Cost of Land Foils Affordable Housing

The lack of affordable housing in Litchfield County has become a much-talked-about subject at public forums and in organizations that assist low- to middle-income residents. But with a recently released regional survey, it is now clear what the major obstacles are to the construction of moderately priced housing — at least in the eyes of public officials and affordable housing advocates.

The Litchfield Hills Council of Elected Officials and Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments, two regional planning organizations, polled dozens of officials from 17 county towns in November asking them to rate the severity of the concerns, the major obstacles to affordable housing and actions and incentives that could be taken to alleviate the problem.

Respondents included members of boards of selectmen, planning and zoning commissions and nonprofit housing organizations. Of the 60 respondents, 43 percent rated lack of affordably priced housing a "severe problem," while 32 percent rated it a moderate problem.

Nineteen percent rated it a "minor problem."

Far and away the top obstacle to moderately priced housing, according to the survey, is the "shortage of reasonably priced building lots."

Next on the list are construction costs, and a lack of state and federal grants to purchase the lots.

Of the 12 obstacles included in the survey, local opposition to affordable housing projects (ranked eighth) and town zoning regulations (11th) were not seen as critical barriers.

"This is really not surprising," said Dan McGuinness, executive director of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (COG). "The costs are high but the state could be doing more to help."

The COG is made up of the first selectmen from the six towns of Region One as well as Warren, Roxbury and Washington.Land Availability

"It didn’t hold any surprises," said Richard Dunham, president of the Salisbury Housing Trust, a nonprofit organization that builds and sells moderately priced homes in that town. "The biggest obstacle is the availability of land."

Another problem McGuinness sees is that the largest communities get the lion’s share of funds from the Connecticut Housing Trust Fund, often because they have housing departments with grant writers on staff.

But according to McGuinness, the state recently hired a grant writer to help smaller communities apply for grants from the Housing Trust Fund, a division of the state treasurer’s office that last year awarded about $10 million to create affordable housing throughout Connecticut.

"It’s hard for Sharon to compete against Waterbury," McGuinness observed. He added that the middle-income housing shortage appears to be even greater in the eastern part of the county, where towns such as New Hartford and Harwinton are attracting more upscale commuters who work in the Hartford area.Legislative Outlook

In an interview, State Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) said he plans to introduce legislation in the current session to set aside 10 percent of the state Housing Trust Fund grants for municipalities with populations of less than 30,000.

"At least then we would know some of those funds would be reserved for our small towns," the senator said.

Roraback also said he would like to see towns that adopt so-called affordable housing overlay zones rewarded with additional affordable housing grants.

It might also be possible to tie the meeting of state affordable housing goals with additional grants for the preservation of open space.

State Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) said she sees the lack of affordable housing "as an issue of economic growth in Connecticut."

She, too, is developing legislation to provide towns with incentives, additional technical assistance and more financing opportunities through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.Habitat Helping

John Pogue, chairman of Habitat For Humanity of Northwest Connecticut, said he was surprised that the results of the survey reveal that public opposition to affordable housing projects was not rated as a greater concern by the respondents.

"I would think NIMBY would be two or three, not number eight," said Pogue, referring to the acronym for "not in my backyard."

He was also surprised by the relatively low percentage of respondents (43 percent) who rated the lack of affordable housing a "severe problem."

Habitat built its first home in the Northwest Corner in Cornwall Bridge in 1994 and since then has put up several more in Salisbury and Falls Village. The group recently completed a home on Lime Rock Station Road in Falls Village, with two others under construction and a fourth planned for the same site.

Some towns, including Kent, are considering regulations that would allow another "split" of a property owner’s lot, thereby streamlining the process of breaking up a relatively large parcel for building affordable housing and obviating the need to apply for a formal subdivision. Pogue said he will encourage Salisbury to consider similar action.

Pogue added that the town of Salisbury has been especially helpful to his organization and others. Planning and zoning boards have been sympathetic, and the building department has often waived permitting fees.

"I think zoning boards are understanding," said Curtis Rand, Salisbury’s first selectman.House Prices Out of Sight

The income needed to purchase a home is brought into sharp relief by a recent report from Home Connecticut, a statewide campaign aimed at increasing the stock of affordable housing in Connecticut.

In 2005 (the most recent year for which figures were available) the median sale price of a home in Salisbury was $443,500.

To qualify for a mortgage to purchase such a home with a 10-percent down payment, an annual family income of more than $133,000 is required.

But the median household income in the town was less than $59,000.

Even in North Canaan, long considered a bastion of working class housing, the median 2005 sales price was $195,000. That price would require an annual family income of more than $60,000 to qualify for a mortgage, while the median household income was just over $42,000, leaving a gap of almost $18,000.

Erin Selby, a mortgage banker for Salisbury Bank & Trust and a member of Habitat’s board, said she became interested in joining Habitat after seeing the difficulties working families encountered in purchasing a home at a reasonable price.

"It’s very disturbing to me," said Selby. "Both professionally and with Habitat. It’s a dilemma, especially for the younger generation starting out."