NORWALK, Conn. — It’s a good news/bad news scenario – Norwalk is finally starting to boom, with new housing being filled at a higher rate than expected, but there are concerns about Norwalk’s long-term renters being squeezed out.
“Now developers are saying, ‘Ooo, what else can we do around here? It’s almost like this stuff feeds itself. The obvious place to move is towards the train station, and the gentrification is large,” Norwalk Fair Housing Officer Margaret Suib said.
While some people might think the gentrification of South Norwalk would be a good thing, but Suib cautions, “I think that’s probably not healthy for a city to squeeze out some of its workers.”
There is also a legal standard that every community in Connecticut has to live up to. If the affordable housing rate falls below 10 percent, a developer can force an apartment building upon a neighborhood in defiance of local zoning regulations as long as it offers 10 percent of its units as affordable.
The term “affordable” is up for debate, Suib said. It’s legally tied to the idea of area median income, she said, which in the Stamford-Norwalk area is quite high.
She provided a chart used by city departments:
Fairfield County actual income limits – Calculations 2014 (2)
The median area income for a family of four is $125,100, it says. The affordable housing standard is 80 percent of median area income, which would then be $100,100. You might then say that it would be easy to get into the workforce housing units in new, luxurious apartment buildings, like say, Waypointe, because all you have to do is be below that, but it’s not that simple, she said.
You have to show that you can pay the rent, she said. Most housing companies have a standard that rent should be no more than 30 to 40 percent of your income, so if you’re at the poverty line you’re not moving in, she said. In fact, you’d better be pretty darn near the maximum income allowed to make it into Waypointe, according to figures provided by Suib.
Waypointe representatives did not return an inquiry asking for the current workforce housing rents or the availability of apartments, but Suib provided a list from when the first complex opened a year ago. The maximum income level to be eligible for a two-bedroom apartment was $55,232, and the rent of that apartment was $1,355. Do the math – $1,355 times 12 months equals $16,260, or 34 percent of the maximum income level. If the floor of the acceptable income level is 30 percent, as Suib said, then the minimum income level would be $54,200, only $1,032 less than the maximum.
If you made $54,200 to $55,232, you might have qualified to move into Waypointe, according to Suib’s formula. You might also have been required to pay additional fees, such as for parking.
“I don’t really feel like a two-bedroom at $1,355 is affordable,” Suib said. “To me, you would think that’s the market rate, but when you look at the market rates – oh my God.”
Two-bedroom apartments currently available at Waypointe start at $2,086. Rent for a two-bedroom apartment at Ironworks Sono begins at $2,500 and go up to $5,000.
Waypointe and other new developments are doing well, Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Tim Sheehan said.
An update to a recent housing study, done for the Joint Committee considering allowing a mall to be built at the intersection of West Avenue and Interstate 95, showed that the vacancy rate for housing in Norwalk in general is staying at 5 percent, with Central and South Norwalk at about 3 percent, Sheehan said.
The new developments have 90 percent of their housing rented out within 12 months of having them on the market, he said. “The pace of absorption has been very strong,” he said.
Sheehan said the renters come from across the spectrum, based on information he said he got from Belpointe Capital’s Paxton Kinol. “It’s kind of fairly well split between folks that were living regionally before and folks that are new to the market. I think the rent structures of the units give you some indication of where people’s incomes are. The renters that are coming in for the most part are renters by choice as opposed to renters who economically have to be renters.”
“What is good about that to a degree, and everything is a balance, is that there is more economic clout on the street,” Sheehan said. “You have more demand for the services that small businesses are providing, relative to restaurants, retail and general services.”
But, “What are the protections to ensure there is an adequate supply of affordable housing in a neighborhood that has been predominantly affordable for a long period in time?” he asked. “Especially when you begin to move south of Washington Street. That is a big concern.”
Sheehan was surprised to learn that the Norwalk Housing Authority has been advertising for an experienced development company as a partner to “acquire and redevelop affordable housing properties currently owned by or to be acquired by NHA or one of its affiliates.” The partner would have the millions needed to buy properties and fund pre-development costs, the recently published legal ad states.
