for grassroots change and advocacy in the city and the state. She expanded CCA's capacity for emergency food, housing, and utilities, adding the ARISE (Accessing Resources for Independence, Skill-Building and Employment) Center to the organization's work in 2015. Two years before her retirement in 2022, she cut the ribbon on the New H.O.P.E (Higher Opportunities, Purpose, and Expectations) transitional housing program, a collaboration with the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH). 

As she led, she brought her expertise in health and housing—and making good trouble—to everything she did. She pushed for dialogue and action over partisan politics and agendas. She summoned beauty in the midst of traumatic and transitional life moments, from public art in the Hill to a playground at New H.O.P.E., erected in memory of the late Kathy Carroll. She championed interfaith bridge-building and spoke passionately on behalf of fellow community members, including Muslim neighbors at the Diyanet Mosque of New Haven after alleged arson damaged significant portions of the building. 

She has done it all with a kind of quiet, behind-the-scenes grace, eschewing the spotlight where and when she could. And yet, her name has been spoken—often with reverence—on city buses and frantic 2-1-1 phone calls, in houses of worship and houses that provide a safe haven to families, in legislative chambers from City Hall to the State Capitol in Hartford. 

And it was Thursday night, as both alders and members of the public took a moment to recognize the vast imprint that she has had on New Haven. 

Hubbard and Toure at the CSEP meeting last week. Lucy Gellman Photo. 

Hill Alder Angel Hubbard, who wrote a letter in support of the naming, cheered on the CSEP committee during the public testimony portion of the night. Calling Grubbs "a great pillar of our community," Hubbard recognized her work in the neighborhood and New Haven more broadly, suggesting that a corner was the least the city could do to recognize one of its greatest advocates.

"If it could be part of the state, it would be that," she said with a soft, warm smile. As a representative of the Hill—before she was an alder, she was a Democratic Party ward co-chair—she's spent years directing people to CCA when they ask for social service providers.  

"That was easy!" she later said of writing a letter of support. "I feel like something like this should have been done for her a long time ago."

CSEP Committee members echoed that feeling. Fellow Hill Alder Kampton Singh, who has seen the impact of CCA on the neighborhood, said he's excited to see the corner named in Grubbs' honor. After several years sitting on CSEP, "I can truly say that this is one street ... that deserves the name, the corner."  

"I'll just say that Reverend Bonita Grubbs has been a presence even in this room, she's come before the Board of Alders a few times," said CSEP Chair and East Rock Alder Anna Festa. "She's an amazing community activist. I know she retired, but I'm not sure how much of a retirement she'll have because she's so embedded in the community ... this is very well deserved."

"I've had the privilege of knowing and working with Rev. Grubbs for many years and she is truly an extraordinary human being," added Westville Alder Amy Marx. "She is a New Haven treasure and, I think, a role model and a hero to many of us. She is a fierce advocate with an unbreakable spirit, combined with an unbelievable warmth, kindness, and compassion, she is extraordinary." 

The proposed renaming will now go on to the city’s full Board of Alders, which next meets Dec. 16 in the aldermanic chambers at New Haven City Hall.