Rep. Camillo Testifies On Affordable Housing Bill

HARTFORD, CT – State Rep. Fred Camillo (R-Greenwich) testified February 17th before the General Assembly’s Housing Committee in support of SB-5240: An Act Concerning the Threshold for Compliance with Affordable Housing. Rep. Camillo proposed the bill at the beginning of this year’s legislative session. The bill would to require accessory apartments to be considered as affordable housing, thereby reducing the threshold of applicability of affordable housing to towns with less than ten per cent of housing that is affordable.Rep. Camillo said, “The bill would more accurately count the number of affordable housing units available in towns.” 

In his testimony today, Rep. Camillo pointed to many reasons why this bill is needed: 

1) Provide young professionals the opportunity to reside in the towns and cities they work in at affordable rents; 

2) Provide seniors much needed income at a time when many are struggling to stay in the state; 

3) Increase the number of affordable housing units without increasing the total number of units counted. More specifically, each time a new unit of affordable housing is built, the total number of housing units increases. Thus, no town can reasonably expect to attain the 10% goal as they are always “chasing” the 10% number; 

4) Be environmentally sound as no new construction would be built. Thus, no new impervious surfaces will appear. Moreover, many towns that have been experiencing flooding due to over-development will welcome this legislation. One of the main causes of flooding is the proliferation of development; and 

5) Be aesthetically neutral. The streetscapes of towns will not suffer due to more affordable housing units if there is no new construction. Thus, the current green spaces will be left intact.