WestCOG study: More than 50 percent of renters in New Canaan are ‘housing cost-burdened’

NEW CANAAN— A draft of an affordable housing plan by the Western Connecticut Council of Governments (WestCOG) finds that 50.8 percent of rental households in town are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housingrelated costs.

Though New Canaan, often considered a wealthy town with a median single-family house price tag of $1.6 million, 18.6 percent of the households earn less than 80 percent of state median income, according to the plan created by local WestCOG Regional 8-30j Plan Committee. The plan is called the “Annex to the 2022 Western Connecticut Regional Affordable Housing Plan.”

With nearly 3 percent of total housing units considered affordable in New Canaan, the plan is required by the state’s 2018 statute, 8-30j, to show how the town will reach the state’s 10 percent affordable housing goal.

Overall, 34.9 percent of the households in town are “cost-burdened,” according to the plan citing the 2015 to 2019 American Community Survey. Of the 1,372 rental properties in town, 697 pay nearly a third of their income or more for rent, utilities, taxes and insurance.

State affordable housing laws target households that pay 30 percent of their annual income and have an annual income that is less than, or equal to, 80 percent of the state or area median income, whichever is less. Based on these statistics, approximately 1,097 affordable housing units are needed in town.

To qualify for affordable housing in New Canaan, a household would need to make less than $82,320 annually as of 2021. This is based on the median income for the state’s $102,600, which is less than if it were based on the town’s median income of $151,800.

To purchase a home in New Canaan means a non-cost-burdened household would need to earn upwards of $186,000 annually.

Proponents of affordable housing note the housing is needed for individuals who work in town, including public school teachers making an average of $72,914, healthcare staff earning $56,760 on average, retail workers reaping $42,240 and food servers taking in $33,213, according to the plan.

“People who work in New Canaan may not be able to afford to live where they work,” WestCOG’s plan says. There are 1,062 people employed in town coming from Norwalk, 894 from Stamford, 252 from Fairfield and 250 from Bridgeport, the plan states. “Most drive to work, making the jobs-housing imbalance not just an equity issue, but an environmental one as well,” the plan states.

At a recent public hearing by the committee, resident Giacomo Landi questioned what specific equity issue is being cited. ‘Many people don’t live in the town that they work,’ he said. “I believe many New Canaan residents work in other towns, for example.”

He also asked if a consideration of CO2 emissions from cars is “required to be addressed as part of the affordable housing plan of each town.”

“Hurdles” to achieving the 10 percent goal of affordable housing “include lack of appropriate sites, cost of land, higher construction costs due to smaller sites and access to funding incentives afforded to larger communities,”

according to the plan.

The document cites four multi-family projects approved since 2017 that did not include affordable housing, such 99 dwellings at 162 Park Street, seven units at 21 Forest Street; 12 dwellings at 8 and 10 Husted Lane and seven at 42 Forest.

Developer Arnold Karp said recently that he had proposed affordable housing in the Vue on Park Street, but it was declined by the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

Karp has applied to build a 102-unit development with affordable housing on Weed Street and may be pursuing a development on Hill Street as well.