With Governor Lamont noting that “a home is more than a roof over your head; it’s a community,” Westport inaugurated 122 Wilton Road this morning.
The ceremony — attended by Congressman Jim Himes, other officials, and local housing advocates — marked the official welcome for the town’s newest apartments.
All 19 units are affordable, under a state formula. Residents will include “the working poor”: retail workers, landscapers and others who struggle to find housing in what many speakers noted is a national crisis.
Nearly 400 people applied for the 19 apartments, located at the Wilton Road/ Kings Highway North intersection.
While praising Westport as being “a welcoming town in a welcoming state,” Governor Lamont noted, “we have to do a lot more of this.”
Governor Lamont, speaking at 122 Wilton Road this morning. (Photo/Dan Woog)
Other speakers echoed that theme.
Connecticut Commissioner of Housing Seila Mosquera-Bruno — who came to the US as a single mother at the age of 24 — said that without housing assistance, she would have been unable to obtain a master’s degree in urban studies, or complete a fellowship at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon said that his parents divorced when he was 6. His mother had no car or education, but through assistance made sure he grew up in “every apartment in Guilford.”
“When we build housing, we build Connecticut,” said the man who “signs the checks” for projects like these.
The ceremony’s host, Helen McAlinden, president and CEO of Homes with Hope — the non-profit working to end homelessness, which oversees the project — greeted the 100 guests. She gave a special welcome to the families that have already begun moving into 122 Wilton Road.
The apartments were built by Richard Friedman, president of the Garden Homes Fund. The private foundation focuses on affordable housing.
Rev. Pete Powell also spoke. A founder of the Interfaith Housing Association — Homes with Hope’s predecessor — he reminded the audience that one of the first locations for Westport’s homeless shelter was at the Vigilant Firehouse (now OKO restaurant), a few hundred yards away on Wilton Road.
“This has been an unimaginable journey,” Powell said.
He cited the many men and women who have worked to alleviate housing in Westport in the 40 years since the IHA began, and were on hand to celebrate the opening of the new apartments.
Representative Jim Himes spoke of the importance of addressing housing shortages nationwide.
“If Westport can do 19 units, and every town does the same, we will move the needle,” the US congressman said.
After the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, Homes with Hope offered tours of the building.
Among the ribbon-cutters, from left: Rev. Pete Powell (bowtie), Interfaith Housing Association founder; State Representative Dominique Johnson (blue blazer), 2nd Selectwoman Andrea Moore (with scissors), Homes with Hope CEO Helen McAlinden, Congressman Jim Himes, Connecticut Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno, Governor Ned Lamont, Garden Homes Fund builder Richard Friedman. (Photo/Dan Woog)
