Slossberg Leads Final Passage of Affordable Housing Reform

From the Office of Senator Gayle Slossberg: Senator Gayle Slossberg (D-Milford), Co-Chair of the Housing Committee, announced that after months of negotiating and working on the bill, legislation reforming Connecticut’s affordable housing system has been approved by both chambers of the General Assembly.

With the leadership of Senator Slossberg and Milford’s House delegation, Representative Kim Rose, Vice Chair of the Housing Committee, Representative Pam Staneski, and Representative Charles Ferraro, House Bill 6880 passed in the Senate by a vote of 30–6, following its earlier passage in the House of Representatives by a vote of 116–33.

“Milford residents have been calling for common-sense reforms to the Affordable Housing Act, and this bill accomplishes that,” said Senator Slossberg. “This bill enables the Affordable Housing Act to continue encouraging the creation of affordable housing options, but updates the law to reflect communities’ actual experience with the statute. I, along with the entire Milford delegation, worked very hard to secure passage of this bill, and am looking forward to seeing it signed into law.”

The bill that passed today makes several critical reforms that will restore the ability of communities like Milford to make sound planning decisions. First, the bill makes Ryder Woods, a mobile home community, count toward Milford’s application for an affordable housing moratorium. Including this affordable, livable community recognizes the reality of housing opportunities in Milford and will bring the city very close to securing a moratorium.

Second, the bill makes affordable housing moratoriums more achievable for midsize cities. The current threshold to qualify for a moratorium is 2%, this bill lowers that threshold to 1.5%. While this goal is still very difficult to attain, by lowering the threshold we have recognized that it was set at an unattainable level, placing communities of this size at great hardship.

Third, midsized cities like Milford will be able to get a 5-year moratorium for their second moratorium instead of the current four years. This will allow Milford and similar communities the time to ensure their housing stock is kept at target levels to qualify for future moratoriums.

Additionally, the bill would:

• Lower the amount of ‘Housing Unit Equivalency’ (HUE) points a municipality must attain before a moratorium can be declared from 75 to 50;
• Award bonus HUE points for family units that contain at least three bedrooms, elderly units when 60% of an affordable housing completion certificate is tied to family housing, and family units located within an Incentive Housing Zone;
• Count affordable housing that is developed in an Incentive Housing Zone (IHZ); and
• Changes the definition of median income applicable to IHZ’s to conform to 8-30g’s definition (the lesser of state median income and the area median income as determined by HUD).

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