The Danbury Planning Commission has held a public hearing on the City's 2022 Draft Affordable Housing Plan.  Each municipality is required by state law to update their plan every 10 years.  Most Greater Danbury area towns opted to sign onto a plan drafted by the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, the regional planning agency for municipalities from Sherman down to Stamford.  That plan breaks out statistic for the individual towns. 

In response to affordable housing needs, the Danbury Plan identifies six goals to increase the supply of affordable housing and expand the diversity of housing options.  The goals include an emphasis on seniors, units in downtown Danbury, those accessible to people with mobility limitation and fostering relationships that ensure the housing needs of the City’s most vulnerable residents are met.

Based on the analysis of Danbury’s demographics and housing market conditions, there is a gap in both home ownership and rental units for low to extremely low income households. While there exist affordable units in the City that may meet the statutory definition as affordable, these units do not necessarily meet the specific needs for a sizable portion of Danbury’s residents.

Median household income in Danbury was $73,204 in 2020 according to the 2020 American Community Survey.  Although renter household incomes have increased, the share of renter households that are housing cost burdened is twenty percentage points higher than owner households. A household is considered housing cost burdened if it spends 30% or more of household income on housing costs. Based upon the most recent data available, 51% of renter households are housing cost burdened or severely housing cost burdened compared to 31% of owner households.

https://www.danbury-ct.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/COD-2022-DRAFT-Affordable-Housing-Plan.pdf