Addressing the need for more affordable housing in Waterbury. City officials and nonprofits say there are still hundreds of families searching for a place they can afford.
Along West Grove Street in Waterbury, vacant homes will be turning into new affordable housing.
“This will be a vibrant 48-unit family housing development with a community room, playscape.”
Christian D’Orso, a city alder and executive director of the Waterbury Housing Authority, said the West Grove Street project is one of a number of developments happening in Waterbury addressing the affordable housing shortage.
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“We want this to be for families and I think we really achieved that with predominantly three-bedroom units,” he said.
D’Orso said the housing authority has waiting lists in the hundreds for families waiting on housing or having Section 8 vouchers, with a majority of them in the Hispanic community.
He said families trying to use the vouchers with private landlords has been a struggle with the current housing market.
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“If they could only get $1,500 from us and get $2,000 on the open market, well now they’re not servicing our clients anymore. They’re getting other tenants,” he said.
At NEST, a nonprofit that helps people with housing, they’ve seen 16,000 families in the last four years.
“80% is American. Maybe 20% is Latino, but within the 20% of Latinos, 90% are Puerto Rican, so basically American,” Fernando Cerdeña, NEST housing stability specialist, said.
He said people from neighboring New York have only increased the housing demand in Waterbury.
“The New York people come in from this state and they rent, or buy houses, or buy buildings. This is the crisis,” Cerdeña said.
D’Orso said to solve this, funding is needed for new developments. He points to the West Grove Street project getting more than $7 million in state funding as a good start.
“I don’t think you could build enough housing in general, but when it comes down to affordable housing specifically, I don’t think you could ever build enough,” he said.
The West Grove Street project is expected to break ground either at the end of this summer or early fall.
