A standing-room-only crowd filled one of the two communal carports at Haystack Woods Monday to celebrate completion of an affordable housing project that speaker after speaker described as a model for the rest of the state.
“It literally does take a village to do this work,” declared Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz. “This is a model for others and what we ought to aspire to. …The Governor and I often hear, ‘It can’t be done.’ Norfolk just showed it can make difficult stuff happen.”
The “difficult stuff” was the construction of 10 stand-alone houses in a closely clustered community on what was once an abandoned gravel pit. The Foundation for Norfolk Living (FNL) has been working on creation of the site since 2018, battling its way through state and local regulations and arranging for funding.
Slightly less than half of the 39-acre site was developed and the remainder has been put in permanent conservation in collaboration with the Norfolk Land Trust.
Kate Briggs Johnson, president of the NFL and one of the architects who designed the houses, repeatedly urged attendees to enjoy the doughnuts served as refreshments.
“Do you know what a doughnut and these houses have in common?” she asked, holding up one hand with her middle finger touching her thumb. “Zero!”
The “Net Zero” structures will produce all the energy their occupants need. She said she believes it to be the first such affordable housing project in the state and pointed out such novel solutions as carport roofs created from solar panels that will provide all the electricity needed by the homes.
“Why Net Zero affordable homes?” she asked. “Because energy costs are so volatile. One of our new homeowners was paying $800 a month for energy last year. Next year it will be zero.”
At present, seven of the buildings are spoken for and candidates for the remaining three-bedroom structures are being assessed. Three homes were sold to households earning less than 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) and the remaining houses are targeted for families with less than 80 Percent AMI.
Jordan Seibert, program coordinator at the Norfolk Hub, is one of the new owners. “This was something I was not sure could happen,” she told the audience. “Without this, I would not have been able to own a home of my own at a young age in a town that I love.”
“It was not hard to sell me on this project,” said Seila Mosquera-Bruno, commissioner of housing for the state. “It was really easy to say yes to providing support for the dream you had—and it’s paid off.”