CL&P, housing fund join to assist first-time home buyers

December 17, 2008; As originally appeared in The Advocate

STAMFORD - Under a state tax credit program, a partnership between a nonprofit mortgage lender and Connecticut Light & Power Co. is helping push affordable housing and "smart growth."

The Housing Development Fund received $500,000 Tuesday from CL&P toward the Workforce Housing Downpayment Fund. The program helps first-time homebuyers who earn up to 100 percent of the area median income ($117,800 for a family of four in the Stamford-Norwalk area) purchase houses in the same communities where they work.

The fund is intended to encourage high-density and pedestrian-friendly growth in downtown areas.

"These programs are vitally important to our community," said Thomas Dorsey, a manager of governmental affairs for Northeast Utilities System, the parent company of CL&P.

Joan Carty, the president of the Housing Development Fund, said the grant will provide each homebuyer in the workforce program with as much as $20,000 in loans toward downpayment costs.

The loans do not have to be repaid until the property is sold, Carty said.

Dorsey presented the check to Carty Tuesday morning at the Housing Development Fund's offices on 100 Prospect St. Also in attendance was state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford.

McDonald was one of the legislators involved in passing the state financing plan that made the grant possible.

Under the Housing Tax Credit Contribution Program, nonprofit agencies involved in affordable housing can apply for up to $500,000 in tax credits.

Businesses in turn purchase the credits from the agencies and receive dollar-for-dollar reductions in their state tax liability.

"This is a creative financing mechanism that allows not-for-profit housing advocates to put money into the market," McDonald said.

This is the third year in a row that CL&P has participated in the program and purchased credits from the Housing Development Fund.

The company has purchased more than $5.7 million in tax credits this year from organizations throughout the state involved in the development and maintenance of affordable housing.

Annamaria Csizmadia, professor at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, was one of the recent beneficiaries of the Workforce Housing Downpayment Fund.

Csizmadia, who attended the brief ceremony Tuesday morning, said she would not have been able to purchase a home without such funding.

In October, she closed on a single-family house in Springdale, which is about a 20-minute drive from her office at UConn and a three-minute walk from the train station.

She recalled taking her 6-year-old daughter to see "The Lion King" on Broadway for her birthday.

"It was so easy. We just walked to the train station and hopped on the train," she said. "That's very special."

- Staff Writer Elizabeth Kim can be reached at elizabeth.kim@scni.com or at 964-2265.