ah
[Music]
he
e e
discussion about affordability who helps
how we have a housing shortage across
spum both on the lower end of the market
and the higher end of the market so it's
a holistic approach that you take to
address the C
so we'll get a little bit more into this
as we give three Senators thank
you thank you Jean and thank you for
your leadership on all the plan and
getting this work going um so our agenda
tonight is going to be robust of course
and we're going to try not to just
present at you but as you saw in the
flyer this is a community dialogue and
what we mean by that is we want to share
information but we also want to gather
information and have you guys talking to
each other and to us to prioritize what
are horable housing needs strategies
challenges what you want to get out of
these sessions moving forward because we
also saw the series this is our first
and I want to acknowledge president uh
Bas here from the council who I didn't
see come
in you guys want to say anything or
welcome
or
welcome thank you for coming um so our
agenda today is we're gonna have a
couple of presentations with David and
Sarah Lori and I will talk a little bit
about the declaring housing as a human
right as resolution that's currently
going through our legislative Council
process and then we're going to break up
into small groups and we'll be able to
talk and report back and we'll talk
about next steps um this was also I'll
say uh published or it's a special
meeting of the legislative Council uh
Human Services committee we don't have
for so we don't have to uh we're not
going to have that rules or that process
here today because we don't have just
wanted to acknowledge that and why that
was why would not
that here to actually have a meeting um
to the next slide so as we get started
and before I head it over to David I
think we you heard a little bit from the
mayor about the importance of affordable
housing to the administration and to the
legislative Council and if you've been
following any of the legislative Council
and administration meetings over the
past couple of years you've
I just wanted
tolight what we're be talking about
today one is years ago we updated
thein and really
had a while and because of the
that was I'm sure you all
remember but
alliss
don't but we have our issu and
soed to
was it go somewhere in the middle
and um that's one
thing updated our flight bed on State St
inre for
FL AR uh the council allocated $1
million to the home respon system and
mayor talk a little bit about our hand
and what we're doing and the H of that
money is that it's a threeyear process
at the end we're really hoping that
we've created a framework that will be
able to sustain long term and we have a
better relationship with the expert
syach
usort um recently we did a rent with the
town center and we did a rental registry
ordinance um and we're developing a
process team team are developing a
process now to uh register all of our
rental properties so we understand
what's out there who the owners are how
rental unit really have an understanding
of our rental market without that you
just W really know what's out there as
regard
to many SI
help
understand
and to develop a proactive inection
program so that we can make sure that
all of the units are high quality all of
our
inity and then the last thing I just
wanted to mention is this week the um
legislative Council committee pass out
resolution declaring hous rank will go
through that and what that means a
little bit later but that'll come back
to Council on the 23rd no 21st um it's
for the full committee um and that is
really just to bring together that we as
a
community uh declare that we all
residents should have access to Quality
accessible affordable housing in the
neighborhoods in which they choose so
this is some of the work that we've done
you the next slide but I'll say we're
not there there's so many challenges
still and we hand have a very
complicated housing market and so some
of the David's going to talk about some
of these but some of the challenges that
we're faced with like the country our
housing costs are rising and incomes are
not folowing that um and so we got
approximately 47% of our renters and 32%
of our homeowners are rent Burgin
meaning they're paying more than 30% of
their income towards their rent um which
is a sort of a National Standard and
anything more than that you're really
making hard choices
do I have food do I have transportation
do do I get that medical procedure I
need or do I pay my rent um those are
choices that no nobody should have to
make we also have a shortage of
affordable housing here in Hampton and
as Eugene mentioned at the lowest end
and the highest end um at the lowest end
there's about 1,500 short uh a shortage
of 1,500 units but I one other thing I
think is really important as that is
that a lot of our stock is also older
which means that not only is there a
shortage but some of the housing that we
do have we've got to look at the quality
of that housing and is it safe is it
habitable and how do we help ensure that
it's quality so that people are living
in units that are high quality and so
you'll see 1980 60% of before that so
that's something we should be keep
thinking
about homelessness in general across the
country is on the rise as well as in
Connecticut and and Sarah will talk
about that
um and I wanted to mention in addition
to having homelessness be on the rise
we're seeing across the country and in
Connecticut that some municipalities not
Hampton but some municipalities are
moving towards more punitive measures to
dealing with homelessness like fines for
arresting people for tearing down
encampments and just exasperating the
issue because those policies they cause
more harm generally than they do good
and so that is something that we here
want to make sure we we're talking
about another challenge in Campton as
it's across the country is historical
race uh racism and red lining um we all
know that that is linked uh to housing
100% and so things like access to
housing neighborhood
segregation um disparities and
homelessness and addictions really all
of that impacts people of color more
than it does other populations so that
is something we see here in handon as
well and then I just wanted to mention
that in addition to sort of these things
across the country we're also dealing
with issues like uh addressing our new
Hall foundations we've all just got many
people just got the revaluations and
we're all worried about that as well and
so these are issues well maybe not um
traditionally in communities when we
talk about housing but they are in our
community so we have to make sure we're
acknowledging and addressing those isses
as well so I just wanted to like
highlight some of our challenges as well
to keep that um top of
mind all right so I'm gonna be done in
like one minute so just this is what
we'll discuss tonight uh Eugene went
over this but hopefully you'll learn a
little bit about what is affordable
housing why is it so difficult to find
and develop affordable housing um and
we're going to talk a little bit about
what we mean when we say housing is a
human right and what the res solution is
and then how we can support our
neighbors experiencing homelessness and
how we can support support pable housing
development in our community you'll see
on your table that there are a card not
cards as we're talking today if you have
