Submitted by Irene Dietrich
From the beginning, First Selectman Fred Camillo has been a staunch supporter of affordable housing as well as a champion of Greenwich Communities – our local affordable housing partnership. He favors a community approach to imagine and design our affordable housing communities and supports Greenwich Communities efforts to expand quality, reasonably priced housing within the borders of our town.
First Selectman Camillo works in conjunction with Greenwich Communities Chairman Sam Romeo. They both support its mission to ensure the growth of high quality affordable housing in town while continuously maintaining all the units. With these goals in mind, Fred has testified in Hartford numerous times in order to oppose the state mandated 8-30g as well as other “one size fits all” attempts to undermine local autonomy by demonstrating Greenwich’s local success in providing and enhancing affordable housing. Fred demonstrated his firm and purposeful ability to speak to the issues while working with stakeholders all over the state.
As a board member of Connecticut Conference of Municipalities ( CCM ), Fred, in his role as vice-chairman of the land use committee, was a strong voice at the table for Greenwich and every other municipality in Connecticut to not only oppose punitive proposals, but to offer and support ideas to address issues of affordability with solutions provided by those who know a municipality’s issues best- the local residents!
Fred also believes that all of our citizens should be able to age in place if it is their desire, and is proud that Greenwich has received the first Age Friendly designation in Connecticut! Accordingly, Greenwich Communities has planned for families to have two and three bedroom apartments, empty nesters to have one bedroom homes and finally if they wanted a studio for a single person.
And just a plus – when Governor Lamont came for the opening for the townhouses at Armstrong Court, he confirmed that Greenwich, under Fred’s guidance, is holding its own and has been, to date, very successful!
As a new commissioner on (the Greenwich Communities Board of commissioners) board, I am filled with admiration as I learn of the dedication of its members. Each addition of a remodel or rebuild on an existing one clearly demonstrates the robust efforts of First Selectman Fred Camillo and Chairman Sam Romeo.