What's Bridgeport's plan for resolving affordable housing "crisis"?

From a former downtown hotel and an ex-office building nearby to a just-sold restaurant and catering facility in the North End, it may seem as if, whatever the structure, developers here now want to put housing in it.

And while that recent trend, coupled with brand-new construction of other market-rate apartment complexes underway or planned around town, can be interpreted as a positive for Bridgeport's economy — bringing in new, higher-income taxpayers and consumers — many observers also worry the stock of affordable units is not keeping pace.

Aicha Woods is director of the Fairfield County's Center for Housing Opportunity, another nonprofit in Bridgeport. Based on available data, Woods said "rent in Bridgeport is unaffordable or cost-burdening to many Bridgeport families."

But, she added, Connecticut as a whole needs to greatly increase its affordable housing stock and urban centers cannot do it alone.

Ganim's administration has welcomed the market-rate housing construction boom, and Woods acknowledged such private investment and the resultant tenants are a good thing overall.

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