ideas shop them down if you have
questions chop them down um we'll have
some time for Q&A going back and forth
but we want to make sure we have your
ideas going forward so if there's no
cards there if you need more we got T up
front and then when we do break out
we'll have sheet to collect that
information as well so that is our
introduction of framing hopefully that
gives us a sense of where we're headed
tonight um does that give folks a sense
of where we're headed
tonight a little bit okay um with that
I'm gonna hand it over to David who is
going to kick us off and sort of an
overview of our affordable housing plan
um and the work we've done to get there
right well good evening very very good
to be here uh I'm pretty impressed
pretty good turnout for little he uh and
I'm not sure the other 14 pounds of
could have measured up the way you guys
have uh so I'm gonna uh tell you a
little bit about my job and what I do
and how I do it and then we're going to
go through what I like to think of is
housing
101 uh which may uh be something that
you know already but my guess is that
you may a few things and few insights
and we'll take some
questions as as Sarah said I'm David I
am scad's housing consultant scrad south
regional House Council of governments is
uh the 15 towns in and around New Haven
including hamen very diverse set of
towns some quite rural some very very
Urban settings some Suburban settings
each town has its own housing issues own
housing market demography
is different its typography is different
politics is different it housing stock
is different so each town has to come up
with its own solution and that's why uh
my job is to help each town and help
them with their particular needs and the
resources that they need at scrad uh we
have I've been there for five years
we've done a number of meetings on key
issues they're all recorded the
materials are collected it's a library
that's available uh mayor and all of you
uh so you can uh take advantage of that
uh we uh have done a number of tours of
homeless uh service facilities uh mixed
income housing we've created videos we
have a video of mixed income housing
four different locations in the region
we uh just completed a video uh on the
83g statute again that's just been
posted that's available to everybody and
we are creating a video now just done
did the filming uh of who lives
affordable housing because as you know
uh in a lot of towns there's resistance
to the creation of mixed income and
affordable housing because I think the
people living in those units drug
dealers and gang leaders and have wild
parties and you know we know that's not
true uh and so we interviewed eight of
them and uh we will have that on the
video and showing not only how beautiful
their apartments are uh but also the
development St in and try to disabuse
people of the stereotypes that they
believe in sometimes are make them
resistant to housing creation so I'm
going to go through this now uh as I say
uh uh just to kind of understand the the
key factors and methods that need okay
um the right approach and this is the
right approach as you can see Town
resents come together that's really
important okay this is something that
you have to do together I like to say
always I never tell any Town what to do
that's not my place I generally I don't
know enough about the town to do it uh
but I will tell you what other towns are
doing and I think that's important uh
because you can pick up some hints some
tools some methods some strategies uh
that other towns are employing so we'll
try to go through some of that uh H what housing is and is it's vital uh if
you provide uh a home that is
appropriate to a family's needs and is
Affordable uh that can provide
opportunity to that uh household and
those children in
uh and let's just go back to
them uh and and and it provides comes to
the uh the people you need in the
community when I was in partnership with
strong communities uh we used to say uh
strong communities all kinds of people
and all kinds of people need all kinds
of hous need real range of units not
only for the different types of people
but as I think all of you know and some
of you are as old as I am the old uh
over the course of your life you need a
different type of unit when you get out
of college you're sharing with three
friends and after a while you get tired
of their beer cans on the floor right so
you want your own place and then maybe
you meet somebody you want to spend a a
partner with and you move in with them
and then maybe you get married and then
maybe you have kids and then maybe you
have more kids and then you need more
space and then you get old and you don't
want to shovel snow anymore or R Lees
and so you need a different kind of
place and then you get really old you
need a place for services
think about it we probably seven places
during the of
heal
thats what what isn't housing isn't
difficult
understand you need to have the supply
to be the demand for the prices go
up so so Sarah talked about you being
1500 units so short of you don't
necessarily have to create 1500 units of
housing you need to create enough
housing so Supply then meets the demand
and the price comes
down okay so 10 people want um tlor
Swift tickets and you only have eight
tickets they're going to bid up the
price all you have to do is create find
two more tickets and now you have enough
Supply
youand so that's it's also not
controversial pres will come together
and learn talk and answer each other's
questions and understand each other
thanks um so like I said I think most
people in most communities that I've
seen are open-minded they're willing to
listen uh it's not wrong with them to
have say you hear about uh people who uh
say not
backyard or here's another acronym my
banana build absolutely nothing
anywhere people don't want to he see
anything um think about I don't get down
on people get a at first because when
you think about it all of us largest
check most of us ever
write is that check we buy our house
right and everything's tied up in that
house Family Security children's
education their retirement it's not
exactly
irrational to worry about who's moving
in down the block right now you may be
wrong about that you may think that it's
going to lower your property vales and
research shows it does it's bring a to
school children SW down School en
research examp that's not true it's
going to bring Crime or it's to bring a
lot of or it's going to
ugly but it's not crazy to worry about
that that guy has to come to reading
Express his
concerns most people will listen if they
first hear think they've been
heard so that's why it's great that
you're together and it will be great
that you
continue to have conversations smaller
larger have break out let everybody
Express
um like I said people people live in a
town because they love the town I don't
know how many of you how many of you
took behavioral psychology in college
okay so what you learn if you recall is
uh that I'm motivator for people a fear
of
loss they want whoose their friends or
their family or the quality of life in
their
town and so the idea of who's moving
in and who are they going to be and
what's it going to look like going to
change
I love that I
live you got deal with
that
that's so like I say you want to be
inclusive you want to build something
together uh and and the first step is to
learn and you've done this with your
portal hous you have a Lear with your
