AFFORDABLE HOUSING DRAFT - Salisbury, CT

III. OrganizationThe 2009 Salisbury Annual Report listed 16 appointed town commissions and committees staffedby dedicated volunteers. They spend countless hours concerned with important town functions andactivities such as building maintenance, cable television, conservation, the Grove, historicalpreservation, parks and forests, recreation, recycling, scenic roads, and water quality. No suchpermanent body, however, focuses on our housing needs.Providing affordable housing is an extremely complex activity. There is a range of housing needs(e.g. workforce, senior, starter, low-income), each of which can be met by a variety of housingtypes. There are myriad and ever-changing funding sources depending on the target population andtype of construction. There are local zoning regulations and state and federal laws. There is a rangeof organizations ranging from our own local housing organizations to nonprofit and for-profitdevelopers who can help us meet our housing needs. We are fortunate to have the Salisbury HousingTrust and Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut (limited-equity workforce housing) and theSalisbury Housing Committee (low-income rental housing) ably addressing segments of our affordablehousing requirements, but there is no nexus for advocating and facilitating the full spectrum of ourneeds. We therefore investigated the possibility that the Town establish by ordinance an appointedSalisbury Affordable Housing Commission (SAHC).A board of volunteers who are respected in the community and have other demands on their timecannot be expected to stay abreast of everything that will be required if we are to satisfy ouridentified housing needs any more than Planning and Zoning could function without a ZoningEnforcement Officer. For this reason we also examined the desirability of the Selectmen providingadequate administrative support as needed.The AHAC’s thinking on these issues has been guided by the following principles:• Salisbury needs an organization that will embrace and nurture our vision of providingappropriate housing for all our citizens and stand as a visible symbol of the public will toimprove Salisbury’s housing stock.• We want to preserve and support the Salisbury Housing Trust, the Salisbury HousingCommittee, and Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut, which have done anadmirable job of providing the types of housing on which they have chosen to focus.• Our outreach to other communities and housing experts convinces us that the Town ofSalisbury should not be directly involved in building or operating housing. There may beoccasions, however, when the Town will want to contract with a developer to build and/oroperate housing on Town-owned land.40