By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — It’s a first for Westport — an apartment building with 19 units dedicated solely to residents who need affordable accommodations.

Homes with Hope, the Westport-based agency dedicated to ending homelessness in Fairfield County, on Friday celebrated that landmark achievement. It officially opened the doors at 122 Wilton Road where 19 units of affordable housing are now available for people who need support finding a rental in one of the most expensive housing markets in the state.

The opening celebration was a marked contrast to the controversy that dogged the project since a very different version of the building was first proposed in 2016. That plan by applicant, Garden Homes Management, called for building a six-story building with 48 units, 30 percent of which would have been set aside as affordable under the state’s 8-30g law.

Opposition erupted from the public and town officials over the project’s size, emergency-response access, and its proximity to the Saugatuck River and a perilous intersection. Years of litigation ensued, bouncing the plan back and forth between town boards and courts, until several years ago a court ordered approval of a 19-unit revision of the application.

Construction commenced about two years ago, with a planned mix of market-rate and affordable units.

But the project evolved into all-affordable rentals thanks to a plan developed by Helen McAlinden, president and CEO of Homes with Hope, and developer Richard Freedman, president of Garden Homes Management, according to several people at the grand opening ceremony

A new entity — WRCG-122 Wilton Road LLC, Homes With Hope — purchased property from Freedman for $7.4 million on Sept. 11. Freedman is also the leader of the Garden Homes Fund, “a direct grant-making and private foundation with an emphasis on affordable housing, zoning reform and desegregation,” according to a community award he won in Stamford in 2022.

“It’s an anomaly akin to a miracle,” state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, said at Friday’s ceremony. “It became a miracle because of Helen McAlinden and her staff.”

Homes with Hope received 380 applications to rent one of the 19 units at 122 Wilton Road, McAlinden said. A lottery was held that narrowed the applicant pool to 80, and of those, 50 people were selected as the first residents of the building.

The large number of applicants “shows the huge need for affordable housing,” she said.

The 19 new apartments include four one-bedroom units, eight two-bedrooms and seven three-bedrooms. Home with Hope also purchased furniture to help those tenants in need, she said.

As the residents move in and become accustomed to their apartments and the community, Homes with Hope will maintain an office on the property with a building manger and social worker. The office will be converted into an additional apartment unit in the future after the residents settle in, McAlinden explained.

Income limits for tenants to live in the 122 Wilton Road apartments range from $60,00 for one person to $99,400 for a six-person family, according to the apartments’ website.

The project was funded by a combination of the state’s allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds and additional help from Garden Homes, which sold the property for below market rate, McAlinden said.

At Friday’s ceremony, McAlinden thanked Gov. Ned Lamont and state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno for the state’s help funding the project.

Providing affordable housing will help essential workers live near their workplaces, foster economic and cultural diversity in Westport, and help the town meet the requirements of the state’s 8-30g mandate, she said.

“It will be life changing for the people we serve,” McAlinden said. “Nobody deserves not to have a home.”

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.