As part of Public Act 17-170, the Connecticut legislature established a requirement that every municipality in Connecticut prepare and adopt an “affordable housing plan” by June 2022 and update the plan every five years thereafter (Section 8-30j of the Connecticut General Statutes). The legislation requires that the plan “shall specify how the municipality intends to increase the number of affordable housing developments in the municipality.” While rental rates and home sale prices in Winchester are fairly reasonable compared to other towns in Connecticut and Litchfield County, many working families and senior citizens still have trouble finding a home or apartment that they can afford.
Preparation of the Town of Winchester's Affordable Housing Plan is being undertaken by the Housing Plan Steering Committee, a subcommittee of the Board of Selectmen and includes Town Manager Josh Kelly, Selectmen Candy Perez and Linda Groppo, various town hall staff, and several residents. The Plan will ultimately be reviewed and adopted by the full Board of Selectmen. The Housing Plan Steering Committee meets monthly via ZOOM. The next meeting of this committee is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8, 2021 at 3PM. Please click here for a copy of the agenda and log-in information for the meeting.
The Affordable Housing Plan will start with a basic demographic overview of Winchester residents (age, income, race, etc.) and an inventory of Winchester’s housing supply (housing types, prices, deed-restricted and naturally-occurring affordable housing, etc.). The Plan will then turn to an overview of housing options currently permitted by our land use regulations, and how those regulations may encourage or discourage housing choice. The Plan will identify problems that were revealed by the demographic overview, housing inventory, and regulatory overview, and it will suggest some possible strategies to address these problems.
For detailed information related to the work undertaken on the Affordable Housing Plan, please see the links listed below:
1. Housing Needs Assesssment - November 10, 2021.
2. Partnership for Strong Communities Housing Data Profile for Winchester - November 4, 2021.
3. Government Assisted Housing - November 4, 2021.
4. Resident Housing Needs Survey (Sample) - November 4, 2021.
5. Slides from Kickoff Meeting of Housing Plan Steering Committee - October 13, 2021.
6. Sec. 8-30j of the Connecticut General Statutes.