Groton ― The town is creating a new fund to support affordable housing.

The Town Council unanimously voted this week to establish the fund and place $41,000, from the town’s recent sale of the former Colonel Ledyard Elementary School to a developer that plans to build apartments on the site, as the initial payment into the fund.

Town Manager John Burt said the town’s affordable housing plan, adopted in 2021, recommends the town create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The plan says that the funds can be used to support different affordable housing initiatives and can be designed to address local needs and priorities.

Burt said the fund can be used on projects to promote and create affordable housing; repair and preserve housing; provide money for down payment assistance programs; support homeless shelters and services; and research and plan for affordable housing.

He explained that specific programs will need to be created to tap into the funds.

Burt said the funds could come from a variety of sources, including grants, donations, revenue from town property sales and taxes.

The Town Council and Representative Town Meeting will decide each year how much money, if any, goes to the fund, according to the resolution approved by the council. The funds will not lapse at the end of the fiscal year.

Many municipalities, including Greenwich, Fairfield, Mansfield and Stamford, have created a similar fund, according to Burt.

Stonington has enacted a fund that provides low and no-interest loans to owners of low- and moderate-income homes to make repairs.

“I just think that it’s very important to have this set up so that we can start moving towards making Groton more affordable again,” Town Mayor Juan Melendez Jr. said when introducing the proposed fund at the Nov. 14 Town Council Committee of the Whole meeting. “It is becoming less and less affordable daily, and maybe this can be a little help on that.”

k.drelich@theday.com