Addressing the need for affordable housing with Fairfield County’s Community Foundation

(left to right) Ginny Monk, Jacquen Byron, Krista Neilson, and Jim Foster discuss the film and potential solutions to affordable housing.

28% of working families in Norwalk struggle to afford the basic cost of living.

Norwalk’s Median Home Value has risen from $402,925 in 2017 to $629,874 in 2025.

A $93,087 salary —that’s a $45.09 hourly wage— is considered low-income for one person.

“I think we need to have a story to communicate and have a dialogue with regard to why affordable housing is valuable. It’s not a question of ‘Should we.’ It’s a question of 'How do we?'" said Jim Foster, the chair of Westport Affordable Housing Committee, yesterday night at Norwalk Community College.

Foster was speaking in regards to not only Fairfield County, but the film “Room For Us? Confronting Nantucket’s Housing Crisis."

Presented by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, in partnership with Norwalk Film Festival, Centers for Housing Opportunity and the Housing Collective, the 3-hour event was meant to encourage community members to get involved in zoning committees at the local level.

The panel was led by CT Mirror’s housing reporter, Ginny Monk, who was also joined by Jacquen Byron representing Norwalk’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and Krista Neilson from New Canaan Planning and Zoning Commission and Affordable Housing Committee.

“There was a moment in that film that really connected with me,” Byron said. “It’s not affordable housing that is the dirty word. It's equitable housing that is needed. People need to make a shift in how they see affordable housing.”

The film highlighted the housing crisis in Nantucket, where islanders, even those who grew up there, struggled to find stable housing as median home price climbed to $3.73 million.

The panelists and audience members drew what they saw in the film to the current housing crisis that’s impacting Fairfield County.

In Fairfield County, 27% of renters spend more than 50% of their income on housing costs.

38% of households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. 

“It is a requirement by the state that every 5 years towns write and plan for their affordable housing. That really educated me a lot on the needs of our community in terms of affordable housing, and where and how we’re falling short,” Neilson said. “As we see applications come before planning and zoning I'm able to articulate that we don’t actually need a 1-bedroom inclusionary zoning unit, we need more family style units, so we need more 3-bedrooms, we need something bigger.”

The hourly wage needed to afford a 2-bedroom apartment in Norwalk is $50.54. 

“There is a disconnect between what is happening at city hall and what is happening on the ground in terms of expectations, what the neighborhood needs, what the neighborhood wants and how the neighborhood could grow sustainably and responsibly,” Byron said. "A lot of building is creating inequitable distribution of resources.

The panelists also touched on statute 8-30g, which Neilson said has been the exclusive focus for the "affordable housing committee in New Canaan."

"8-30g as a statute has focused our conversation only on 80% of state median income or below in terms of housing," she said. "In order to purchase the median housing price in new Canaan you need 600% of state median income to be able to not be cost burden in your purchase."

It is this she said that creates the barbell effect, “where we have people who can afford a lot and people who can’t afford a lot and nothing in the middle.”

How do we move forward to ensure that our housing crisis does not end up as bad as Nantucket's?

One solution Foster proposed is to bring Hartford to the community to explain and break down proposed bills like House Bill 8022. 

He suggests having 5 to 10 people from each town to ask questions with an open dialogue.

“I think the longer we take to have that education take place, then the more the whole conversation gets diluted," he said. "I would want a couple of legislators to push that as much as possible because it will be too confusing if we each read it individually and then draw our own conclusions. The next 60 to 90 days need to be about education."

Another solution Neilson proposed for affordable housing is drawing from a town's land acquisition fund. 

"The town of New Canaan has a land acquisition fund, which perhaps a lot of towns have. It’s only been used for open space and we’ve been having conversations at our affordable housing committee about 'Can we get a piece of that pie?' because it doesn’t say in that acquisition that it’s only for open space," she said. "That’s just how we’ve used it traditionally. We’re going to rock some boats if we start trying to get our fingers into that cookie jar. As we saw in the film, if it’s not that source, it’s going to be another source."

Those interested can sign up for FCCF's Allies or attend a planning & zoning commission meeting.