Committee on Housing and Community Development
155 Deer Hill Avenue
Danbury , Connecticut 06810

Minutes of February 7, 2008

Present: Scalzo, Barrows, Lemme, Elpern, Zaborowski

The meeting of the Committee on Housing and Community Development of the Danbury Housing Partnership was held in Danbury City Hall, Planning and Zoning Department conference room, 1st floor, on February 7, 2008. Chairperson Paul Scalzo called the meeting to order at 2:00PM.

A motion to accept the minutes of January 10, 2008 was made by C. Barrows, seconded by S. Zaborowski, passed unanimously and placed on file.

There are two guest speakers for this committee meeting: Ms. Joan Carty, Executive Director for the Housing Development Fund, and Ms. Maribeth Amyot, Vice-President for Finance and Administration, Western Connecticut State University.

Joan Carty discussed and updated the committee on the Housing Development Fund mission and services offered throughout the State of Connecticut. Discussion entailed loan pools with area banks such as Union Savings, Savings Bank of Danbury, Newtown Savings, etc., multi-family housing, first-time homebuyers program, Dream Homes Program, technical and support services, assorted funding programs, etc.. Joan provided a wealth of information to the committee and what the City of Danbury can expect from the Housing Development Fund for year 2008.

The next speaker, Maribeth Amyot, from Western Connecticut State University, provided detailed information and literature regarding the expanding student growth population at the University. At this point in time, the projected population of students will exceed the availability of housing, with a forecast of at least 750 beds needed for the next 10 years. The University would prefer to have local developers/private investors to produce housing for incoming students. The University would assist and support, but not provide any real financial accountability to developers. Assistance could be in the form of technical support, parking allowances, security assistance, etc..

The committee would like to assist Westconn with a local developer who has voiced the prospect of providing student housing. At future meetings, the committee will provide names and phone numbers of those interested parties who would like to discuss student housing with the University.

There was no further business to discuss.