Jim joined Kiley Gosselin, President and CEO of The Housing Development Fund (HDF), to sit on the “Developer Perspective Panel,” moderated by Elizabeth Vinick, LISC Senior Program Officer. Elizabeth guided them in a discussion about how to get support for projects.
The conversation centered around a dialogue about the beginning phases of affordable housing projects with developers looking for locations, building support from neighbors, etc. Kiley started by giving an explanation from the lending perspective, stating that at HDF, their work involves both homeownership and renting, where they either use existing housing stock or work within zoning regulations. She clarified that a lot of the time, it is faster to develop by doing the work within the existing zoning structure. Kiley gave an example of how they build support for their work, by talking about their current 23-unit project in Stamford. This is a historic rehab that is also using new construction by having inclusionary zoning so they can hit the 10% affordable housing goal. The support they receive is based on the public’s goal to achieve this 10% affordable units mark, and in turn, use incentives from the city to help, “grease the wheels.”
Jim introduced NHS of New Haven’s approach by explaining that New Haven is very different from a lot of areas in Connecticut for two reasons. First is that it is a very segregated city, meaning there are very affluent neighborhoods and very poor neighborhoods. What has happened is that there are absentee owners or “mega landlords” who acquire properties en masse in low-income neighborhoods. This is making it more difficult for NHS of New Haven to obtain properties, thus driving up the cost. Jim noted that there is always the issue of gentrification concerns, as well.
Now, NHS of New Haven is working on securing vacant lots, but then, as Kiley alluded to, there are zoning issues one has to adhere to. This brought Jim to the second reason that New Haven differs from other cities: there is an overabundance of “sliver lots.” To explain the history of sliver lots, Jim began by describing the housing market appreciation in the 1980s that contrasted with the crash in the 1990s. New Haven’s former mayor, John Destefano, believed the blight that these abandoned properties exhibited was more of a detriment to the City than vacant lots. So, to combat this issue, houses were demolished. However, these demolished properties had been located on sliver lots that no longer conformed to current zoning regulations and were now too small to build on.
Elizabeth chimed in, “What I hear you saying it’s really hard to find sites, but you have a strategy for sites that are ideal to do work?”
Jim answered by explaining that yes, there is a strategy to make these lots work through new construction, but the trick is making these homeownership opportunities sustainable for our first-time homebuyers. One way to make them sustainable is through NHS of New Haven’s homeownership model, which involves subsidizing affordable two- and three-family houses and selling them to first-time homebuyers at a fraction of the total development costs. The buyers are required to take NHS of New Haven’s HomeOwnership Center’s classes, to become better-educated homeowners, and in the cases where two- or three-family houses are being purchased, more knowledgeable landlords. Thus, these buyers are acquiring homes that have rental income to defray their mortgage costs. As a result, they are creating generational wealth in their low-income community.
The key is to get the Planning and Zoning Commission used to this model. If they know there are checks and balances in place, these sites ideally will last, and trust is built to continue getting more vacant lots as the affordable housing cycle continues.
