A new state pilot program is helping some Fairfield County communities reach their affordable housing goals.
The capacity building and technical assistance program is a joint venture between the state’s Department of Housing and Fairfield County Center for Housing Opportunity.
Five Fairfield County communities will be selected for the program. The goal is to develop specific affordable housing projects or initiatives to help tackle the need, the center’s Chief Initiative Officer Melissa Kaplan-Macey said.
“The number one ideal outcome is that there are five towns that have five specific actions that they're moving forward that will address affordable housing, that will make more opportunity available for affordable housing, that will have tangible outcomes,” Kaplan-Macey said.
It will assist the communities in developing and strategizing to reach benchmarks set in their affordable housing plans.
Each Connecticut municipality was required to submit an affordable housing plan to the state’s Office of Policy and Management by June 2022.
Assistance provided by the program can include updating zoning, streamlining the development application process, pre-development assistance, design assistance, data collection, financial tools and connecting with developers, among others.
“The intent behind this technical assistance program is to provide access to experience and resources that can help our smaller cities and towns meet their goal of developing high quality affordable housing,” Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said.
Mosquera-Bruno encouraged every municipality with a population under 90,000 to apply.
Residents can submit an application for the program. The application includes questions regarding what types of assistance would benefit the community most and what governing bodies are in charge of administering the affordable housing plan.
“I know these issues can be challenging at the local level, and I recognize that sometimes all it takes is a little bit of help to get things started,” Mosquera-Bruno said.
Applications for the program close on April 15.
