Norwalk committee debates how to spend $2 million housing account, weighing grants, loans and rehab priorities

Norwalk’s ad hoc affordable housing committee met in April to begin shaping how the city will spend a housing account funded by developer payments in lieu of providing workforce housing units. Staff said the fund now contains a little more than $2,000,000 and must be spent on “eligible” hard costs defined by state statute and local ordinance.

The committee’s discussion focused on who should be eligible, whether awards should be grants or loans, and what projects to prioritize. Staff member Steve Cleppin briefed the panel on possible eligibility criteria and scoring approaches and emphasized that the fund could be expended quickly without clear prioritization.

Cleppin told the committee that under the city’s rules developers of multifamily projects (three or more units) may either provide units at specified affordability levels or pay a fee; the city has collected the fees into the housing account. “By statute, those funds can only be used for specific things,” Cleppin said, explaining that the ordinance that created the…