has and what it needs and maybe not most
important but as important you put it
you know the the realtors in the crowd
know the location location location well
you know that's really true you know if
you can find places in town and and a
lot of towns in the region are doing
this guilford's doing it Madison's doing
it uh uh Branford is doing it Grand
trying to figure out where can we put it
that would be advantageous
and that will not change the town in the
way
people so that's normally on Commercial
strips uh along bus lines in the town
center near the rail station places
where a little more density is tolerable
palatable with the structure
handle um and you want to promote Choice
as I say and you want to deflate mths
and we'll get to that a little more in
minut
and then decide on goals you what's your
goal you get a lower cost bur to the
town that's a good goal everybody says
we need to know exactly how many units
need you know what you'll
know that you have enough and people are
not burden by their housing bus
not their familiar with that term you're
burdened by your housing bus if you're
spending more than 30% when I got my
first Department probably your folks
told me the same thing my folks said
don't spend more than 25% of your
monthly income on rent because you need
75% left for food clothing and
transportation Health Care maybe once in
a while right uh HS to
30% because people need money left over
for other necessities but we have too
many people in this
state and in this town and in a lot of
towns that are bured by their housing CL
and that's really really bad for them
but it's also bad for local Merchants
they local merant and it's really bad
for the state because as you recall uh
the state collects sales tax revenue
people are not buying stuff they're not
paying sales
tax so housing is really important
really B for everyone and it's something
we have want and of course you know you
want to lower barriers 2,000 and allow
people to come into your your town is
projected by the way to increase uh uh
population significantly between 2020
and 2040 by that still about 12%
something like
that so that's why for
those you don't have enough supply for
those people up
price you can probably have more
households more people want to be able
to uh um what to remember well uh when I
was in the partnership with strong
communities we came up with the idea
that how housing is the foundation of
opportunity because if you can live in a
community that has high resource
schools you can have education success
and that doesn't just mean honors
classes and at classes maybe you want to
have art and Music Theater because not
every kid is good CS you want to have
schools that offer
range family have
into
community that that has schools that
provide resources for different kinds of
kids that's great so that's why you want
affordable units in a lot of counts so
people rich people should be the only
people who have
choices where to live uh Environmental
Quality you want to Avid
SP they make use of public transit and
infrastructure that's always there it's
related to transportation services have
people around the train station more
people will take the train and then
around the train station we get a play a
dry cleaner and a place get a suddenly
your town will become
Destin
they uh access to healthare you want
housing your transit or your places week
and access jobs training shopping and
Recreation uh but understand you know
there will be differen in opinion and
they will remain everybody have
next uh why do towns create more housing
op well in a state where about 98% of
the local Revenue comes from the
property
tax devop the property because unproved
property is not going to bring you a lot
of property tax revenue uh you want
workers for local employers I am
spending a lot of time these days
talking the economic development
Commissions in different counts because
what you begin to understand what
employers towns understand is they
operate most of them on pretty tight
margins they can't afford to raise wages
to track workers from other towns so in
order for them to fill jobs they need
labor pool in their
town so employers now are figuring out
oh we got to get
behind people want housing in this time
we have I'm happy to tell you right
whenever I get right
because it's in their interest have
workers used to be some guy drive from
five TOS over to take a job down now he
can get the job in his he does need to
do we're finding the employers Governor
says 90,000 job State well you know
divide that by 169b and bu pound
workers uh Shoppers Appliance for
businesses reduce pressure on C Services
pleas you know I was in a welcome town
the other day I won't name it uh their
food pantry is going want they don't
realize that they have low income people
in their
town uh you know your Police Services
people are going to have their hands you
can't provide housing people are
sleeping on
uh and like I said meeting the changing
needs of count residents
thanks uh what are the changing needs
elderly people like I say need the
downs and guess what if they can't move
out of the home that they're living in
this is no place for them to move to and
remember they want to do it in their
town because they spend 40 or 50 years
in their friends and their family and
the church and the dock or in this town
if they can't move out that single
family home does go on the market and
now you have a shortage of single family
homes again the supply is not feeding
with man a h increase single family
price and that's what we see all over
the state uh you want Boomers to
downside you want adult children to come
home to the count grow up and a lot of
parents love their kids and they just
they don't want to see them on Easter
and Christmas they want to see them
Sunday down during the week at the
concert or the little weekend uh and
like I say to allow key workers you have
other options
please uh so Connecticut's current
housing situation just so you're aware
we have the seventh highest median
monthly housing prices in
State uh in Connecticut 66% about 23 own
34% rent a little different SC Town 61
and 39 and it's actually fluctuates I
think the latest I saw was this but it's
been about
6040 ship and rent
um Genie coefficient what is that that
is a statistical measure of wealth
disparity okay so you know the old joke
they tell about statistics and how you
can lie with them so they say that a guy
who's got his head in an oven and his
feed in a bucket of water is on average
comfor well you can't just go with that
right
we have a very wealthy State we are
second generally after New York in terms
of overall
cap but we have huge wealth dispari so
we are
second that's measure wealth disparity
so what does that mean that means we got
a lot of Reach
people have a lot of Lo people and what
are retrieval drive up the price of all
goods and services including housing
they can afford Tech we'll get to those
statistics in a minute so that's why
housing very expensive in the state and
why a lot of people are by their housing
bu 600,000 workers don't ear the housing
rage what is that Statewide that's $
3454 cents that's what you have to earn
an
hour in order to afford a typical two
bedroom apartment stay that translates
as you can see to about $71,000 year
that used to be a lot of money any
in this
specific
U Metropolitan statistical area it's a
little lower it's about $32 a change so
