Yale University is New Haven’s largest employer with nearly 14,000 faculty and staff. Yale employs nearly 6,000 New Haven residents.
Yale University pays taxes and is currently one of the top 3 taxpayers in New Haven. Every non-profit university in the nation is exempt from paying taxes on their academic property. But, through its community investment program that redevelops nearby property, Yale pays real estate taxes – over $5 million this year – on all of our non-academic property.
Yale University made a new six-year, $135m voluntary payment commitment to the City of New Haven - an amount unprecedented nationally. This pledge includes establishing a new Center for Inclusive Growth at Yale, focused on creating and implementing economic strategies that benefit all New Haven residents.
The University supports local youth, including being the primary donor for scholarships offered by New Haven Promise. Through Promise, Yale provides up to $5 million per year for city residents who graduate from a New Haven public school and attend college in Connecticut. Yale recently launched the James W.C. Pennington Fellowship for local students, which awards up to $20,000 for tuition and fees per year for four years to attend HBCUs. Yale also hosts New Haven Promise scholars in summer internships across the university. Additionally, Yale dedicates several million dollars each year of resources toward programs for young people in New Haven and the region. Each year more than 10,000 public school children participate in academic and social development programs sponsored by Yale on the campus. This includes Yale’s free Pathways to Science program, which gives New Haven students the opportunity to gain behind-the-scenes access to science laboratories and explor first-hand the new frontiers of scientific research; and Yale’s Pathways to Arts and Humanities program, which provides a wide variety of unified arts and humanities programs for New Haven students free of charge. The Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre host the Dwight/Edgewood Project, an afterschool program that teaches middle school students to write and stage original plays under the guidance of Yale School of Drama
Yale University provides jobs for the community. The University is one of the founding partners of New Haven Works, a jobs pipeline for New Haven residents, and continues to be its largest employer. In addition, Yale University’s New Haven Hiring Initiative (NHHI) supports New Haven’s economic growth by connecting qualified New Haven residents to open positions at the University. The NHHI program is a joint initiative sponsored by Yale University’s Human Resources and Administration and the Yale Office of New Haven Affairs. In addition to its employee base, Yale monitors work hours allocated to New Haven residents on each of its major construction projects and works closely with its contractors to meet and exceed targeted goals. Over the past decade, Yale research has contributed to a growing cluster of spin-off companies in the greater New Haven area, generating dozens of business ventures.
Yale University contributes to the revitalization of neighborhoods. Yale committed funds to the restoration of Scantlebury Park, the Farmington Canal, and the improvements of streetscapes and creation of pedestrian and bike paths. Yale’s commitment to Science Park has contributed to the success of the revitalization of the Winchester area. The Dixwell-Yale Community Learning Center Rose Center (DYCLC), which was built and is run by Yale, is open to the community.
The Yale University Homebuyer Program strengthens the tax base and has committed over $35m in funds to assist over 1,300 employees in their purchase of homes in New Haven with a total value of approximately $268 million. Neighborhoods that benefit from the Yale University Homebuyer Program include West Rock, Beaver Hills, Newhallville, Dixwell, Dwight, Hill, and Fair Haven, amongst others.
The University provides cultural resources for the community. Yale’s museums, exhibition spaces, concerts and theatre productions are generally open to the public and many programs are free of charge. The Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library offer free admission, as will the Peabody Museum of Natural History once its extensive renovation is completed in 2024.
Yale University fosters economic development in New Haven. Since 1990, in addition to its homebuyer program, Yale has contributed over $40 million to economic development initiatives including providing funds to the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven, Start Community Bank, Science Park, and our Broadway and Chapel Street community investment programs.
Yale University’s Community Investment Program contributes to the vibrancy of downtown New Haven by supporting local retail merchants. Yale also recently announced a new initiative to support and expand innovation and entrepreneurship across the university and in New Haven.
Yale Ventures, consisting of Intellectual Property and Licensing Services (tech transfer), Innovation Training and Startups, Corporate Partnerships and an Innovation Community team, intends to play a key role in making New Haven a globally recognized hub of innovation. Yale has already achieved marked success in the innovation and entrepreneurship space. In 2021, 11 startups spun out of Yale with $53.3 million raised in new venture financing. A record-breaking five IPOs occurred in the past five years for Yale spinouts Arvinas, BioHaven, Inozyme, NextCure, and IsoPlexis.
Yale has worked with local developers to allow for the development of office projects such as 100 College Street. Yale’s initial commitment to lease space at 100 College Street led to the development of that 500,000 sq. ft. office tower. The tower now serves as a centerpiece of New Haven’s Downtown Crossing urban revitalization initiative, a plan to transform the former Route 34 corridor to city streets. Yale also enabled 101 College Street, an under-construction biotech project, by agreeing to lease approximately 165,000 sq. ft. in the building and to provide financial support for a 50,000 sq. ft. BioLabs incubator which will be housed there. The development of 101 College Street is expected to lead to the creation of roughly construction 1,000 jobs as well as approximately 800 permanent jobs and generate more than $250 million in wages.
Yale University supports the local community with its resources. The university moved quickly to create the Yale Community for New Haven Fund, established to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and distributed approximately $3 million to nearly 200 local nonprofits to support New Haven residents negatively impacted by the pandemic. Yale University Medical School physicians provide over $12 million per year in free care to the local community. (Yale New Haven Hospital also provides significant uncompensated care but it is a separate entity from Yale University with its own independent management). The Yale Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization offers free legal assistance to organizations that cannot afford to retain private counsel. Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative’s (URI) GreenSkills program employs local high school students and adults with employment barriers through the planting of trees and free installation of bioswales–sidewalk gardens that are optimized for storm water retention. URI recently celebrated planting 10,000 trees throughout New Haven, and continues to provide free street trees for New Haven residents. URI also partners with neighborhood groups throughout the city to create urban greenspaces for everyone to enjoy. The Yale Center for Clinical Investigation works with the community to seek solutions to local health questions. The Yale School of Public Health’s Mental Health Outreach for Mothers (MOMs) partnership provides mental health, parenting, and job-readiness programs to low-income single mothers in New Haven. Since 1886, Yale University’s Dwight Hall has supported thousands of Yale students as they provided free program to local residents, including tutoring, mentoring, free tax preparation, ESL classes, and food pantry services. The Yale School of Architecture’s Jim Vlock First-Year Student building project has designed and built over 50 homes for New Haven families formerly experiencing homelessness.