Bill Text: CT HB05340 | 2016 | General Assembly | Chaptered
Bill Title: An Act Concerning The Replacement Of Housing Projects By Housing Authorities.
Spectrum: Committee Bill
Status: (Passed) 2016-06-02 - Signed by the Governor [HB05340 Detail]
Download: Connecticut-2016-HB05340-Chaptered.html
Substitute House Bill No. 5340
AN ACT CONCERNING THE REPLACEMENT OF HOUSING PROJECTS BY HOUSING AUTHORITIES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 8-64a of the 2016 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2016):
No housing authority that receives or has received any state financial assistance may sell, lease, transfer or destroy, or contract to sell, lease, transfer or destroy, any housing project or portion thereof in any case where such project or portion thereof would no longer be available for the purpose of low or moderate income rental housing as a result of such sale, lease, transfer or destruction, except the Commissioner of Housing may grant written approval for the sale, lease, transfer or destruction of a housing project if the commissioner finds, after a public hearing, that (1) the sale, lease, transfer or destruction is in the best interest of the state and the municipality in which the project is located, (2) an adequate supply of low or moderate income rental housing exists in the municipality in which the project is located, (3) the housing authority has developed a plan for the sale, lease, transfer or destruction of such project in consultation with the residents of such project and representatives of the municipality in which such project is situated and has made adequate provision for said residents' and representatives' participation in such plan, and (4) any person who is displaced as a result of the sale, lease, transfer or destruction will be relocated to a comparable dwelling unit of public or subsidized housing in the same municipality or will receive a tenant-based rental subsidy and will receive relocation assistance under chapter 135. The commissioner shall consider the extent to which the housing units that are to be sold, leased, transferred or destroyed will be replaced with housing that is affordable to households with incomes below twenty-five per cent of the area median income and to households with incomes below fifty per cent of the area median income, in ways that may include, but need not be limited to, newly constructed housing, rehabilitation of housing that is abandoned or has been vacant for at least one year, or new federal, state or local tenant-based or project-based rental subsidies. The commissioner shall give the residents of the housing project or portion thereof that is to be sold, leased, transferred or destroyed written notice of said public hearing by first class mail not less than ninety days before the date of the hearing. Said written approval shall contain a statement of facts supporting the findings of the commissioner. This section shall not apply to the sale, lease, transfer or destruction of a housing project pursuant to the terms of any contract entered into before June 3, 1988. The commissioner shall not impose a one-for-one replacement requirement on King Court in East Hartford. This section shall not apply to phase I of Father Panik Village in Bridgeport, Elm Haven in New Haven, Pequonnock Gardens Project in Bridgeport, Evergreen Apartments in Bridgeport, Quinnipiac Terrace/Riverview in New Haven, Dutch Point in Hartford, William V. Begg Apartments in Waterbury, Southfield Village in Stamford, Marina Village in Bridgeport and, upon approval by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development of a HOPE VI revitalization application and a revitalization plan that includes at least the one-for-one replacement of low and moderate income units, Fairfield Court in Stamford.