From newly approved report: Town just over 1 percent shy of state target.
Hamden is aiming to make at least 10 percent of its housing stock affordable by moving seniors and millennials alike into smaller apartments, with the help of zoning changes and tax incentives.
That’s the takeaway of a new report drafted by consultants with the Southern Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) and adopted this month by the town’s Planning and Zoning.
Back in 2017, the state mandated that all Connecticut municipalities write up affordable housing plans by June first of this year.
The newly approved Hamden plan — read it here — analyzes local development trends, assesses the town’s housing needs, and proposes strategies to make housing more accessible for all.
The majority of Hamden renters are located in census block groups within downtown Hamden.
Eugene Livshits, Hamden’s newly appointed town planner, previously worked with SCRCOG. He said his understanding of the town as told through the report is that “many residents are severely cost burdened, especially in the rental community.”
According to the report, 47 percent of renters and 32 percent of homeowners within town are considered cost burdened, meaning that they earn 80 percent or less of the area median income that corresponds to their family size.
Affordable homes are defined by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development as any housing that costs its tenants or owners under 30 percent of their total income. Right now, around 9.33 percent of the town’s housing meets that standard. To up that figure to 10 percent — the state-mandated minimum — the town would need to readjust the affordability of at least 2,511 apartments and homes.
Within their new housing plan, the Hamden administration drafted a list of goals to grow housing opportunities that will meet the needs of diverse residents in a holistic fashion.
Maselli Farm, High Meadows, the Spring Glen Area, and Dixwell Highwood are a few areas of town that have been identified as prime areas for affordable developments.
Livshits said that one of the first tasks he hopes to immediately tackle as town planner is reworking the complicated bureaucratic web of requirements that developers have to climb through just to present an idea to the town.
“My goal is to make this process more efficient and transparent so somebody coming in with a proposal knows exactly what they need to go through,” he said.
He expressed commitment to editing the town’s zoning codes and regulations to assure that developers don’t have to “constantly go for variances” to conform their plan with “grandfathered in” requirements.
Hamden’s population churn and change over the past couple of decades has been primarily driven by a growing number of small millennial and senior households, including young families and professionals attracted to a suburban area neighboring New Haven as well as aging parents hoping to stay in the same space where they raised their children. The report identified particular demand for compact and single-person housing units as well as apartments and homes that could support beginner families.
Mayor Lauren Garrett further recalled the wide range of people who turned out to Hamden’s warming shelter at the Keefe Community Center in the cold days of January and February.
“What we experienced when we had the warming center open over the winter was that there were people staying at the center who had vouchers for housing, but there was none available.”
“Really what we need to do,” she said, in response to an apparent deficit of housing, “is increase our inventory and make sure it’s in areas that give access to affordable housing in parts of Hamden where we don’t have as much availability.”
The adopted plan states the town should preserve and maintain existing affordable housing, produce new housing options to support a swelling number of senior citizens, establish more temporary housing possibilities to minimize homelessness, and create chances for low-income individuals to live in all areas of town rather than concentrating them in specific neighborhoods.
The report recommends accomplishing that by leveraging town-owned and underutilized properties to develop housing, updating land use and zoning regulations to support affordability, engaging developers in consistent discussions about building affordable housing, and launching programs aimed at combating grassroots opposition to new developments.
Some specific policy and programming changes listed by the town:
- Review zoning policies to reduce barriers to building affordable housing, such as land use restrictions and open space requirements.
- Incentivize developers to prioritize affordable housing through tax stabilization agreements while proactively drawing developers to town by highlighting available space for potential developments and connecting them with environmental remediation money.
- Produce new types of housing to accommodate seniors with different needs, like multi-story apartment buildings with elevator access.
- Preserve existing affordable housing through a loan fund to support housing rehabilitation and redevelopment.
- Help potential homeowners buy property through down payment and closing cost assistance programs and assist seniors in keeping their homes through property tax abatements to individuals who have lived in the community for a minimum number of years.
There is no state mandate that 10% of housing be affordable. The "10%" provision of the law is widely misunderstood - not only by the author.
Normally, if a municipality denies an application for a housing development, the developer must show that the municipality erred for a court to reverse the decision. CGS Sec. 8-30g flips this burden of proof for a narrow range of affordable housing developments. To count as an affordable development, at least 30% of the units have to be sold or rented at levels that are affordable for moderate income households. At least half of these units must be sold or rented to moderate income households. The affordability restrictions must be enforceable for a deed restriction that runs for at least 40 years.
These provisions do not apply to municipalities where at least 10% of housing units are "affordable". Affordable, in this case, is defined very narrowly. It primarily consists of public housing and units where the tenant is on Section 8 or its state counterpart program. The rationale for this exemption was that cities such as New Haven had already "done their part" in hosting public and assisted housing. Currently, one-third of housing units in New Haven are affordable under the narrow statutory definition.
I was at the table when this provision was adopted. In hindsight, I think it was unwise. Much of the subsequent discussion has been about the 10% provision, rather than figuring out ways of making housing more affordable, as the Hamden plan seeks to do.