North Stonington has been singled out for its “paltry 1.2 percent” of affordable
housing in The Day newspaper’s editorial Sunday, Aug. 21. North Stonington
again is cited in another article as having the lowest percentage of affordable
housing in New London and Windom counties. As Paul Choinere, former editorial
writer of The Day, says “People need a place to live. That should be the priority.”
North Stonington has long prided itself in being a “working class” town, but lack
of affordable housing has made that a false perception. Because we lack housing,
we deprive our town of the vitality and diversity that makes a town livable. We
are talking of housing for teachers, municipal workers, librarians, nurses, essential
workers and seniors. Many young adults, who grew up here, would like to remain
in North Stonington but find that housing is not affordable and have to move
elsewhere.
Forcing up housing cost are restrictive zoning laws which site homes on large lots
which are environmentally destructive (urban sprawl has cost CT 13 acres of
farmland per day for the last 25 years!) and make the cost of building housing
more expensive.
Let’s make our town proud and progressive , by showing support for housing
choices that are affordable, not being the “paltry” 1.2 percenters.
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