State Senator Eric D. Coleman
April 3, 2008
Coleman Hails Passage of Bill to Provide Hartford With Nearly $750,000 For Housing Assistance
A long time advocate of efforts to provide more affordable housing in Connecticut, Senator Eric Coleman (D-Bloomfield) strongly endorsed a bill approved by the Senate and House of Representatives that will provide the City of Hartford with $749,532 in funding with rental assistance and tax abatements for affordable housing.
Hartford is slated to receive $255,602 in payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for rental assistance and $493,930 in tax abatement funds for affordable housing. It is part of the $3.9 million in statewide PILOT and tax abatement funding that was not included in the biennial budget last year.
The PILOT program allows the Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) to enter into a contract with a municipality and its housing authority to make payments in lieu of taxes to the city or town on land and improvements owned or leased by the housing authority or the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. The housing tax abatement program provides annual reimbursement for local tax abatements of up to $450 per low and moderate income housing unit for 40 years.
The rental assistance will directly benefit residents in the Bowles Park and Westbrook Village housing projects where the average monthly rental increase is expected to be approximately $64.00. The tax abatement program will cover 17 non profit housing projects in Hartford.
"This bill will alleviate a lot of concerns on the part of some of the housing authorities around the state as well as some of the tenants. The bill restores some funding for the public housing PILOT which was inadvertently eliminated when we adopted last year's budget," said Senator Coleman. "It also restores funding for tax abatements for low income property that is owned by non profit organizations."
"This legislation also eliminates the possibility that rents could be increased. I know that around the state, residents were very concerned about the prospects of increased rents, primarily because many of them are living on fixed incomes," concluded Senator Coleman
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