Affordable Housing Plan Scorecards: New London County
Every town and city in Connecticut is required to create a plan to expand access to housing that is affordable. The Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity Eastern CT (CHEO) partnered with Desegregate Connecticut and Regional Plan Association to develop scorecards assessing the affordable housing plans of communities in New London County. The scorecards assess the quality of the process behind each plan, and how effectively the plan identifies housing need and promotes meaningful action. The criteria were developed using the guidance outlined in the Planning for Affordability in CT guidebook published by the Connecticut Department of Housing. Click on the town name below to access their full scorecard. For a full breakdown of how points were allocated, please refer to this Appendix.
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▶ Bozrah: 2.5 out of 5
▶ Colchester: 2.5 out of 5
▶ East Lyme: 2.5 out of 5
▶ Franklin: 1.5 out of 5
▶ Groton: 2.5 out of 5
▶ Lebanon: 2 out of 5
▶ Ledyard: 3.5 out of 5
▶ Lisbon: 1.5 out of 5
▶ Lyme: 2.5 out of 5
▶ Montville: 3 out of 5
▶ New London: 2.5 out of 5
▶ North Stonington: 2 out of 5
▶ Norwich: 2.5 out of 5
▶ Old Lyme: 3 out of 5
▶ Preston: 2 out of 5
▶ Salem: 2 out of 5
▶ Sprague: 2 out of 5
▶ Stonington: 1.5 out of 5
▶ Voluntown: 3 out of 5
▶ Waterford: 3 out of 5
Summary
Connecticut’s severe lack of affordable housing is acutely felt in New London County, where over a quarter of homeowners and almost half of renters are cost-burdened, spending 30% or more of their income on housing-related costs. The Connecticut legislature passed General Statutes Sec. 8-30j in 2017, requiring every municipality to adopt an affordable housing plan by June 1, 2022. As of October 2023, 20 out of 21 towns in New London County have adopted plans. These plans represent an opportunity for towns and cities to demonstrate their commitment to meaningful local action that will create more affordable homes in New London communities.
According to the Planning for Affordability in Connecticut guidebook published by the Connecticut Department of Housing in December 2020, town plans should outline tangible steps for increasing access to housing for people of all income levels, backgrounds and stages of life in all communities.
Through the planning process, towns are expected to bring together a diverse group of community members, including renters, homeowners, and members of the local workforce who contribute to the vitality of communities whether or not they can afford to live locally. This group should identify shared values, determine local and regional housing needs and barriers to access, and develop clear goals and implementation strategies to expand housing opportunities using zoning, funding, and an array of other tools. Towns are also expected to acknowledge the inequities that currently exist in how decisions around affordable housing are made, and seek to address those inequities with more inclusive planning. Each municipal affordable housing plan should provide clarity on what type of housing is needed, how much is needed, and where it should be located.
Drawing on regional and national best practice recommendations outlined in Planning for Affordability, the scorecards assess how well New London County towns have delivered on these goals.
Methodology
Affordable housing plans were scored by comparing them to the recommendations in the Connecticut Department of Housing’s Planning for Affordability in Connecticut guidebook.
These scorecards are based on a weighted scoring system that corresponds with priorities outlined in the guidebook. Plans were given a score of 0-5 overall, and categories for scoring were broken down as follows:
Submission of plan: 0-10%
Planning process: 0-15%
Needs assessment: 0-30%
Recommend actions: 0-45%
A plan that earns a score of 5 has followed the guidebook nearly to a tee. This is an actionable plan developed by a diverse group of stakeholders reflecting meaningful outreach that acknowledges local housing history and current needs and proposes concrete actions to advance affordability, each with a discrete timeframe and responsible party. A plan that earns a score of 1 has few, if any, of these components.
Results
In New London County, 20 out of 21 municipalities have approved a local affordable housing plan and submitted it to the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM). The 20 municipalities include Bozrah, Colchester, East Lyme, Franklin, Groton, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Montville, New London, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Preston, Salem, Sprague, Stonington, Voluntown and Waterford. As of October 2023, Griswold did not submit a plan.
These 20 plans were analyzed using the scoring system outlined above. The average community achieved a score of 2.5 out of 5. Ledyard achieved the highest score of 3.5 (with 66 out of a possible 100 points). Stonington received the lowest score of 1.5 (25 out of 100).
Because scores reflect three separate areas of achievement - Planning Process, Housing Needs Assessment, and Action & Implementation- even though some plans received low scores overall, encouraging actions and trends appear in most local plans. For example:
Norwich is one of the the only municipalities in the county to have already reached or surpassed the 10% affordability target, with over 19% affordable housing stock in the city.
Groton included a rehabilitation needs assessment, citing specific properties that could qualify for rehabilitation and calculating average cost estimates for potential projects. Groton also recommended establishing an affordable housing trust fund, as did East Lyme, Ledyard, New London, North Stonington, Stonington, Voluntown and Waterford. Lyme has an existing affordable housing trust fund.
Bozrah recommended amending the town’s ADU requirement to eliminate the requirement that ADUs be occupied only by family members.
Old Lyme recommended actively opening and maintaining lines of communication with affordable housing development organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the HOPE Partnership.
Montville included data on housing construction trends, specifically demonstrating the decline in housing permits awarded since 1990.
At the same time, most New London County communities have more work to do to bring invested and inclusive leadership to the table to shape decisions and recommendations regarding affordable housing. None of the plans provided information on the diversity (by age, race, income, housing tenure, et cetera) of the affordable housing committee or group that led the planning process.. And only a few towns explicitly acknowledged the link between institutional racism and access to housing in their plans. Further, most towns did not indicate a timeframe with regard to recommended actions as part of an implementation strategy. Without accountability to a timeframe, there is significant risk that these plans remain just that – a plan – and will not translate into meaningful action.
It is important to acknowledge that communities embarked on this process from different starting points with differing capacity and access to resources. And also that scorecards may not reflect all the actions a community is taking to expand housing opportunity if those actions are not explicitly included in the plan.
Ultimately the success of these local affordable housing plans will lie in their implementation. A community’s plan may include a terrific list of proposed actions, none of which move out of the idea stage. Or a community’s plan may include just three concrete actions to create more homes, but all are implemented in full within the next five years. CHEO will continue to assist communities as they implement and adjust these plans, and will track progress on implementation throughout the region.
What’s Next?
Reviewing the town plans and highlighting their creativity and strengths, as well as their shortcomings or omissions, is the first step. How can we move from plan to implementation, and from words to action to create more affordable homes in all communities? What can these plans achieve, and what can they not achieve? How can they be supported and supplemented by actions at other levels of government?
Now that there is consensus that there is a real and pressing need for more affordable homes across Connecticut, we must all work to translate these plans into action so that our communities and our region become more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable for the next generation. CHEO stands with New London County towns to help turn plans into actions.
