Hales Court construction moving along; but is it enough?

Westport's stock of affordable housing is ready to sprout.

Come September, phase one of the expansion at Hales Court housing project will wrap up, introducing 35 new affordable housing units to town and setting the stage for 43 additional units to be built in phases two and three.

"This is really exciting, and the best thing is that we've been able to preserve the character of the existing community," said Carol Martin, director of the Westport Housing Authority.

On Thursday afternoon, construction crews created a bustling scene at the Hales Road/Hales Court intersection. Workers nailed beams into place to form some units' roofs. A backhoe dropped dirt by a mostly completed unit. And trucks lumbered in and out of the area, kicking up clouds of dust.

"The Hales Court area is one of the few neighborhoods in Westport where you can walk off your front stoop and get to know your neighbors," Martin said. "It's a friendly New England type of village, and we've been able to maintain it, which was very important to us."

Martin said the remaining rooftops should be in place in the next week. When that's finished, the bulk of the remaining work will take place indoors, weatherizing and putting the finishing touches on the units.

"So whether we get bad or good weather, the work's being done inside," Martin said. "We should have all 35 units weather-tight within the next 45 days, easily."

By October, the accompanying community center should be ready, Martin said. The center will house Westport Housing Authority offices, a resident service office, a community room for small gatherings, birthday parties and resident meetings, as well as a computer room with high-speed Internet access.

When phase one is complete, a number of things will happen. First, six of the 17 families who've been displaced by the construction work will move into the newly opened units. Nine of the other displaced families have moved into the private rental market, Martin said. The remaining two families placed down-payments on their first homes -- one in Fairfield, one in Trumbull.

Phase two of construction should begin in October, and will require tearing down about 15 homes. Families residing there will be able to move into the newly completed homes. The second phase is designed to add 31 more affordable housing units to Westport. And phase three, which is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 1, 2011, Martin said, will bring in an additional 12 units. This will bring the Hales Court total to 78 units -- a marked increase from the previous total there of 40.

Yet the construction will only dent this town's demand for affordable housing, Martin said.

To be eligible for Hales Court, families need to earn less than 60 percent of the median income in the area. In 2009, that equated to approximately $73,000 for a family of four.

Currently, there's a 250-family waiting list.

"The need greatly outweighs the capability of the housing authority to build more units for families," Martin said. "It demonstrates that affordable housing really is in crisis mode, not only in Connecticut, but in Fairfield County, where the disparity of income is so great. We just can't build them fast enough."

The entire project should cost $25.2 million, Martin said. It's being funded by the federal stimulus project, the state's Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.