that translates to about
$667,000 a year $67,000 a year is not
earned by a lot of occupations in the
state that guy or that woman who works
in a little machine shop making the
crucial part for a helicopter atori or
at electric vote Mak
$67,000 we those people in the state
they need place to live your EMTs your
Preschool
teachers some of your beginning cops I
mean just go down the list there are a
lot of occations in the state that
aren't paying that
exence uh like I said demand and Supply
uh Sarah uh uh uh referred to this
earlier here's what's happened since the
beginning of the pandemic
2019 uh home prices have risen now over
60% in the last year theyve done 60 cl
to
70% what that's done is taken people who
are low and moderate end of income
spectrum and push them into the rental
market because they couldn't compete
because as you know homes were selling
for cash without an inspection so those
people couldn't compete they offer you
know 10 20 $50,000 more the ab priz to
get out did so that pushed people into
the rental market which drove up demand
there the demand exceeded the supply so
rental prices went up 20% and a s
pointed out led to
evictions that drove almost as up as you
hear better knows a lot more than me
from
Sarah homelessness went
uh two years ago 133% then last year 3%
then this past year another
13% I got a call from H the service
providers that that that Sarah works
with saying in the scra region we need
another warming shelter can we do
something in the western part of near
Branford and Eastern part Branford in
East Haven and we work with work with a
few people and we got a homeless a cold
weather this is real and the ri effect
is real so the shortage of housing units
is a big big problem we have to create
more uh the median sales price for a
home in Connecticut is uh 440,000 of 10%
last year and then uh just the other day
the med listing uh was about
$360,000 both realtor and vill so what
does that mean the old Fanny May measure
used to be uh you need to earn about a
third of the selling price in order to
afford the house so
$360,000
$120,000 it's a lot of money for a lot
of people to be able to own house now
they have the rent rent will
next why don't we have the housing stock
we need basically uh this maybe more
than you want to know you know this
about two-thirds of towns in the state
have created 40% or more of their
housing since 1970 what does that mean
that means when I was young man in the
early 70s and I wanted to buy a
home count said great and they build
foot bab
generation and a guy would come in and
he'd buy a 40 acre cornfield in a town
and tell the town I want to put 40
Colonials each of those Acres or one per
acre and uh s great and the goty built
them in 18 months and he sold him about
six months and everybody was happy and
that was great for about 40 years of
2010 when the stars lined up because in
2010 we had a huge number of Baby Bo
beginning to retire and their Millennial
children were getting out of college and
they both needed the same kind of M
family unit was one of the downsizes and
the Millennials not only didn't have a
lifestyle where they wanted a single
family home but they also had enormous
debt Connecticut is about
13 education that about $36,800 and
believe me if you've been to private
school or any kind of graduate school
it's north of them and so those
Millennials even if they could get a
mortgage didn't want to take on any more
de so suddenly you had
Millennials and their parents all one
from the same kind of
unit which most of towns getting Happ
and that is the beginning of the housing
crisis not only in the state but
Nationwide okay so as a result we got
almost three quarters of town had 70%
single family this town's a little
better only about 60% really in better
shap than most
towns not
enough so now you have a lot of suburbs
in the state looking to make changes and
looking to find location where they can
build
extend they can 10 15 20% set
aside
next
uh so a little bit more about housing
the average household budget 32% is
spent on housing another
19% on Transportation but if you can
live within a half mile of mass transit
that 19% go down to 9% there 10
percentage points in housing they can
buy more clothing they can buy more food
they can buy a movie ticket once in a
while so if you can build housing your
Transit that's a really good thing um
energy costs used to be between 6 and 12
electric costs are up high so it's
probably a little higher than that uh
then of course if you have trout here
means that can be Clips uh even your
housing C that's why the governor spent
good part up to the State of the State
PS talk about uh helping on Child Care
uh 28 municipalities uh where uh 10% or
more of the the housing stock is income
restricted but that means 141 have less
than 10% and that's a problem uh you
guys know about Alice United Way of
Connecticut does its Alice study some of
you know Alice is an acronym that stands
for asset limited income constraint
employ what we used to call I think
delicately the Working Poor
these are
people who go about their business they
go to work they feed their kids they do
the best they can uh they're invisible
because they don't ask for a lot uh but
Mom's hours get cut at the Walmart where
the carburetor goes or the water heater
goes and suddenly they can't make it and
they wind up at Food Pantry first and
then they wind up uh at a shelter
okay uh there are a lot of those people
in in uh uh the state uh 140 towns have
at least 20% pal households andon has
more andon has about
37% okay like I said these people are
invisible largely but they are there so
don't
uh you think that just because you don't
see that on bread line that they're not
having time nice
one uh so what factors should you
consider uh you got to bring prices down
you do with more Supply uh and you
provide subsidy where you can subsidy is
not something that I'm sure mayor would
tell you towns are not flush and they
can't be handing out uh cash to
developers but towns can do allow more
density the more density you allow uh
the easier it is to develop your out the
de if you can uh reduce the parking
requirement for a developer uh every square foot that he doesn't have
to devote uh to a car he can devote to a
housing unit uh there are other ways uh
that that counts can help the Dos U
their materials labor land and now
Insurance costs are way high I read I
ran into a development in juster the
real the other day there's been a lot of
development in the state helping his
insurance costs are up between 20 25%
this
year we all know about home insurance
have SE huge tragedy in
California so uh developers are having a
hard time we have to do the best we can
um density is tolerable and advantageous
like is said uh in many places uh but
affability is not as valuable in some
places you know honestly I talk to Ral
towns and say you can it's great if you
build affordable units in your town but
if that poor resident has to buy uh an
old slumper for $500 again it's 8 miles
to the gallon and breaks down every two
weeks I'm not sure we've done them a
favor it's really better to create
affordability close to jobs and training
and transportation and shopping uh so
and and you know High resource schools
um uh and we can also reduce squ and
auto emission as an enhancement as
Transit by uh thinking about that next
one um and like I say it's all about you
guys nobody should dictate to you guys
