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04/20/2021 04:45 PMThe Ad-hoc Affordable Housing Plan Advisory Committee (AHPAC), formed in December, heard an extensive presentation from members of the Guilford Foundation with the intention of learning about how Madison’s neighbors have tackled the issue in recent years as Madison grapples with a significant dearth of housing accessibility, as well as state-mandated deadlines and wider conversations about zoning and housing reform.
A 2017 law required all municipalities to either update or adopt a plan within five years to increase affordable housing. Madison does not have such a plan, and the AHPAC is charged simply with producing one ahead of the summer 2022 deadline.
AHPAC includes three members of the public appointed by the Board of Selectmen (BOS) along with one Planning & Zoning Commission representative, one Senior Commission representative, and one member of the Youth & Family Services Board.
Guilford Foundation Executive Director Liza Petra and foundation board member and local architect Mary Jo Kestner described what they saw as recent success in changing people’s attitudes in their town as they recognized the need to diversify their housing stock, while also detailing the challenges and missteps that hampered them along the way.
Guilford is also currently working on its own affordable housing plan to meet the state goals, but has been more proactive in pushing for a broader regional look at the issues, according Madison Town Planner Dave Anderson.
AHPAC members as well as First Selectmen Peggy Lyons also were able to ask questions about the process and how to best navigate the complex and controversial topic.
“We don’t want to face the mobs of people with pitchforks coming into public hearings and trying to fight against things. We want to make sure we’re creating something in town that people will embrace and be proud of,” Lyons said.
Madison has about 1.8 percent of its housing stock designated affordable by the state, well below a 10 percent goal Hartford set for municipalities decades ago. The town recently approved a relatively large affordable housing commmunity, totaling more than 30 units, that is being put together by local non-profit Hope Partnership.
Petra told the committee that it was a slow march to dispel myths and bring the town toward understanding affordable housing and why it was important.
“We had concerns, frankly, about [residents] being concerned about people from New Haven moving in,” said Petra. “Looking back and reflecting on diversity, equity, and inclusion and some of the social justice work that has happened particularly over the last year, I wonder if we made a mistake or a misstep in not acknowledging that increasing diversity in our community is also a good thing.
“It behooves us all to combat those stereotypes,” she added.
The need for what Petra called “workforce housing”—a label that avoids that now-feared “affordable housing” moniker—is huge across the shoreline, and helps serve everyone from young people returning after college to single parents and lower-income wage earners.
It took Guilford about seven years after one of its selectmen, Sandy Ruoff, led a citizens committee in lobbying for more affordable before the town was actually able to approve a project on a formerly town-owned parcel of land, informally known as the Woodruff Property.
“As I think anyone involved in town politics knows, it takes a group of people who are really feisty to get the town to take action on any particular topic,” Kestner said, laughing.
Kestner described seeing how the human stories helped residents understand what the purpose of affordable housing is and its positive impact. At one point in the public outreach project, the Guilford Foundation produced a video that allowed those who had benefited from subsidized housing to speak about their experience.
“The hardware store has young and old people who help out on a part-time basis, and they need help. Parents get divorced, they want to keep their kids in the [school] system,” she said. “It just made it very real for people. These are situations everybody has or can connect to. It just made it easier to talk about.”
On the more technical side, the town will conduct a survey of possible properties that could serve as affordable housing, according to Anderson; Guilford conducted a similar survey in 2013. Those properties will likely be selected based on state criteria for grants, including proximity to transportation and potential rehabilitation of a brownfield site.
AHPAC member Sarah Mervine emphasized that Madison should be as transparent as possible with the entire process, especially being clear with neighboring property owners as they look to find a suitable site.
The communications aspect was what much of the AHPAC focused on in the conversation—how to best speak to residents about the issue. Petra recommended Madison officials assess their own community as far as the race and diversity aspect of affordable housing, which has often been linked to the extensive de-facto segregation in Connecticut.
But she added the most important thing was to address the realities of what a lack of housing accessibility creates, from the economic to the human impacts, bringing in community leaders and townsfolk and letting them both hear and speak.
“It’s a real need, this isn’t fake. This is actually a need our communities have,” Petra said. “I would start with the need of the town, and not shy away from the diversity and equity.”