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More than 750 affordable apartments will soon be added to Connecticut’s rental supply, largely through state funding.
Connecticut Public Radio (WNPR) reported Sept. 10 that six projects will be funded within five communities. Fairfield County will receive the majority of the new housing, with nearly 400 new apartments to be built in Norwalk, Stamford and Westport near the shoreline of Long Island Sound.
The approximately $118 million investment comes from the state Department of Housing (DOH) and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA).
While DOH supplied $25 million in loans and grants, CHFA provided Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs) generating $93 million in private investments.
Pat Guliano, CHFA’s managing director of multifamily operations, told WNPR the projects also involve rehabilitating existing housing and lessening the pressure on the market for all renters, which can impact other aspects of residents’ lives.
“That bleeds into everything, that bleeds into people’s lives and jobs, and it all starts with a stable, safe and comfortable home, place to live,” Guliano added.
All of the apartments will be reserved for renters earning below their community’s average median income (AMI), ranging in affordability from those earning 20 percent AMI to residents earning up to 80 percent AMI.
Monterey Village and Wall Street Place, both located in Norwalk, were among the projects to have received funding.
The Monterey Village development, in South Norwalk, will include 161 apartments reserved for residents earning below 60 percent AMI.
Wall Street Place is planned to include 155 apartments with a range of affordability for families earning between 20 percent and 80 percent AMI.
To the southeast in Stamford, DOH and CHFA funds will go toward the first of a three-phrase redevelopment of Oak Park, which was built in the 1940s under the State Moderate Rental Program. It includes a total of 61 units, 19 of which will use vouchers for very low-income households. All of its apartments will be affordable to households earning below 60 percent AMI.
Funding also will be provided to a 19-unit complex of two- and three-bedroom apartments in Westport, according to WNPR.
State Programs Build New Housing, Drive Private Investment
Guliano said the funding provided by the state and CHFA is vital to the growth of the housing market.
“If we’re not doing this, then not only are we not putting new units out, but a lot of the work we do preserves the existing housing stock in the state, so we would also be losing ground on that,” explained Guliano.
LIHTCs are administered in two forms: 4 percent and 9 percent tax credits, Guliano added.
At 9 percent, those tax credits are more valuable and are determined in a competitive application process early each year. The 4 percent tax credits are administered on a rolling basis and are taken from the state’s annual tax-exempt bond allocation.
However, in recent years, Connecticut has struggled to stretch the $500 million in tax exempt bond funding as far, WNPR reported.
“When that runs out, we can’t do any more deals, and we’re actually starting to bump up against our cap because these deals are getting so expensive,” Guliano said. “A lot of states have bumped up against their volume cap, primarily based on probably the last four or five years where we’ve seen drastically increased development costs and fewer and fewer resources to go into them.”
More than 360 of the apartments being built are part of CHFA and DOH’s Build for CT program, which targets affordable housing options for middle-income renters, CHFA Executive Director Nandini Natarajan said.
“By leveraging programs like Build For CT and LIHTC, we’re not only providing quality, affordable housing for a wide range of income levels but also driving significant private investment into Connecticut’s neighborhoods,” Natarajan said.
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