should come together and do this scrad
is uh facilitating Community
conversations all over the region we
have people who will bring together
everyone and let that guy who's a little
nervous about who's going to move into
his community come and express himself
get his questions answered okay let
people come
together other Build Together towns are
creating housing committees some towns
say I we want to create affordable
housing committee you know what I say
don't call it an affordable housing
committee call it a housing committee
because what you want to do is stress
universality we all have housing needs
this shouldn't just be about should be
principally about low inome people who
by the housing bus but a lot of people
need housing I learned from my son who
some of you know that the way FDR got
social security pass is guess what he
made it for everybody
if he had just made it for low income
people might not have passed to Congress
so your town wants to think about
everyone's hous because as they say they
change that's we way to get everybody
into
conversation and like I said we're
creating videos uh surveys webinars we
can share all that stuff next like
this uh you got to combat
stereotype misconception um everybody
says you build multif family hous you're
going to get a million school kids well
that's
marar rord university did the research
almost 20 years ago and it's been worn
out Time After Time by development after
development think about it the
one-bedroom unit R found gets
0.04 public school age children or four
public school age children for every1
bedroom unit
build CU who what parent is going to
live in a one-bedroom unit with a child
just doesn't Happ I've seen that one
time 24 years of doing this work
two-bedroom unit
0.27 or in other words one in every four
two-bedroom units and again it's
intuitive two-bedroom unit is going to
be two single sharing or Grandma who
wants a second bedroom for the grandkids
when they come on the weekend or a young
couple that wants a second bedroom as an
office and then for their friends when
they come visit and one out of four
times be a parent with child three
better get 1.38 start to get more but
believe me in development after
development you just don't get many
school kids don't let people tell you
that property values MIT did a study in
2008 bourban Institute did a study in
2022 beautifully designed multif family
housing which is now not lower
neighboring property values the research
shows it and you can ask pretty much
every assessor in state doesn't happen
don't believe that quality of life
doesn't bring people who live income
restricted people work unfortunately
just don't get paid that
much Poli and then like I said the
design density everybody thinks it's the
density and they imagine father Village
of cre IO 20 story building Nam cind
block on the walls hanges on the ground
bullets flying through the air that's
just not
true I'll show you some pictures in a
minute indicate
that uh I already talked about these
numbers we can go to the next
one uh next one
please uh yeah I mean we know from from
uh you know Rand at Harvard they've done
you know again it's not quite believe
kids who go to High resource schools do
better on the SATs they learn more and
so we have to give families the
opportunity to move to the school
district that works for their child you
I live in West Harford my son was not a
sports guy he was not a tough guy he was
not a popular guy he was a theater and
music guy
and if he had been able to go to Whole
high school there are other kids like
him if he had to go to some other high
schools in the state he might have been
bullied or shun to the side he went to a
high school because we could afford to
live in a town that had a high school
that had what he needed and he's lost so
families just because they low mod
income should not be stuck with very few
choices they should be able to go places
where uh mom and dad can get jobs and
training where the children get the
education that they next one
please so questions and I'm almost done
that are relevant you got to think about
what is Affordable house you all got
some FAQs fre ask questions on your
tables there that can answer some of
those uh how important is naturally
uring housing that's housing that some
people think is Affordable but it may
not be affordable to everybody uh if
Supply it's not bad but unless it's
income restricted it's not going to
remain affordable for people so that's
the important thing to remember um what
should we uh seek to learn from other
towns experience a lot some towns have
similarities but no town is exactly
alike see that'll look at that
next um what tools uh should we measure
so maybe the number of B families in the
town maybe the percentage of households
that are bured by their housing cost how
can we lower development cost like I
said density relaxing the parking
requirement uh and again that's going to
be development by development location
by location Lu you have terrific people
who I know in this town who are doing
the planning and the zoning and the
administration and they'll do what they
can I'm sure to help developers when
they can um no where the affordable
housing is in town and then here's the
last question people say to me um our
Town's built out
we have no room to build anymore and I
say there's no such thing as buil out if
there was you'd never see a crane in
manhatt
okay housing buildings get knocked down
there are a few homes in Manhattan for
the 1600s and they save for historical
leads but guess what the rest of them
got knocked down and they build other
stuff so you can look at this
interesting and I'll leave you with
this a couple years ago Eugene knows
this we had a firm come down to the bus
to help handon and other towns create
their affordable housing PL I drove him
around and run the SE we passed one of
those old strip malls you guys have seen
them six to eight stores built in the
50s right three of the storefronts are
vacant I said has anybody thought about
the idea that of approaching landlords
of those old strip malls say when the
Lees are up on the other three how about
we knock this down Reon for multi hous
typically it's on a commercial strip or
bus line be a great place to put housing
nobody would be upset about it it would
mess up a neighborhood he said not only
have they thought about it but the
metropolitan area planning Council which
is the regional planning agency in the
Boston area about 100 towns in study and
found that if they knock down just
10% of the old strip malls and they can
create 120,000 units of housing so the
towns which don't have Redevelopment
authorities like big cities do have to
begin thinking in those terms just
because something's there now doesn't
mean it always has to be there we can
redevelop okay so think about that next
slide okay here so here are a few
examples of towns that build beautiful
uh affordable mixed income housing Canan
next
Avon these are all upper uh income towns
next pleas uh sonton that was actually
built by our current Commissioner of
House s moscara next please Farmington
it's duplexes really town houses very
nice next
bfield next South witer these are
elderly units these are actually about
40 years old and and I think a lot of
elderly units now are being built and
not uh steps which I think is probably
good next this is Fairfield uh next one
wng single family you may have seen this only up about two exits on the
