NEW FAIRFIELD — The ad hoc committee responsible for developing a plan to address the town’s housing needs has drafted a report calling for the creation of 20 affordable units over the next several years.
The New Fairfield Housing Opportunities Committee was established in 2021 to examine local housing stock, explore ways to fill housing-related needs and develop strategies to increase affordable housing development in New Fairfield. It’s also part of the town’s state-mandated affordable housing plan.
Through its efforts, the committee found that 1,280 New Fairfield households are housing cost-burdened — meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing — and 485 of those households spend more than 50 percent of their income.
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“Finding and keeping housing that is affordable is most challenging for households that earn under 80% of the area median income,” according to the committee’s draft housing plan, a copy of which is available at bit.ly/NFdrafthousingplan.
The 80-percent Danbury-area median income limit in 2023 was $76,880 for a one-person household, $87,840 for a two-person household, $98,800 for a three-person household and $109,760 for a four-person household, according to the plan — meaning those with income less than that would qualify for affordable housing.
The report notes that 1,405 New Fairfield households make less than 80 percent of the area median income — qualifying them for affordable housing — and only 1 percent of the town’s housing stock is dedicated to remaining affordable to those who fall under that income limit.
For the 385 households in town earning less than 30 percent of the area median income — ranging from $28,830 for a one-person household to $41,160 for a four-person household — the report says “it is especially challenging to find housing options that do not cost more than 30 percent of their income.”
Survey findings
Results of the committee’s 22-question housing needs survey showed 48 percent of the 450 respondents anticipate that they, their children or their parents will have to move out of town to find housing they need.
One survey-taker said they had family members who had lived and raised their families in New Fairfield since the 1950s but left town due to lack of housing options.
“These family members helped build a lot of the roads, volunteered at the firehouse and can no longer afford the taxes on their houses,” they wrote. “I am also looking into moving to another town due to housing issues.”
Some residents said lack of housing options have prevented their adult children from moving to town.
“Our son and his fiancé would like to rent in town. Our small lake home does not have room for an in-law setup (and) reasonably-priced (apartment) options are very, very limited,” one survey-taker wrote.
“My daughter and her family tried to move here a few years ago but there were zero houses in her price range on the market,” said another.
One survey-taker advocated for more multi-family housing in New Fairfield, saying “apartments zoned around the town center would help to make it a more vibrant area.”
While 46 percent of survey respondents said New Fairfield needs housing options affordable to entry-level teachers and essential service workers, less than 40 percent said the same about rental housing options for seniors, young families and young adults.
According to the committee’s draft housing plan, there was larger support for housing options that allow older adults to “downsize,” with 57 percent of respondents saying it’s needed.
More affordable housing
With only 66 dedicated affordable housing units in New Fairfield, one of the two main goals stated in the Housing Opportunities Committee’s draft plan is to create 20 more units in town over the next five years.
The committee — whose other goal is “to make it easier for residents to live comfortably and safely in housing units best suited to their life cycle needs,” according to the plan — set the goal at 20 units based on “the organizational and physical infrastructure that New Fairfield currently has in place.”
Its draft plan notes that the creation of 20 dedicated affordable housing units would not necessarily require new construction — existing structures could be used — and the town would not be asked to pay for the construction or operation of the units.
“There are many existing state and federal programs that pay for the construction of new affordable homeownership and rental opportunities,” the plan states, noting that organizations like the New Fairfield Housing Trust could apply to those funding programs to create needed housing options.
In addition to defining affordability and assessing needs and current housing stock, the committee’s draft plan identified reasons why housing has become unaffordable — not just in New Fairfield, but at the regional, state and national level.
Joycelyn Ayer — director of the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity, who’s been guiding the Housing Opportunities Committee through its housing plan process — said one reason is that housing costs have increased at a faster rate than income over the last 30 years, and another has to do with demand and supply.
“We just haven’t been building — especially diverse types of housing for different needs — so the supply has not kept up with demand,” Ayer said during the Housing Opportunities Committee’s Dec. 5 meeting.
Zoning
In addition to high construction costs and availability of buildable land, according to the plan, another factor contributing to the housing supply-and-demand problem is zoning.
The plan notes that in New Fairfield, single-family homes on large lots are the easiest to get zoning approval for under the town’s current zoning regulations, which require 2 or more acres in most areas to build a home.
One way to create additional housing options in town, according to the plan, is with accessory apartments. While they are permitted with a special permit, the committee’s draft affordable housing plan includes a recommended Zoning Commission strategy to allow accessory apartments by site plan review instead.
“Some communities do not allow accessory apartments to be used as short-term rentals because it doesn’t help create year-round housing options (while) some towns allow a first accessory apartment to be short-term but a second accessory apartment cannot,” Ayer said. “We know there are a lot of details to be thought about in there, but we put that in there for the Zoning Commission’s consideration.”
With the survey results and an outline of its draft plan presented to the town’s zoning commission, Housing Opportunities Committee chair Anita Brown said the next step is to send the plan to the Board of Selectmen for approval.
In the meantime, she said people could send feedback regarding the committee’s draft affordable housing plan to [email protected].
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