SALISBURY — Housing affordability is a daunting challenge throughout the Northwest Corner, but a coordinated, regional response is reportedly making strides, one new housing unit at a time.
The past year’s success stories were front and center during the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity’s (LCCHO) Annual Housing Affordability Summit held on Sept. 20 at the Salisbury Town Grove Community Center.
Guests included state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno, members of local housing nonprofits, area legislators, first selectmen, town housing committees and others passionate about create housing opportunities for those who live and work in the community.
“Housing is not just a roof over our heads. It is the foundation of our lives, yet the cost of housing is a growing concern,” Mosquera-Bruno told the crowd that surpassed 100 attendees. “When families can afford housing, they are investing in their future.”
Millions in state, federal funding in 2023
Jocelyn Ayer, LCCHO’s director, pointed to a “doubling of the number of affordable housing units in the pipeline since we got started a few years ago.”
She recited her organization’s impact by the numbers: 15 local housing nonprofits being provided with day-to-day project management support; 323 affordable housing units being supported to move forward as part of 18 developments in 13 towns; a 100% increase in the number of affordable housing units in the development pipeline (increase of 160 to 323 since 2022, and $4.8 million in state funding accessed by local nonprofits to construct and/or renovate housing in 2023.
Also, Ayer pointed to $4.25 million in federal funding accessed by local nonprofits for affordable housing in 2023 units and $176,000 in pre-development seed funding committed to support six developments.
She said $33,800 in pass-through funding was provided for community engagement projects in Barkhamsted, Canaan, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Litchfield, Morris, Norfolk, Salisbury, Sharon, Warren and Winchester, the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative and Kent Affordable Housing.
Mosquero-Bruno offered suggestions on how towns could add to their affordable housing stock, including the revision of zoning laws to allow for duplexes and townhouses and the promotion of public-private partnerships.
“Don’t just think about building, but also acquiring. It’s not just about construction it’s about engaging community members” through education and advocacy, she noted.
A team of stakeholders cut the ribbon on 10 new affordable housing units in Salisbury, From left, Peter Halle, president of the Salisbury Housing Committee, Inc.; Jocelyn Ayer, vice-president, SHC; U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.); State Representative Maria Horn (D-64); Marcus Smith, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority; Seila Mosquera-Bruno, Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Housing; T.J. Magnoli, Community Relations, Eversource; and Curtis Rand, Salisbury First Selectman.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Sharing successes and challenges
The evening included a brief update on Litchfield County success stories, including the ribbon cutting earlier in the day for 10 new units at Salisbury’s Sarum Village III.
“Unfortunately, we don’t get to do that every day,” said Ayer of the newly christened rental units. “So we need to celebrate the little wins.”
One by one, updates on various stages of housing projects, from rental units to single-family homes, unfolded from representatives of the Barkhamsted Housing Trust, Cornwall Housing Corporation, Falls Village Housing Trust, Goshen Housing Trust, Kent Affordable Housing, Litchfield Housing Trust, Litchfield/Morris Housing Authorities and the Foundation for Norfolk Living.
Also represented was the Salisbury Housing Committee, Salisbury Housing Trust, Sharon Housing Trust, Warren Affordable Housing Corporation, Washington Community Housing Trust and the Winchester Housing Partnership.
Peter Halle, president of the Salisbury Housing Committee, explained that in addition to the 10 new units at Sarum Village, projects in the pipeline include Dresser Woods, a 20-unit affordable housing project and the long-awaited Holley Place. “NIMBY is a reality, but it’s moving ahead,” he reported.
Earlier in the day, attendees were encouraged to take a self-guided tour of current/planned housing developments in Salisbury. In addition to Sarum Village, Dresser Woods and Holley Place, other sites on the tour included the Pope Property, two affordable homes by the Salisbury Housing Trust and Lakeview Apartments.
“We really have an embarrassment of riches in Salisbury when it comes to working on affordable housing projects,” noted Jennifer Kronholm Clark, vice president of the Salisbury Housing Trust.
‘The real success stories are our tenants’
Chris Sanders, president of the Goshen Housing Trust, said he was happy to report that 13 out of 18 rental units in his town have undergone major renovation since May of 2021 and are occupied, despite the fact that “Goshen, Connecticut is not necessarily a friend to affordable housing.”
He said “the real success stories are our tenants.”
Sanders spoke of the single mom with an infant who was a tenant for 15 years and recently purchased a home in Winsted. He recalled the long-time senior who lost his home due to healthcare costs and “didn’t know where to go next but wanted to live close by and has been with us for two years.”
Sanders recalled the professional couple who are employed locally, and the mom with three kids who was a victim of domestic violence “and found a safe home with us.”
Just last week, he said, one of our tenants gave birth to a baby girl. “It was the first tenant who snuck in!” he said, eliciting laughter from the crowd. “These are really the success stories affordable housing is about.”
Deidre DiCara, representing the Winchester Housing Partnership, spoke of the planned renovation of the vacant Batcheller school building on Pratt Street into 35 rental units. The vote to sell the school to the nonprofit Northwest Senior Housing, she said, “squeaked through” by a heart-stopping four votes.
The summit, sponsored this year by National Iron Bank, concluded with panel sessions on the upcoming Legislative session, and financing resources for affordable housing.