Meritt Parkway it's called oo Village
and it was a uh light industrial
property uh uh and it was uh friendly
83g and they built 80 of these 1600 foot
single family homes and uh they're
actually freestanding condos because you
get if you buy one you do all your
landscaping and about a 6ot wide strip
around the home and the rest of the area
is taken care of by the property manager
and it's 30% of the units are income
restricted and it looks better today
than it did one the first bu because the
landscape Allon and the property
management
isur
next uh well that's
me happy to talk to you uh I don't know
if we have time for questions now or you
want to wait till
later okay I one real quick what's the
830 G
you you have you have the frequency
asked question so please into that it's
there yeah
and
yes I have to B you all good night and
go clean up my kid
puke rather be all of
so I'm Sarah Fox I'm CEO of the
Connecticut Coalition and homelessness
and I'm really pleased to be here with
you all today um this community
discussion is so critically important um
I have slides which we're not going to
go through because I'm gonna repat
myself to 10 minutes so we can have some
lot of critical pieces of conversation
um but I want to say this to you you I
um I have a three-year-old and upside
old my wife and I are very proud of our
family and when I walked my kids out
today school I made sure they had their
hats they had their gloves they had
their boots um and they had everything
they could to stay
warm yesterday I had a call with an
Outreach worker in New Haven and he
shared with
me that and I get emotional I can't help
it but these are the stories I deal with
every day um that he and his team are
driving around and putting blankets and
hand warmers on people who are outside
sometimes passed out leaving on our
streets for me as a person who's
experienced homelessness I will tell you
that the impact of that is great and
sometimes it makes me question our
entire Humanity as a state um and I
think that the conversations that we're
having here about who we are about how
we are and the places that we live and
the neighbors we need to care for
because they're just like every single
one of us I know many moms across the
state who are driving their kids to
school then they're driving their kids
to daycare driving their kids to school
um they're going to work um and they're
returning to their car to sleep at night
that's a reality for some of our
families we know that there are
approximately on every day um every day
5,000 people our neighbors across the
state experiencing
homelessness we know that there are
9,000 people even just 900 I'm sorry I
just really like blew the number um 900
people experiencing unchild
homelessness and 500 children
experiencing
homelessness we also know that Across
the Nation we've seen an 18% rise over
the last year in
homelessness in Connecticut we've seen a
133% rise however over the past couple
of years we've faced huge challenges
across the state and so many of the
housing issues that David spoke to
impact us and the homeless response
system in ways that I cannot even
describe prior to the pandemic
we had people sort of coming into our
system we were the homeless response
system so the network of care that we
provide people experiencing housing in
security and homelessness they come into
our system we work collaboratively
across the homeless response system with
providers and case managers and people
doing hard work every day to connect
people to housing options and we were
able to have a constant flow we weren't
making huge strides but we were making
big enough strides to improve the
quality of life for many today it looks
very different post pandemic all of the
challenges that David described are
having a huge impact on who we are and
how we do business in the homeless
response system today babies are
spending their first year of their life
in shelter that is their home we have
people who are working making $50,000 a
year which is a lot more than sum
earnings and they're sleeping in their
cars and this is in every single
Community across the state this isn't
you know this issue is not just a New
Haven issue it's not just a Harford
issue it's an everyone issue and as the
housing landscape changes we do not have
the right portfolio of housing to help
our most vulnerable nor even those who
are in our Workforce we know in the
homeless response system 82% of our own
Workforce cannot afford a one-bedroom
apartment we also
know that in areas like Fairfield County
22% of people providing critical
services to people experiencing
homelessness are actually either housing
insecure or homeless
themselves and this isn't just in the
homeless response system we have many people in providing critical roles
all essential roles all across every
single Community who are grappling with
housing insecurity and while we sit here
today and we stand here um I'd say If
you think about you know your family um
and you think about you know I I talked
to so many people across the state who
say you know my kids are never moving
up my kids are just permanent residents
um and it makes a lot of sense because
there is no to move too and that has an
impact
on on all that we do all that we are as
stat um so one of the things that Sarah
spoke to earlier was um some of the
harsher penalties we're seeing across
the state some of the reactionary
policies that are taking place because
of this increase in
homelessness and um and it is happening
um we're seeing people who you know
people um Brothers sister sisters moms
um who are outside um many elderly who
have never been homeless before in their
lives whose rent is increased who are
going to their cars um I'm getting
record and I I get so many calls from um
elderly agencies um from area agencies
on Aging um of people who are really
seriously concerned about the amount of
people who are you know who are older um
and have no place to go no place to home
anymore because they're Rees um and I don't want to be Doom in Gloom
it's not even who I am I have hope um
you know I have been working at CCH the
Connecticut Coalition then homeless
since
2011 I um I have seen what we can do as
a state when we have housing when we
have resources and we have services and
we can do amazing things we actually
decreased chronic homelessness in this
state
by
73% when we were at the peak of our
performance and it felt fantastic we had
people who had been out in their cars
for five years who people said they
would never be successful in housing and
they were successful in their housing
they started their lives over so I stay
in this job because I know we can do it
I know we must do it and I know it's
imperative for the entire state that we
improve our Quality of Life by if by
increasing our housing stock and
ensuring that we are serving those who
are in housing crisis and experiencing
homelessness today because with every
person that we house it causes a
positive risle effect that impacts every
single one of us we increase potential
and capacity for everyone and so I'm GNA
um I am very available um and I'm happy
to continue this conversation I really
appreciate the work that's taking place
here and the comp compassion approach to
housing insecurity and homelessness it
means so much and I think handen could
really be a leader not only here in the
state but Across the Nation and how to
