Western Connecticut Council of Governments (WestCOG) hosted three virtual public meetings March 30 through April 1 to present an overview of its draft Western Connecticut Regional Affordable Housing Plan. The public was invited to voice their comments and questions as well.

WestCOG Planner Kristin Floberg started off the discussion by giving background on the affordable housing plan.

“In 2017, the Connecticut State Legislature passed Public Act 17-170, which requires each municipality in the state to prepare and adopt an affordable housing plan for the municipality,” she said.

WestCOG assists municipalities in creating those affordable housing plans. She noted that those plans must be done every five years with the first due by June 1, 2022.

“The only thing in the statutes that states what a municipal affordable housing plan should include is that it should specify how the municipality intends to increase the number of affordable housing developments in the municipality over that five-year period,” Floberg said.

Affordable housing is generally defined as housing that costs less than 30% of a household’s income. Yet, about a third of households in Western Connecticut pay 30% or more of their income on housing.

Floberg said there are two different categories that qualify as an affordable development under Connecticut General Statutes 8-30g. Her slide detailed those two types to be:

*Assisted Housing — receiving financial assistance under any governmental program for construction or rehab of low- or moderate-income housing, or housing occupants receiving rental assistance under USC. [United States Code]

*Set-Aside Development — otherwise known as ‘deed restricted’ — a development where at least 30% of the units are deed restricted as affordable for at least 40 years. For tenants making 80% of the state or area median income, whichever is less.

Floberg added that the Connecticut General Statutes 8-30g also “requires 10% of housing stock to qualify as affordable housing to avoid appeals procedures established in the state statutes.”

As a result, WestCOG created a Regional Plan as a resource document that municipalities can use to create their policy document and strategies.

The Regional Plan includes state and federal history; a needs assessment that reviews population, household, and housing stock characteristics; availability of land and infrastructure (such as access to sewer, water, and transportation); review of municipal, zoning, and subdivision strategies; and a review of financing strategies.

WestCOG also created the Municipal Annexes policy document. It includes the town history relating to affordable housing, community values statement, municipal specific housing data, and policy strategies to increase affordable housing over the next five years.

Regional Level

Floberg’s colleague, Charles Vidich, senior project manager at WestCOG, presented the next portion of the webinar about addressing housing at the regional level.

He shared how housing does not exist without employment and, vice versa, that employment does not exist without housing.

“As a result, many people [in Western Connecticut] are commuting to places that are more expensive to live in, but are where places of employment exist like New York City,” Vidich said.

Not every town has the same resources for people to live and work in their own community.

He listed the factors that enable multifamily housing, including availability to vacant buildable land, sewer and water services, multifamily zoned land, mixed-use zones, and proximity of daily necessities, such as employment centers, transit, and public services.

Housing Market

Vidich then gave insight to the housing market in Western Connecticut, as well as how it compares throughout the state and on a national level.

While discussing a chart showing the median single-family house prices from 2000 to 2021, he pointed out that Connecticut’s median saw a 92% increase over the years. It jumped from $172,000 in 2000, $250,000 in 2010, $300,000 in 2020, then all the way up to $330,000 just a year later in 2021.

“The COVID pandemic had a lot to do with that, as I’m sure you’re aware, but even in our towns there was a wide range of increases over the last 21 years,” Vidich said.

Newtown specifically saw a 50% increase in its median single-family house prices from 2000 to 2021. The chart detailed it being $330,000 in 2000, $420,000 in 2010, $421,770 in 2020, then $495,000 in 2021.

“Another thing to keep in mind is not just the cost of the house and cost of the land, but it’s the cost of maintaining a house. In many cases, that may be a more significant challenge for homeowners than just getting into the housing market, because there is no such thing as buying a maintenance-free house,” Vidich said.

He displayed a graph showing the median monthly housing costs circa 2019 for the United States and Connecticut, as well as individual towns in Western Connecticut. It broke the data down further by identifying the median rent, median owner costs with a mortgage, and the median owner costs without a mortgage.

In Newtown, the median rent was just under $1,500; the median owner costs with a mortgage was about $2,800; and the median owner costs without a mortgage was about $1,100.

Newtown was well above all three median options for both the United States and Connecticut as a whole.

