Let’s Talk About Affordable Housing in Milford (Spoiler Alert – We Already Are)

February 1, 2025 - by Jesse Wiilams - There is nothing dramatic in Carol Martin’s tone or demeanor as she stands at the podium, in the high-ceilinged, sterile Milford City Hall chamber adorned with the usual historic frames and flags, with a row of potted faux-poinsettias adding a little color to the room. In front of her, sitting behind their high desk are ten members of the Planning & Zoning board – ten impassive faces, waiting on her.

Martin doesn’t have a preamble, or a pitch. She introduces herself, and gets right into it.

“That’s the single-family home,” she says, as a picture of an unassuming raised ranch structure is projected on a screen behind her. “And that’s the road that takes you out to Route 1. It’s a thousand feet off of Route 1. It’s a five-minute walk to the bus stop.”

Why is any of this exceptional? Many would say it isn’t–or shouldn’t be. Martin is a housing developer, with an extensive resume spanning decades across both the private and public sectors. A UConn grad who grew up in Fairfield before moving to Orange, Martin was invited to speak to Milford’s Planning & Zoning board this past December–not trying to get a project approved, not lobbying for code changes, but simply to share about a subject she is deeply knowledgeable about–affordable housing.

“Everybody wants to create affordable housing,” she tells me after the meeting. “But people come at it from different vantage points.”

Martin’s assertion that “everybody” wants more affordable housing is a tricky one. Undeniable is that the country–and Connecticut in particular–is facing a historic challenge in meeting housing needs for people of all income levels. Quantifying that need can be hard, although the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority estimated in 2023 the state needs over 90,000 more units available to lower-income renters (17,000 of those in Milford’s planning region).

On the sale side, Realtor.com recently estimated that home sales in the Milford-New Haven region will fall by 8.4% in 2025, largely driven by a lack of inventory and unaffordable prices. Home prices in Milford–having already risen precipitously in the past four years–are projected to jump another 10% in 2025, threatening to price out more and more people from the city.

As Milford residents parse out these challenges, what is also undeniable is Martin’s second observation – that stakeholders, decisionmakers and concerned citizens all have a different perspective on what housing needs are, and how to address them. At the most basic level, people have widely varying ideas about what “affordable housing” even is, often imagining 1960s-style concrete highrises or low-quality high-density slums, and misunderstanding the process by which it is built.

It is because of this that Martin's presentation to the Milford Planning & Zoning board became exceptional. Without any urgency, impetus or emotionality, Martin walked members of the board step-by-step through a recent development (known as Lascana) she spearheaded in Orange. Pictures of the development–which opened in 2024–show a bucolic collection of barn-like buildings, nestled against the treeline but just a stone’s throw from the shopping and transportation options on Boston Post Road.

A majority of the 46 units of Lascana are set aside for folks making below the median income (all the way from 30% to 80% of that number)–something that political leaders in Orange lauded as helping the town reach its goals for affordable housing.

But that is only part of the discussion. Martin also gave the Milford Planning & Zoning board insight into all the granular details that need to be considered when building housing–everything from where parking spaces will face (preventing headlights glaring through neighbor’s windows) to sustainability best practices to the demographics of residents it would serve.

The fact that in Milford, these conversations are happening, and that affordable housing can be approached not as frightening and monolithic, but as a vital asset to the community is incredibly important. Every development is different; every new housing project can offer specific opportunities and challenges. For towns that want to meet the housing needs of their residents, who want to be able to welcome elderly folks on fixed incomes, middle-income teachers or service workers, young professionals starting families, and all the folks who together form strong communities, it is vitally important to have these nuanced housing conversations–together.

“That has to come from within the community,” Martin tells me. “I can’t fly someone in from LA and create that dialog, right? That has to come from the people who really care, who live in the community…there’s so many people who understand the need, but they’re afraid to show up to a public meeting where everything is negative.”

Members of the Milford Planning & Zoning Board appeared keenly interested in Lascana and Martin’s work, beyond the invitation and the presentation. Etan Hirsch, representing Milford’s First District, asked whether Orange and Milford should have different types of housing stock, or if Milford should be reviewing their regulations to help incentivize certain housing.

Martin answered that from her perspective, it wasn’t about regulation changes – it was about collaboration.

“I think more importantly, there should be people coming to you as a partner and presenting something–what we did in Orange, we didn't come in and say, ‘These are all the regs that need to change so I can build this.’ What we did was, we said, ‘This is our vision of what we want to build–what zoning regulations do you already have that we could tweak to make this project come to fruition?’ Regulations are there for very important purposes.”

The real problem–for everyone–is that a project that benefits the town, the developers and is denied, blocked or otherwise impeded because this type of collaboration doesn’t happen, and a “vocal minority” within a community begins steering housing decisions.

Martin tells me she is sympathetic with town officials who are just trying to be responsive to their constituents in these situations.

“They’re always in a tough position,” she said. “They have to pay attention to the criticisms.”

This same dynamic, though, allows people who recognize the needs in their community and who are invested in the long-term success of a city or town to help guide developers, advocate to their elected officials.

“You don’t have to be building it, you don’t have to be financing it, but it needs to be coming from within,” Martin said. “It's incumbent on all of us, because we really are in a crisis.”

And Martin emphasizes that urgency, pointing to other (mostly larger) cities around the country that have seen their housing crises spiral out of control, with no immediate solutions. That is not where Connecticut, or towns like Milford, are at right now, Martin says. While there is clearly a long way to go– both in the practical sense of securing funding, building and planning the appropriate housing, as well as in getting a plurality of residents to agree on these things–the path forward is not a mystery.

“If we have the political will and the outcry of citizens, we would fix our problem. It's not insurmountable,” she said. “I’m not talking about creating…90,000 units. I’m just saying, start with the basics.”


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