build and move towards the state that we
need to be um tomorrow um we have a
press conference at 12:30 at the
legislative office building and we're
kicking off our legislative campaign um
and we're going to be asking for $33.5
million um for the homeless respons
system focus on prevention preventing
homelessness before it begins investing
in the crisis response system and
ensuring that we have well resourced
organizations and weid staff who can do
this job and help us get it done and
that we are moving towards having the
housing and the services we need to
ensure everyone has the opportunity to
thrive so if you're interested in
getting involved if you're interested in
having these conversations about how we
can do this differently um I'm very
happy to connect so with that I'll sit
down and let us move on to the next
peie all right so the next piece of our
agenda is we're going to talk a little
bit about things that we all can be
doing together as a community so we've
got some background of from David and
Sarah of there's big picture what's out
there and how approach this work so what
I want to do is one area that we think
you all could help us participate in is
the Town Council has a resolution that
they're looking at to declare housing is
right and what we are doing with
that what we're doing that is declaring
housing as a human
right what that has sort of nine
principles that we are outlining in that
and the first is declaring that everyone
in h all residents in
hampon have the right to an accessible
affordable quality place to uh call home
and commun their choice but we also
recognize we move to the next slide I'm
very quickly on this if we want to have
time for your
conversation that this is going to take
resources we've heard from David some of
like the work that goes into this and
the development so that we want to
maximize resources and not just
resources here in Hampton but we want to
have Federal resources State resources
and really be looking at how we can
bring those to Hampton to build more
affordable housing more quality housing
and that includes State programs like
home or flex and and things like that
next Slide the third principle is that
we're really going to Center equity and
choice around uh housing as a human
right and making sure that um we're
addressing historical disparities
historical racism and really um
inequalities that exist for folks with
disabilities and making sure that it's
centered inly the four principle of the
resolution is around um what we talked
about experiencing homelessness earlier
and that we want well we are very proud
of hton and that we do not use a law
enforcement approach when we uh have
encampments or we come across people
experienc homelessness and that we've
got a social worker within our Police
Department who really helps engage with other social services and we want
to commit that our town is going to
continue to do that particularly as
um other towns have moved to other uh
fines and arrests and we want to commit
to not doing that and really using
evidence based
practices next we have um urging our
state legislation particularly we have
state represent Suite here to a pass
State legislation that will help us to
do more and enable us to be able to to
have an ordinance that we wouldn't do
these things and to have um State
legislation around um arrest not using
legal approach
six is um making sure that uh people
experiencing homelessness are free of
discrimination based on their housing
status that they have access to public
places and spaces just like everybody
else does um
seven is uh helping as we talked before
about the homelesses resp response
system that we're really developing that
over the next few years and we're
working across our agencies have been
the town to do that and with our uh
community members
eight is leveraging additional resources
and then nine is um is working with our
delegation again to uh help enable
tenant protections and have state
enabling legislation we're very limited
at the municipality and what we can do
around uh tenant protections and so we
want to make sure that we want to ask
our state delegation to be able to allow
off to be able to do more by passing the
legislation so the last slide is like
this resolution you can find it online
on our website
um but we are we passed it out of
committee on the 7th and the next step
is to go to full council meeting on
January 21st and if you'd like we'd love
to hear your thoughts on the resolution
and how you if you support it if you
want changes if you have comments um so
you can submit that to lcu input ham.com
and you can do that all the way up until
3 pm on the day of the meeting so please
uh reach out to us and let us know your
thoughts and it's always great if you
support it to come out and let us know
that that way we can informs our
discussion so we talked a lot at you
guys and we really apologize for that
but the first meeting of any of these
things I feel like it's really level
setting and ground setting so God it's
really important to kind of have that
level setting you but now what we want
to do uh for a few minutes is have you
guys all take what you heard and talk
together so uh yeah so we have small
group we small group discussions and
then have your report out and you'll see
you're at tables um and that was
intentional so you have on your table a
pad and we will pass around a worksheet
but if you could just talk amongst
yourselves about these four questions
you know what are your priorities to
ensuring all HED residents have quality
homes that are accessible and affordable
and in need of of choice what challenges
or concerns do you have or do you see
that we need to address as a community
what are some opportunities that we can
build upon and then what ideas and
topics would you like to see address
that future community sessions either a
learning or Community dialogue sessions
things that we should be talking about
together in problem solving together
we're going to pass around these sheets
you can tackle all questions or one
question but we'll spend around 10
minutes in our groups and then I'll ask
we'll go around at the very end and if
folks can just kind of share together
what you talk one thing that you talked
about and we'll be taking notes and we
can collect these afterwards so that we
have that information and we can be um
using that for future
sessions okay does that sound good
everybody yes sorry I was wondering I
have one question about the
presentation discuss when at the very
beginning of the presentation there's
really B data about um the percentage of
renters that that we have then also that
are earning less than um 30% or where
their rent is more than 30% of their
income do we know or is there a way to
get information I guess Town specific
not necessarily Statewide but the number
of uh homeowners whose mortgages are
more than 30% or is there a way that we
have is there a way to see what that
information is specifically for I guess
yeah it's about 29% of homeowners are
burdened by their hous L and you can if
you go to the uh partnership to strong
community's website which is PSC
housing.org
and uh look for their housing data
profiles every town there a housing data
profile for every town in of the numbers
of people both with mortgages and
without mortgages who are by their
housing cost home owners as
well thank
you great great question clear I just
like to point out that leaving 10
