By Ginny Monk / CTMirror.org
Gov. Ned Lamont last week signaled early support for initiatives to increase the state’s affordable housing stock in the next legislative session, repeating his push for more housing as a way to help the state’s economy grow.
“I think housing is going to be the most important thing we do for the next three years,” Lamont told forum on housing issues last Thursday.
“I believe that this is our time. And we’ll go as far as we can go, and I think housing will determine how far we can go.”
Lamont was speaking to a crowd of housing developers, landlords, service providers and state employees at a conference organized by the Connecticut Department of Housing and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.
More families are moving into Connecticut after years of population decline, Lamont said, in an on-stage conversation with Seila Mosquera-Bruno, the director of the state Department of Housing.
“We’ve got businesses that want to expand here, but they’re not sure they can expand here unless their workers have a place that they could live,” Lamont said.
“We were one of the fastest-growing economies in the country last year. But our future will be determined by whether there’s affordable places for people to live across the state.”
The governor has frequently voiced concerns that businesses won’t move to the state or be able to grow in Connecticut unless there’s more housing that’s affordable for workers.
During the last legislative session, he supported the development of what was termed “workforce housing” and building denser downtown areas with easy access to public transit for workers.
Workforce housing is a term sometimes used instead of “affordable housing” to mean housing that’s meant to offer options to workers such as teachers, service industry workers and bus drivers.
Lawmakers last session also passed a bonding package that included nearly $1 billion for housing-related projects and programs, including the creation of more affordable housing, improving existing housing and encouraging homeownership.
Lamont’s office had proposed $600 million for more housing development and programs to encourage homeownership, all of which was granted in the final bonding package.
Lamont praised those funding efforts Thursday after the on-stage conversation.
“For the first time in a long time, a lot of people want to be in Connecticut,” he said. “More people are moving here, businesses want to come here. But if there’s not a place for people to live, that’s going to stop.”
But the governor has stopped short of calling for what many housing experts say is the foremost barrier to building more multi-family housing — statewide zoning reform that would force towns to build more housing or face penalties.
Experts say that restrictive local zoning ordinances make it hard to build multi-family housing that tends to be more affordable to people with low incomes.
Those against such reform have said that it would dilute local control and impose one-size-fits-all solutions on towns with unique needs.
The state lacks about 89,000 units of housing that are affordable and available to its lowest-income renters.
“I’d say there’s some pushback on housing,” Lamont said. “Let’s face it, there’s a lot of, ‘I like housing, but not here.’
“People talk about affordability in the state and say we’re a relatively expensive state. And we are for a variety of reasons, one of which is housing,” he added.
“We don’t have enough housing. We don’t have enough of all different types of housing. I always find it ironic that the people who want to say, ‘No more housing,’ are also the very ones who are complaining about the price of things, including housing.”
The next session is likely to see further discussion of the state’s zoning laws, advocates and lawmakers have said.
Lawmakers and advocates have also said that they want to focus on increased funding for the homelessness response system, as well as more protections against eviction during the next legislative session.
Mosquera-Bruno also announced a new state grant called the Health and Housing Innovation Grant for agencies working on affordable housing issues to encourage partnerships.
There are three awards available for direct service providers who partner with another group for their project. The grants are $300,000, $150,000 and $50,000.
When I sat on the RTM back in the 1990’s elected officials received constant pushback on new housing. The primary concern for the constant pushback, which I never accepted, was; more housing more kids, more kids more schools, more schools more taxes.
This was an urban planning policy I was completely unfamiliar with. The theory at the time was; retard the growth of your community to avoid higher taxes. The logic was simple to understand albeit deeply flawed, despite the fact that it was incredibly selfish, ill conceived and completely unsustainable.
Communities are living and breathing entities, they can prosper or they can flounder based on decisions made by leaders, as they confront the constant outside influences from the world. My experience in working in the multi-family housing industry has immersed me in towns around the State, educating me with each community’s own urban planning issues (and politics) while illustrating, through public policies, leadership’s decision making abilities.
One certain way to drive up the cost of housing is to limit its growth. The supply and demand model; the greater the demand combined with a restricted supply, yields a higher cost. The solution is; better conceived zoning policies.
Yet this is counter intuitive to resident’s pocketbooks, as most residents enjoy the benefits of scarce housing supply, as their single family residences increase in value, while their tax bills remain stable, during times of great housing demand.
As Will Rogers once stated; “buy land, they ain’t making it anymore”. This is the problem we are facing in Westport. The large open farms have all been developed. The Town needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. Urban planning becomes more important now than ever. Well conceived urban planning can catapult us into the future while poor planning will most assuredly cause our community to flounder.
The development of market rate multi-family residential housing and realistic affordable housing will provide solid growth and a healthy dose of economic diversity. Preventing Westport’s teachers, police officers, firefighters, municipal workers and retail employers from having to sit in traffic on the Merritt Parkway in order provide the necessary services we require as a functioning community is more than just an environmental benefit. People who commute into our Town everyday to keep us safe and educate our children deserve the same benefits we all experience, being part of a great community. This is how communities used to be and they functioned harmoniously.
This current dire housing shortage is no surprise to those involved in the industry, as mentioned above, many of us predicted this decades ago. Providing the State with 89,000 units of housing is a herculean task that will take another decade to accomplish. Addressing this issue starts with acknowledging the problem and creating solid urban planning strategies to achieve our desired goals. Our urban planning here in Westport requires serious evaluation and while in general, humans have difficulty with change, insuring the quality of the fabric of our community necessitates it.
Joseph Vallone’s comment is very well thought out. I would only add that the urban planning for the town not only needs well thought out growth in housing—both market rate and affordable— but also that plans with increased housing must be tied with investment in multi modal public transit services and other infrastructure. Ross Burkhardt, RTM district 3