North Stonington — The Affordable Housing Committee will host a forum Thursday evening on forming a potential nonprofit housing trust.

The forum, which will take place at 6 p.m. in the Wheeler High School media center, will feature guest speaker Lesley Higgins-Biddle, senior program officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corp. in Hartford, which aids communities with nonprofit housing.

LISC has been providing technical assistance to the Affordable Housing Committee for a number of years.

According to Higgins-Biddle, a nonprofit housing trust would allow local citizens to develop a concept in keeping with the community character and guide it through municipal approval.

Higgins-Biddle said that one of the outcomes of this meeting would be to gauge interest among citizens that might offer to serve on the trust.

"You need a core group of people, as small as 10 or as many as 20, who say, 'This is something I care about as a citizen of North Stonington,'" she said.

Affordable housing is open to people making no more than 80 percent of the area median income. By definition, housing costs must be less than 30 percent of that income.

The trust also could receive affordable housing grants and property as well as develop and issue requests for proposals from developers, according to a news release by Affordable Housing Committee Chairwoman Mary-Ann Ricker.

A trust could work alongside the town and the Affordable Housing Committee, which would incentivize affordable housing.

"What people build in Kent or Norfolk ... doesn't always look the same as in Old Saybrook," Higgins-Biddle said. "I would defer to the people who live there."

Unlike outside organizations funding affordable housing, "a local organization is in it for the long haul," she said.

First Selectman Shawn Murphy said he would wait and see what will be presented on Thursday, but he said bringing affordable housing to town would give people other choices.

"Whether it be elderly people or for younger, growing families, we don't have any apartments or condos in town, and this gives (people) another opportunity," he said.

n.lynch@theday.com