“We have some opportunities to invest in improving housing that require the use of tax credits, which are basically one of the few tools that housing authorities have. That’s the reason for the RFQ,” Deputy Director Candace Mayer said. Yes, NHA has specific properties in mind, but “We’re not taking about them at this time,” she said.
Suib points out that if the deal with POKO Partners to build Wall Street Place falls through, Norwalk is losing the 40 affordable housing units that were planned for Phase I of the development and whatever affordable housing units would have been built as Phase II and III. If a mall is built on the 95/7 site ,then Norwalk will lose the affordable housing units that are built into the current Land Disposition Agreement for the property.
“If the city is going to give this mall developer approval to change the plan and develop a mall instead, I will most likely advocate – and others may as well but I will only speak for me – I will likely advocate that the city should ask for the affordable housing that we are not getting,” Suib said. “Maybe they’ll fund it. I understand they’re not housing developers, fine. But maybe they should fund what would have been on that property. Our need for affordable housing has not gone down and yet we are losing it.”
When the Zoning Commission recently changed its workforce housing requirements for new developments in the Transit Oriented Development zone, Mike Mushak argued that the housing stock wouldn’t really be lowered. If a 40-unit building replaces a 4-unit building and 10 percent of the building is affordable, then there are still four units, he said.
Suib said that doesn’t add up. The most affordable apartments in Norwalk right now are near the train station, with $950 to $1,100 a month rents, she said. The rents in a new building, as shown above, would be much higher even under the so-called “affordable” rates.
“The people that lived in the four that were knocked down are probably not going to live in the four that are in a new building. It’s four for four but we’re still having the effect of sweeping people away,” Suib said.
South Norwalk has been, for decades, a very stable neighborhood, she said. Generations of the same families have grown up there.
Some people would say that gentrification is a good thing, given the crime in South Norwalk.
“I think crime should be addressed through enforcement. Nobody wants to live with crime around them and nobody should have to,” Suib said. “I just don’t think sweeping residents out and bringing in more yuppies is the answer. I mean, most people that live in high crime areas are not criminals, they are good people. They may be lower income but they are not criminals. Why throw out the baby with the bathwater here? Yes, we should address crime. I don’t see that as applicable to the conversation about housing.”
Mayor Harry Rilling said development is geared toward rental units, with the younger generation desiring walkability and proximity to mass transit.
“They have to structure the rent so that somebody up to 80 percent (of the area median) can afford it. But you are right, there are people who probably make 60 percent of area median and they probably can’t afford places like Waypointe,” Rilling said. “My thought is we should strive for more affordable housing. I am talking in terms of numbers.”
State statute 8-30g mandates that each community must have 10 percent of its housing as affordable. If the community does not have 10 percent as affordable, “Developers can come in and file an application to revise the zoning regulations,” Norwalk Senior Planner Dori Wilson said. “Instead of (the Zoning Commission) having control of your zoning regulations, the onus is now on the town to explain why you can’t modify the regulation to bring in more affordable housing.”
Wilton, Darien and Westport have had developments forced on them, she said. “If they go to court the court has often overturned their decision to deny because of their lack of affordable housing,” she said.
“It’s a terrible law,” Zoning Commission Chairman Joe Santo said. “It’s a zone buster. But all these towns suffer with this, but we have to live with it, that’s why I have concern, we have to stay above the 10 percent.”
Norwalk’s numbers are good, hovering around 11 percent, Rilling said. “I really do believe that we should have more affordable housing, but I believe that some of our other neighbors should be stepping up to the plate as well … They’re not picking up the slack.”
Suib called the 10 percent rule “the state’s floor,” and asked if people would tell their children that it would be fine to get a “D” in school.
“I look at it as ‘What do we need?’” she said. “To me we should be planning on what we need, not on the state’s floor, and we tend to plan based on the state’s floor. A goal would be planning based on our own need.”
“Yes I am concerned,” Rilling said. “The last thing we want to do is displace people, people who have lived in Norwalk and worked in Norwalk and enjoyed what Norwalk has to offer. The last thing I want to do is see them displaced and moved about. So we have to be very, very cautious when we are talking development and gentrification, and making sure that we don’t uproot people who have been working here, the salt of the earth that makes Norwalk’s economy tick.”
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