For the United States, the median rent was just shy of $1,100; the median owner costs with a mortgage was $1,600; and the median owner costs without a mortgage was $500.

Connecticut’s was also higher than the nation’s data with the median rent being almost $1,200; the median owner costs with a mortgage was $2,100; and the median owner costs without a mortgage was about $900.

Vidich pointed out that both renters and those with a mortgage in Western Connecticut are feeling financial pressure when it comes to affording housing.

“It’s not just the renters who are cost squeezed in our region,” he said.

Demographics

Floberg then discussed its housing needs assessment and how the data is used to understand who is living in the region.

She explained, “The actual population in Western Connecticut is just over 600,000 people as of the 2020 census. It’s grown 32% in the last 50 years from 1970 to 2020. In the last ten years, the region has grown by 5.3%. When you compare that to Connecticut the state as a whole, which only grew .9%, you see the region is faring quite well in terms of gaining population.”

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council projects that Western Connecticut towns will see an increase of 107,553 people by 2050.

As of 2019, Western Connecticut’s age distribution breakdown shows: 25% are 19 years old and under, 17% are 20 to 34 years old, 28% are 35 to 54 years old, 23% are 55 to 74 years old, and 7% are 75 years old and older.

Most of the age group percentages have remained fairly consistent over the last 20 years, with the only significant change being a roughly 5% decrease in 35- to 54-year-olds and an about 5% increase in 55- to 74-year-olds.

Floberg showed pie graphs of “household size and quantity” in Western Connecticut for 2019.

“What we see here is it changes when you are talking about an owner-occupied household versus a renter household,” she said. “The major difference here is you’re much more likely to be living alone as a renter. More than a third of all renters are single persons.”

She added, “The next big change is when you have an owner-occupied unit you are more likely to have a large family or more people.”

The number of bedrooms per housing unit in Western Connecticut was similar to the state of Connecticut as a whole. The biggest difference was that Western Connecticut has 10% less three bedrooms and 6% more four bedrooms compared to Connecticut overall.

“Image how many empty bedrooms we may potentially have in Western Connecticut with all these very large homes. When you think about what you can do with that extra space, it can potentially be split up and you can make part of your home into an accessory dwelling unit and receive rental income from another household. You can share it along multiple families or extended families,” Floberg said.

Throughout Western Connecticut, as of 2019, 59% of housing units are single-family detached homes with the second highest being 12% for 20 or more units.

Cost Impacts

Vidich briefly discussed how municipalities and individuals can impact the cost of housing.

He shared that town zoning boards have control over certain “cost control measures” such as: allowing residents to operate an accessory apartment, provide rooms for let, convert a single- to a two-family house, build a tiny house, operate a bed & breakfast, and cohousing.

These abilities can help homeowners as well as renters in some cases.

Vidich added that municipalities have roles and responsibilities throughout different departments that affect affordable housing, as well.

This includes, but is not limited to: land banking, road standards, sidewalk standards, open space standards, fee in lieu of open space, driveway standards, well installation siting and public water, public housing, sewer services, transit and paratransit, rent assistance, family support services, septic system design, mortgage assistance, and public education on housing assistance.

“We can see that there is a whole range of opportunities that municipalities have to either enable or directly impact the two categories of section 8-30g,” Vidich said.

The public meeting concluded with Floberg and Vidich opening the floor to audience questions.

Newtown resident Michelle Embree Ku was in attendance and expressed her gratitude for them providing helpful information.

She asked, “Who is responsible for adopting the plans? What government body?”

Floberg answered, “Each municipality is responsible for adopting their own annex, so it would be only the annex that they are adopting, which has the strategies in there for how to increase affordable housing.

“It depends on [the] municipality which government body that they are having adopt the plan. Some it’s the Planning and Zoning Commission, some it’s the Board of Selectmen, and some it’s both. It depends on their government structure.”

People are invited to submit comments about the draft until April 20, 2022. They can do so by mail to the WestCOG office at 1 Riverside Road, Sandy Hook CT 06482; or by e-mail at plan@westcog.org.

Those interested in learning more about the Regional Plan and Municipal Annexes can visit westcog.org/regional-planning/housing-plan.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.