As the housing crisis continues across Connecticut, due in part to the lack of new housing inventory, the state Department of Housing announced $23.2 million in additional funding to create hundreds of affordable apartments.
The funding will go towards the construction of 225 new affordable apartment units in Norwalk, Madison, East Hartford, Salisbury and Montville. The additional money from the state allocated for the projects will help the projects proceed.
“DOH is working tirelessly to get more affordable housing units online as quickly as possible,” DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said. “We’re working with housing authorities and developers across Connecticut to get their projects to the point where shovels are going into the ground.”
Not every unit constructed with the funds will be designated affordable, but a portion of each project will be reserved for low-income residents.
A 69-unit affordable housing development, spread across 18 buildings, will be constructed in Norwalk, using $5.8 million in state funding.
The DOH application process to receive the dollars was extensive, Norwalk Housing Authority Executive Director Adam Bovislky said.
“They want to understand the plan. They understand the financing. They want to know who it's going to help. They look at the neighborhood it's in, they look at just about just about everything, the details of the architectural drawings are all a required part of that, of that process,” Bovilsky said.
The Oak Grove Apartments and Learning Center will be developed by the Norwalk Housing Authority and Heritage Housing on a nearly 8-acre plot owned by the Authority.
Construction will take about 14 months, Bovilsky said.
In Montville, $6 million will fund the historic restoration and conversion of an early 20th century historic mill into 57 affordable housing units. In Salisbury, 10 apartments will be constructed with about $3.4 million in DOH dollars.
Twenty-four and 50 affordable units will be made in Madison and East Hartford, respectively.
