Town can do better to meet affordable housing needs
Assert local control. Maintain home rule. Preserve town character.
Discussion preceding Monday night’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) vote on an affordable housing trust fund revolved around a singular argument: the trust would give the town leverage in the face of state affordable housing legislation, notably 8-30g of the Connecticut General Statutes. The trust was a potential tool for modifying 8-30g proposals by offering developers economic incentives, thereby exercising better local control.
Known as the Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Legislation, 8-30g enables developers to submit applications that do not conform with local zoning regulations if 30 percent of the proposed units are deed restricted as affordable for a period of 40 years, with half the set-aside affordable for household incomes at 60 percent of the state median income and the remainder affordable at 80 percent of state median. Units are affordable if rents do not exceed 30 percent of household income.
If the town rejects an 8-30g application, it has the burden of proof to show its reason clearly outweighs the need for affordable housing. Reasons must be limited to health and safety concerns, such as sewage capacity and water supply.
The effectiveness of the argument that the trust could lessen the impact of 8-30g developments was reflected in broad-based support for the trust. The vote was 176 in favor, with only 22 opposed and five abstentions. Proposed amendments that might have weakened it were beaten back.
Shortly before the vote, however, RTM Land Use Committee chair Peter Berg pointed out that the RTM was not voting on 8-30g. His point was well taken, or at least could be taken as a reminder that local affordable housing needs, irrespective of 8-30g, might be a better focus for the trust.
Berg also put 8-30g in historical perspective, noting that this legislation has been in place for more than three decades. Though Berg did not further elaborate, it should be noted that 8-30g has created thousands of affordable units throughout the state, as well as thousands of moderately priced market-rate units as part of these set-aside developments.
Greenwich currently has 31 such 8-30g affordable units, with five more under construction in Cos Cob, and applications are pending for a significant number of additional 8-30g units.
As the affordable housing specialist for the Connecticut League of Women Voters in the 1980s, I was involved with 8-30g in its formative stages. At that time, affordable housing advocates such as myself began to coalesce in support of this legislation as a way to meet state housing needs by increasing supply, promoting housing diversity, ensuring better economic and racial integration, and securing more equitable health care and educational opportunities.
The dilemma housing advocates faced then, as now, was the exclusionary nature of Connecticut’s local zoning. Many housing measures were proposed in the 2021 legislative session, including those by DesegregateCT, which were designed to address this problem.
How do we break through exclusionary barriers?
The answer in 1989, following a Blue Ribbon Commission recommendation, was passage of the legislation that became 8-30g and took effect in 1990. Given scarce public funds for housing, legislation designed to produce affordable housing through private sector development, also offered an advantage beyond the zoning considerations.
Exempt were municipalities that already had a fair share of affordable housing, specified as 10 percent of housing stock. The number of exempt municipalities — 31 — has remained relatively unchanged since 1990. No municipality is required to have 10 percent of its housing affordable, and most do not, but to be exempt from 8-30g applications, a municipality should strive to meet this threshold.
Greenwich, with 5.35 percent of its housing affordable, would be exempt right now if it had around 1,200 additional affordable units. Almost all Greenwich’s existing affordable housing has been developed by Greenwich Communities, formerly the Greenwich Housing Authority, which currently provides affordable housing for about 2,600 Greenwich residents in more than 1,200 units.
RTM approval of the trust is a step toward meeting the town’s affordable housing needs, but it’s a misstep if the main purpose is to offer for-profit developers economic incentives to modify their 8-30g applications. The trust would better serve the community by maximizing production of affordable units through the funding of nonprofit developers such as Greenwich Communities, with a goal of meeting the 10 percent exemption threshold.