SALISBURY — The Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity released its 2025 Impact Report on Thursday, Sept. 10, showing that 230 affordable homes are planned or under development across the county.
Jocelyn Ayer, director of the center, said 209 of those homes will be rentals and 21 will be owner-occupied. The center is an initiative of The Housing Collective, founded 20 years ago by David Rich.
Speaking at a gathering at Salisbury School, Ayer highlighted affordable housing projects in the pipeline, including:
— Barkhamsted Housing Trust (20 units): Mallory View
— Falls Village Housing Trust (16 units): River Road and (5 units) called FVHT Apartments
— Cornwall Housing Corporation (20 units) called Millard Brook
— Kent Affordable Housing (13 units) as South Common expansion
— Litchfield Housing Authority (8 units) called River Bend
— Morris Housing Authority (8 units) known as Eldridge expansion
— Salisbury Housing Committee, Inc. (14 units) Holley Place and (20 units) Dresser Woods
— Sharon Housing Trust (6 units) under Sharon Homes and (4 units) as Community Center reuse
— Warren Affordable Housing Corp. (8 units) known as Warren Village
— Washington Community Housing Trust (12 units) Judea Springs
— Winchester Housing Partners (37 units) converting former Batcheller School into housing
“Our work is to support those volunteers to make their projects happen,” Ayer said.
Some developments can take 10 years to complete, she said, citing Holley Place in Salisbury as an example. Ayer also discussed Dresser Woods, a development planned near downtown Salisbury beyond East Railroad Street that will provide 20 homes in nine buildings.
Ayer said that there are 2,775 families across Litchfield County that have gone through the application process and now are on a waiting list, noting that many of those are in Torrington, which reports 1,828 on a waiting list.
“Many families hear how long the waiting list is and don’t bother filling out an application,” she said.
In Salisbury, there are 119 families on waiting lists for three developments. The Sharon Housing Authority has 84 families on waiting lists for Sharon Ridge and Sharon Ridge Expansion. Cornwall has 67 families waiting for Kugeman Village and Bonney Brook.
Kent shows 64 waiting for housing at Stuart Farm and South Common Apartments. There are 68 on waiting lists in North Canaan for Wangum Village and Beckley House (Geer Village). More than 50 are on waiting lists in Norfolk for Meadowbrook and the Town Center Apartments.
Jessica Kubicki will succeed Rich on Oct. 1 as president and CEO of The Housing Collective, the statewide backbone-type service organization that provides assistance to local housing organizations. At the Housing Collective, Kubicki, a licensed clinical social worker since 2013, has focused on homelessness and housing affordability as a single problem.
“Homelessness and housing are not two separate things anymore,” she said, noting that last year 64% of homeless individuals were experiencing homelessness for the first time. Two-thirds of Connecticut’s homeless population cite affordability reasons, she said.
“Who are these homeless?” she asked. “It’s our neighbors, our schoolteachers, our friends.”
Rich, who was credited with creating the Litchfield County organization, emphasized that it “brings people together to solve intractable problems.”
Federal, state and philanthropic support is “uncertain at best,” he said. “We need to create lasting, sustainable affordable housing.”
Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton’s Main Street in 1985.Provided
