SEYMOUR – A town committee gained approval April 1 to conduct a community survey about affordable housing.
The Seymour Affordable Housing Committee, a committee created last year to address a lack of such housing in Seymour, will work with the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG) to conduct the survey. Committee chairwoman Mary Ann Robinson said the aim is to gauge community support for affordable housing.
“We’re trying to find out if there is support in town for more affordable, or workforce housing,” Robinson said. “We want to do a survey to see what people think and what kinds of housing we should have or where it should be. Developers won’t come here unless there’s support for what they want to do. We want to encourage developers to come here.”
Details of the survey – such as when it will happen, what questions it will ask, and whether it will be conducted online or in-person – haven’t been worked out yet.
Affordable housing is generally defined as housing (whether renting or owning) that costs a household not more than 30 percent of its income. For a family that earns $50,000 a year, for example, affordable housing translates to $1,250 or less per month.
The state recommends towns have 10 percent of its housing be deemed affordable housing
Seymour, according to the latest data from the state Department of Affordable Housing Appeals List, currently has 5.7 percent affordable housing. Nearby Ansonia and Derby, as well as larger cities like New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport, all surpass the 10 percent threshold.
First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said she wants Seymour to meet that threshold, too.
“We are below our threshold of affordable housing, and we do need it,” Drugonis said. “People don’t want it in their backyard, but we may not have an option. Our goal is to get to 10 percent affordable housing in Seymour.”
Seymour has 403 affordable housing units, which include a mix of government-assisted housing units, as well as tenants who receive housing vouchers and single-family homeowners with mortgages through CHFA or USDA, according to the town’s 2022 affordable housing plan.
Robinson said the latest state data shows 21 percent of Seymour residents spend between 30 and 50 percent of their annual income on housing, while 12 percent spend more than half their annual income on housing.
A recent proposal to build affordable housing in Seymour was met with opposition.
Last year, a developer proposed a zone change that could have paved the way for 108 apartments to be built on Pearl Street on the former Roberta King Estate. Residents in the neighborhood came out in force against the proposal, saying the zone change would result in a housing development too large for an already densely populated area. The planning and zoning commission rejected the proposal.
NVCOG assisted neighboring Oxford with a similar survey last year.
Desira Blanchard, NVCOG’s communications and community engagement coordinator, said Oxford’s survey focused on understanding residents’ opinions about current housing options, their understanding of affordable housing and what types of housing respondents would like to see there.
The Seymour Board of Selectpersons in December 2022 adopted an affordable housing planthat NVCOG created in line with state statutes. Some of the strategies outlined in that plan to encourage affordable housing include low-income tax credits for developers, modifying zoning regulations and promoting availability of state financial programs to help home buyers.