$4 million for housing: Slow start... but still a start

At the end of this legislative season in Hartford, affordable housing advocates have a glass that’s half full.

Northwest Corner legislators were hoping for the passage of Bill 1057, which would have created powerful incentives for towns to build and allow affordable housing. Those incentives could have cost the state tens of millions of dollars. What they got instead was considerably less.

“It’s half a loaf plus two or three slices,� said David Fink, policy and communications director of HOMEConnecticut, an affordable housing advocacy and lobbying group.

If passed, Bill 1057 would have paid towns $2,000 for every unit that the towns would permit in zones created for new housing; $2,000 to $5,000 for every building permit issued in the zone; and reimbursement for any net additional costs they incur from educating children who live in the new housing. The program is voluntary, it would offer technical assistance and towns would have complete control over where they locate affordable housing overlay zones.

Instead, Fink, along with other advocates such as state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) and state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30), managed to get three out of five provisions passed: the payments for units in newly created zones; payments for building permits issued in those zones; and technical assistance. Under the bill that was passed (SB 1550), those items will be paid for with $4 million in funds from a budget surplus that exceeded $900 million this year.

Gone, however, was the big-ticket item: reimbursement for the net costs of educating the children of those who would live in the affordable housing. As a result, Fink thinks most towns will hold off building the housing in significant numbers until legislation is passed that covers the education costs. HOMEConnecticut believes the program would ultimately pay for itself as working people who stay in Connecticut or move here would pay more in income and sales taxes to the state.

Lawmakers “left it out because the [Rell] administration was concerned about saddling the state with a long-term cost,� Fink said. The consolation, however, is that the General Assembly created a Blue Ribbon Commission to study the issues of affordable housing and economic development. That panel will be appointed in the next week or two and is expected to produce a report by Feb 1.

In an e-mail, Willis said the legislation that passed “is not as ambitious as what I would have liked, but it is a beginning.�

As Willis sees it, the concept of affordable housing is not only about enabling those who were born in the area to be able to stay and raise their own families here, but “is clearly now seen as an important economic driver,� impacting the economy, jobs, workforce availability and tax revenue.

The $4 million in the bill will be used mostly for technical assistance and planning grants to towns, non-profit developers, housing assistance organizations and regional planning agencies, Willis explained.

According to HOMEConnecticut, housing costs in the state have risen more than 64 percent since 2000, while wages have risen less than 20 percent. In 157 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities, the median household income could not qualify for a mortgage to buy the median sales price home in 2005.

Bill 1057 would have created incentives for towns to build and allow affordable housing. Towns would have been eligible to participate if they agreed to create housing incentive zones, where 20 percent of the units are affordable for people making 80 percent of the area median income.

“We got an acknowledgment that there are barriers to housing,� said Fink. “I feel very good because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.�

“Hopefully, the Blue Ribbon Commission will get us on the path to the next steps,� added Willis.