Many Fairfield County towns get failing grades for affordable housing plans

Fairfield County towns drew mixed grades for affordable housing plans due this year under a state law, according to a report card system developed by Connecticut housing groups and published this week.

The groups, led by Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity, graded each town on a variety of factors, including the quality of its process in designing its plan, the strength of its needs assessment and the steps outlined for action and implementation. They then assigned each town a number of "houses" on a one-to-five scale, with "one house" representing a weak plan and "five houses" representing a nearly perfect one.

Despite poor grades for many Fairfield County towns, FCCHO director Christie Stewart said she was generally encouraged by the quality of the plans, including in communities not known for affordable housing.

"The takeaway for me is that we're on the right track," Stewart said. "Obviously yes, there are towns where I wish they had done better, but I'm really more focused on how excited I was by some of the towns who exceeded my expectations and who really took seriously their responsibility to produce these plans."

Read more in CT Insider.