AFFORDABLE HOUSING DRAFT - Salisbury, CT

A: To answer this question, we need to look at the situation dynamically rather thanstatically. If we take a “snapshot” of our town, we don’t see any urgent “demand” for less expensivehousing because, happily, we don’t have citizens living in packing crates or under bridges. However,if we take a “movie” of our town, we see a different picture. We can see a young Salisbury familypaying their housing costs and making ends meet until they encounter a calamity such as a job loss ormajor illness. They then need to make less expensive housing arrangements in Salisbury withinmonths or relocate to where they can. We can see a Salisbury citizen graduating from HVRHS orreturning from service in the armed forces and unable to find housing he can afford. He will thenneed to relocate to a less expensive real estate market. We can see a recent widow unable to affordor care for the house she shared with her husband and anxious to move into a small rental orcondominium but forced to move away when none is available.In Salisbury we do not enjoy the “virtuous cycle” of a stable community in which there is anadequate supply of all types of housing (i.e., different types, such as single-family, rentals andcondominiums, at different prices) that citizens can move through over their lives. Usually the homethat is sold when its occupants move to assisted living or in with relatives cannot become availablefor the young adult or young family because it is too expensive. Too frequently the only buyer issomeone from outside the area with the wherewithal to purchase it as a second home or retirementhome. We cannot see this happening with a “snapshot”, but we see its effect in our agingpopulation, aging workforces in our businesses, declining numbers of young adults, and decliningschool enrollments.Providing affordable housing is only partly about improving the CURRENT situation of the citizensliving here. It is mostly about stemming the tide of departures by the young families who are raisingour citizens of tomorrow, as well as high school graduates, workers, and volunteers as they progressthrough life and develop housing needs. As we learned from housing volunteers in neighboring towns,you cannot measure the demand for affordable housing with surveys or waiting lists because at anypoint in time all the people who are in town have roofs over their heads. If they couldn’t findhousing when they entered the housing market or were unable to maintain their housing due to somefinancial reverse, they have left. You need to have excess capacity in the types and price levels ofhousing needed by your citizens for them to access as their circumstances change.” IF YOU BUILD IT,THEY WILL STAY.5. Q: What do Salisbury’s employers say about the need for affordable housing for theiremployees?A: Of course, it would help the housing situation if there were additional, more highly paidjobs in Salisbury because more people would have additional income to spend on housing, but it62