minutes from this when we're after that
8:30 is really silly you've given us a a
long presentation and we got 10 minutes
to talk to each other and give you back
our input can we give back input to Mr F
perhaps I mean is there a website or
something that we can give back input to
thought about it so we have cards up
your eyes cards up here with our
information on them and we apologize we
didn't want we didn't mean to leave just
a 10 minutes but presentations went
longer we started a little bit late as
people were coming in but yeah there's
are we have cards up here there's no
cards at your table that we're going to
be collecting for information and then
the next time we get together we can
make sure to have we can start with more
sort of that conversation Andel and we
have that but we wanted to make sure
that there was some of this level
setting went along but I think the
important now is that folks talk to each
other and set a couple priorities for us
and then we can share those together
with we'll be posting that online
to
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yeah okay okay but I do hear some
conversations happening a lot of
conversations so love to open up anyone
from your group who would like to share
something that you talked
about you learn
stat are not Z so it's a lot of our
Z sizes are lower than
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10,000
questioners question around overlay the
spring blend overlay and how that um
could be removed or the impact that that
had you
answer that it's a village District it
was done per state statute at the time
when they overh hold the zoning um it
does have some additional restrictions
pertaining to use which requires a
special permit where some of just may
beow
that District didn't exist but I was
saying some of the barriers there for
homeowners is though lot sizes are
actually smaller than what are for minum
L sizes are that's what creates a lot of
the nonconformities and regarding the
development there was a question
regarding the walgre parking lot is that
the property owner has to have actually
interest in developing and talking to
the town regarding what the Future
Vision is so that hasn't happened in
that case the town to looking for devop
that um again it's private property so
realiz that approach
developer own so I'm within Plum Z so
they would approach me regarding the
plum it's always process and approval
process it's a little different so I'm
not going to be able to answer your
question because that's more of an
interment question than PL
question we can reach out to the mayor
now leave but we can ask if they
approach the owner
is there anyone I'd love to hear any
that came up in your table discussions
does anyone want to offer any insights
you had or what you talked
about
great you're gonna have to
sh funding and legislation
and addressing the foundations New Hall
Bill and then utility cost with
the great thank you that's very very
helpful anybody else want to share
something you guys talked
about
conversation just I've been reading a
lot of the American planners Association
how they accelerate guide book which is
pleora of ideas that working in other
states and other cities of you know add
making it easy to to add an AVU anel
accessory dwelling unit like a apartment
above your garage like an in-law
apartment or whatever um also having
pre-approved architectural PL so more
diverse developers can do like smaller
projects um as well as obviously density
um but also I was wondering if the hamon
is looking into doing surveys of vacant
land to identify areas that would make
sense for multi projects um whether it's
already townland or just
abandoned brown brown field whatever so
the comment or question was really
around sort of looking at other best
practices around um accessible dwelling
units and sort of pre-plan units that
are kind of smaller easier to develop
maybe um in law Apartments things that
you can do and then also thinking about
the asked if the town has looked at
vacant land or done the survey of
different vacant land or Brownfield to
look at what we have what what
properties we have to develop that did I
get that right um I don't know Eugene do
you want to answer that
question I'll just touch on
briefly discuss a little
bit so regarding like survey of
properties um the the way the way I'll
answer is will be looking into that the South Central Regional Council
governments actually just updated the
regional housing plan as part of that
they created a mapping tool with all the
parcels identifying some of the lands
including some of the vacancy there so
we're going to take a look at that um we
also have Ming regarding some of the
town the town parcel some of that vaces
that exist in those areas as well so I
mean I think the town will be happy to
work with developers to partner on
different aspects as we had in the p in
the past there's a funding opportunity
such as investment fund that potentially
the subsidy Gap associated
with
whater so I mean is the question is do
we have that information yeah yeah so
that information exists within our uh
land record and paria
are those potential forite development
or exploration well there's one of them
that the town is currently trying to
work with the state on regarding High
Meadows um the the other state state
owned land is mostly park
space Associated so they're not really
developable parcels and
that are identified as
that
located function
yeah so that's that's a good point happy
to
look yeah just to note that one of the
things the council has asked the town to
do as part of the human right resolution
is to look into possibility of land
trusting or or bringing some of these
parcels and saving them even if we can't
develop them immediately to not sell
them to um commercial or other
developers who would just roll them over
for a profit but maybe uh be able to
have some of properties for affordable
rental and Home Ownership housing long
term so this these ideas of surveying
either vacant or state or Municipal own
properties is really important as we
think about that idea and the town L
into that idea of possibly trusting
some um I know we are well over time for
10 minutes is there anyone who'd like to
share one last thing before we go or
should we talk
about oh I'll go just because my my team
had to leave so they are professionals
this is the work that they do um so they
um basically said that they were pretty
proud of handon I'm glad that we that we
are making this a priority and they felt
hopeful as
experts thank you thank you for being
here we really appreciate it um well
wonderful I would thank you all for
being here I apologize again that we did
not have enough time for actual s more
conversation and Q&A but we will do
another one of these we're going to talk
about the town uh about about the timing
of that um we're going to collect your
card so if you wrote something down just
leave on your table or you can hand it
to me and we'll uh think about what that
next uh topic may be we've talked about
doing stuff on the rental Registries and
inspection process we've talked about
doing sessions on tenant protections and
tenant rights um but there's lots of
topics we can dive into if you have them
I have cards up here you can email or
call me um and thank you again for being
really appreciate your participation
right on the table
thank you
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