Over the last 15 years several apartment buildings that incorporate affordable housing and retail space were constructed in downtown Darien, but local officials say there is still room for improvement.
The town is trying to set an example for surrounding Fairfield County communities on ways to increase affordable housing stock responsibly.
One of the main ways towns can work to increase affordable housing is by giving financially to a project, according to Evonne Klein, with the Fairfield County Center for Housing Opportunity.
“What towns can contribute is critically important, because you want as much money as possible to go into the units and not into parking or not into fees,” Klein said.
Financial assistance can come from grant funding or a local affordable housing trust fund in lieu of constructing affordable units, Klein said.
Klein is also the former chief executive officer of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. She also once served as commissioner of the state’s Department of Housing.
Klein led a walk through several housing developments near Darien’s Metro-North train station Thursday, highlighting developments constructed within roughly the last 15 years.
Communities along the New Haven rail line have the unique opportunity to develop transit-oriented, walkable communities around the train stations, Klein said.
“I'm proud that Darian is able to do that and offer people of all incomes, and hopefully more of all incomes, housing choice,” Klein said. “Not just homeownership opportunities, because most of our municipalities are single family homes, they've been zoned for single family homes. So more and more we've had more approvals of multifamily projects, some with affordable on-site.”
Darien’s affordability requirement says affordable units must be available at 80% of the State Median Income (SMI), as opposed to the more commonly used Area Median Income (AMI). Using SMI instead makes the units more accessible to a range of income levels, Klein said.
At those rates, a single income household must earn no more than about $64,000 to qualify for an affordable apartment, Klein said. Two- and three-person households must earn no more than about $83,000 and $103,000, respectively, to qualify.
Four percent of Darien’s housing stock is considered affordable, which is still below the state mandate requiring towns and cities to make 10% of their housing stock affordable.
“We also want to build housing that is affordable,” Steve Olvany, chairman of Darien’s Planning and Zoning Commission, said. “That's why I don't want all the two bedrooms or three bedrooms torn down. There's people that want to bulldoze those neighborhoods, which we just walked down, and put up townhouses and put affordable housing.”
However, there’s still work to be done in Darien to increase housing options, particularly for people who may earn too much to qualify for an affordable apartment, but too little to be able to purchase a home in Fairfield County, according to Olvany.
“You're a recent college graduate. You cannot afford a house that is $800,000. You don't make that much money,” Olvany said. “They don't necessarily want to live in apartments, so you need to build affordable housing, and housing that is affordable.”
