‘Ambitious’ Housing Bill Gets a Second Chance in Connecticut Legislature
Cate Hewitt | CT Examiner
After dying in committee last year, the “Fair Share” affordable housing bill is heading to the floor of the Connecticut General Assembly for a vote after receiving the approval of the state’s Housing Committee earlier in March.
The law, if passed, would supplement the state’s existing affordable housing law by establishing town-by-town goals for constructing affordable apartments that, if built, would together add roughly two or three times the housing now required under 8-30g.
“Fair Share” assigns each town in Connecticut a share of affordable housing based on a formula drafted by the Open Communities Alliance, a Hartford-based nonprofit, with the self-described “ambitious mission of unwinding Connecticut’s history of government-perpetuated segregation … by establishing pathways to affordable housing in thriving communities.”
According to OCA Executive Director Erin Boggs, the housing calculation is based on four main factors: a town’s grand list value, relative area median income, the town’s percentage of poverty and the town’s percentage of multifamily housing.
Open Communities Alliance estimates that 137,304 affordable housing units are needed across Connecticut, based on 2016 U.S. Census and HUD data – a number that can be reduced by as much as 30 percent, to 85,886 units, if towns provide housing that includes more than two bedrooms.