Study: State housing needs 110,000 housing units right away

HARTFORD – A study of state housing needs shows what many thought to be true – Connecticut is facing a severe housing crisis.

The study undertaken by ECOnorthwest found that the state needs at least 110,000 units of affordably priced housing and ranks as the most housing-constrained state in the nation. Open Communities Alliance (OCA), a Connecticut-based nonprofit with a goal of reversing decades of discriminatory housing policy, last week joined members of the state Legislature’s Housing and Planning & Development committees to hear the results of the Fair Share Housing Study. It is a product of a 2023 state law aimed at taking on our state’s affordable housing challenges.

“These results confirm what we have long known,” said Erin Boggs, executive director of OCA. “Connecticut cannot continue the same policies that have left so many people in need of a decent and affordable place to live. We must take bold steps to reverse this crisis, and that’s exactly what OCA is proposing this legislative session.”

OCA supports legislation known as Towns Take the Lead Planning and Zoning, where towns would decide for themselves how they would go about meeting the targets laid out in the Fair Share study. With the study as a baseline, each community would know exactly what targets they would need to hit and then plan and zone for those numbers.

Under OCA’s proposal, all decisions on what the housing would look like and where in town it would go would be up to each local municipality.

Boggs also pointed out that the Fair Share study includes town-by-town allocation numbers for affordable housing targets, but those numbers have not yet been released. This is in spite of the legislation passed in 2023 that specified those numbers were to be released by December 2024.

“Every town deserves to see what those numbers look like so they can get their planning and zoning in order,” Boggs said. “The Legislature should see that those numbers are made public as soon as is feasible.”

OCA is a Connecticut-based civil rights nonprofit organization that promotes access to opportunity for all people through education, organizing, advocacy, research, and partnerships. OCA’s mission of unwinding Connecticut’s history of government-perpetuated segregation focuses on reducing social, economic, and health disparities experienced by low-income families of color and generating access to “opportunity” by establishing pathways to affordable housing in thriving communities.