Connecticut’s housing crisis is discussed within Fairfield’s Pine Tree Apartments

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes joined elected officials from Fairfield and surrounding communities on Feb. 13 to learn more about the Pine Trees Apartments in Fairfield and to discuss the ongoing housing crisis in Connecticut.

The event was hosted by the Fairfield Housing Corp., Partnership for Strong Communities and Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity (FCCHO).

The new Pine Tree Apartments, located at 15 Pine Tree Lane just off the Black Rock Turnpike, replaced a series of older brick buildings. The complex features contemporary two-story houses, with handicap accessible first-floor apartments and additional units above. The property is also dotted with rain gardens and meadows of native plants.

Kiley Gosselin, executive director of the Partnership for Strong Communities, welcomed the officials to the meeting in the community building that serves as the heart of the Pine Trees facility.

“We already had a housing shortage in Connecticut,” said Gosselin about the pre-pandemic housing market. “Rents are increasing, home prices are increasing, and there are so many inflationary pressures on the development’s space. We really have a tough housing market and tough conditions, especially for folks in low- and moderate-income categories who are really struggling to maintain housing and find housing here.”

Gosselin noted that while the complex hosting the meeting was exemplary, it is only part of the solution to the state’s housing problems. She supported solutions that promote “housing portability,” such as voucher programs, which are tied to households instead of specific housing units.

“We can do more both at the federal level in terms of investment and also the state level in terms of making sure we have the resources we need to create more beautiful properties like this and ensure people who are already housed aren’t rent-burdened,” she said.

Specifically, Gosselin asked the gathered officials for their support on increasing investment in the state’s rental assistance program and pushing for the use of vouchers as an additional finance stream for future developments.

Aicha Woods, director of the FCCHO, said that a diversity of approaches under a “collective impact model” was necessary, and recommended looking at the issue from a regional rather than municipal viewpoint.

“Fairfield County lacks 25,000 units of affordable housing,” Woods said. “In order to start really making an impact in tackling that it really requires a cross sector collective approach. If you think about folks who are cost burdened, that also has a tremendous economic impact on the local economy because they don’t have money to spend elsewhere. We’re also hearing from many employers that one of the primary drivers of the labor shortage is affordable housing, particularly here in Fairfield County.”

“We need friends to address the affordable housing prices here in our state,” added Carol Martin, executive director of the Fairfield Housing Authority, which is based out of the Pine Tree Lane property. “We’re lucky enough to live in a high-cost community, which brings tons of social benefit, but it’s also a place where we need to grow and create more affordable units, as lovely as Pine Trees turned out to be. The Housing Choice Voucher Program the Fairfield Housing Authority runs now serves close to 110 families. When I started back in 2012, we had about 65 families.”

Himes thanked the local organizations for arranging the meeting and stated how difficult it has become to “talk about housing enough anywhere in this country.”

“I’m just off the Select Committee on Economic Disparity,” Himes said, referring to the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, one of several committees shut down after Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. “Two things jumped out at me if we’re going to get serious about addressing economic disparity. One is better care for our youngest Americans, we need affordable available childcare. The other one is housing.”

“It doesn’t help a lot of people if you have a vibrant economic area like the Stamford metropolitan area or Fairfield County, but nobody can afford to move there,” Himes added. “However here is where I go off script ”” the fundamental problem in this country on housing is a supply problem. People estimate that we’re somewhere in between three and 5 million units short nationally, and 30,000 apparently in the county. So, we have a huge supply issue, and we need to subsidize more. I’m just obsessed with the notion that we need to find ways to recreate Pine Trees apartments around the county, around the state. It’s an uncomfortable conversation for me because the federal government doesn’t have a lot to do with zoning or state subsidies.”

Himes then asked for input from the local officials and experts who were gathered there. In addition to the leaders and employees of community organizations facing the housing crisis, the meeting was also attended by elected leaders, including Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, State Sen. Tony Hwang and state Reps. Jennifer Leeper and Sarah Keitt.

The discussion saw all in attendance agree that a housing crisis was underway across the state. However, the issue of 8-30g, the state law that allows developers to bypass local zoning regulations for residential developments containing at least 30% deed restricted affordable housing units came up quickly and was the subject of some division.

The local Democrats, such as Keitt and Leeper, referred to 8-30g as a flawed but necessary tool, while the Republicans in attendance, notably Kupchick and Hwang, argued the law’s drawbacks needed to be weighed more heavily and implied it benefited developers more than the unhoused.

Those associated with the community organizations expressed a range of opinions on the law, and generally tried to steer the conversation back towards other possible policy solutions.

“What concerns me about this conversation,” Himes said, “is we are talking onesies and twosies. Four units here, 12 units there. If the number is 30,000 for the county, we need to be talking about hundreds of units in Fairfield, right? And in Greenwich we need to be talking about hundreds. In Bridgeport we probably need to be talking about thousands of units.”

Himes posed the question of how to achieve those numbers to the members of the community organizations. Telling them to set aside political differences and questions of financing, he wanted to know if they were achievable.

The only consensus to emerge: increase housing supply overall, even for higher and middle-income individuals, and there will be at least some improvement for all housing seekers.