Attendees were treated to the debut of a short film screening showcasing the region’s collaborative effort and the strategies that have come out of it.
“I am truly grateful and committed to our shared vision,” the state housing commissioner told those in attendance. “Despite these challenges there is hope.”
Fierce action from both teams commenced right from the opening face-off, and it looked to be an equal battle. Dakota Boyle and Ainsley Moffitt scored quickly for Kent giving them a 2-0 lead after only six minutes.
Kent's Ainsley Moffitt takes a shot against the Millbrook goalie.Photo by Lans Christensen
The second period started, again with fast but equal aggression from both teams. The Millbrook and Kent goalies were sharp, turning away chance after chance for the bulk of the period.
Millbrook’s Brooke Ness found the net near the end of the second period, as did Lily Kennedy and the game was tied 2-2.
Lily Kennedy on attack for Millbrook.Photo by Lans Christensen.
Excitement grew throughout the contest and the final period started with high hopes from both teams and fans. The two sides traded goals, only adding to the drama.
The deciding moment came when Kent's Abby Roberson scored the game-winning goal, securing a tough but deserved 4-3 victory for Kent.
Kent's record advanced to 7-12-1 and Millbrook moved to 6-10-3.
Ainsley Moffitt celebrates after scoring a goal for Kent.Photo by Lans Christensen
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Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens at home in front of one of Plagens’s paintings.
“He was doing critiques with everyone,” Fendrich said of Plagens. “We met at one of those sessions and, well, what can I say. We fell in love instantly.”
Fendrich speaks candidly about the pressures that shaped her early life choices. “We both married the first time at 21, which a good number of women of my generation did without much thought.” Her first husband was a good guy, she says, but “we weren’t suited for each other at all, even though he suited my parents perfectly.” Her decision to get a divorce was seismic. “My mother didn’t speak to me for a year.” Time softened the rupture. “One day she told me, ‘I see now why you left.’”
Fendrich had a rigorous liberal arts education at Mount Holyoke. “I studied painting and drawing, but I also got interested in political philosophy. Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli — Rousseau was my big guy — Tocqueville, everybody. And I still read them.” Plagens’s path was less formal. “I went to USC at 17,” he said, “and declared English as my major. It was a frat school, and I was in one for the first two years. Then I started doing the cartoons for the Daily Trojan, took a couple art classes, and thought, ‘Wait a minute, I like this.’”
Culturally, they diverged just as sharply. “I came from a fairly puritanical family that didn’t even go to the movies,” Fendrich said. Plagens, by contrast, grew up immersed in pop culture. “My father was an omnivorous reader,” he said, “and a jazz fan, and he shared these passions with me.” In 1966, Plagens walked into Artforum’s LA office and said, “I want to write reviews.” He was paid five dollars per piece. “Gasoline was 23 cents a gallon, so it went a long way.”
Over time, the couple slowly fused their educations. “He taught me jazz, I taught him Mozart,” Fendrich said with a laugh. “I’ve had a movie education from him; he read Jane Austen because of me.”
Plagens and Fendrich at home in front of some of Fendrich’s paintings. Natalia Zukerman
During their early years in LA, Plagens taught at USC, and Fendrich at Art Center College of Design. In 1985, they decided “our kind of abstraction would do better in New York,” as Fendrich put it. “So, we up and moved to Tribeca with $10,000 and a toddler.”
Both artists grounded their artistic careers in teaching and writing. “Teaching, which I loved, gave me the financial stability to be an artist,” Fendrich said, reflecting on her 27 years as a professor at Hofstra. “It meant that being an artist didn’t require I make money from every show. I didn’t start writing until 1999, but though I write for publication frequently, I make hardly any money at it.”
Artistically, they guard each other’s independence. “We have unspoken rules,” Plagens said. “You don’t comment on someone’s work while they’re in the middle of creating it.” Critique comes by invitation only. “He’s not mean, just direct,” said Fendrich. Over time, their aesthetics have subtly converged. “My work has gotten cleaner from looking at his,” she said. “He’s gotten more colorful because of me.”
The two have had several two-person exhibitions. At a recent duo show at the Texas Gallery in Houston “Laurie’s paintings flew off the wall,” Plagens recalled. “Me, well, not so much.”
Plagens’s parallel career in journalism shaped their lives in tangible ways. He worked as art critic at Newsweek from 1989 until 2003 and currently contributes reviews of museum exhibitions to The Wall Street Journal. “Being at Newsweek was one of the luckiest breaks I ever had,” he said. “They paid me to see things I would gladly pay to see.”
Their creative processes mirror their personalities. “I start with a specific idea,” Fendrich said, “and then modify things as I paint.” Plagens laughed. “I start with complete mush, just blurting it out and spending the rest of the time fixing it.”
In 2019, they made what Fendrich calls “a decision of contraction.” They left the TriBeCa loft they had lived in for three decades, sold their Catskills home with its large studio, and moved full-time to a former auto repair shop in Lakeville, now a house where each has a studio, and the ground floor retains the open feel of a loft.
What sustains them in life, art and love, decades in, are endless conversations — and arguments — about art, history, exhibitions, books and movies. That exchange, ongoing and rigorous, may just be the masterpiece of their shared life.
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