CT renters call for strengthened affordable housing policies

Connecticut Public Radio | By Abigail Brone

Published September 1, 2024 at 12:54 PM EDT

A rally was held on Howe St in Bridgeport on April 15, 2024 in support of tenants undergoing evictions from an out of state landlord that has newly acquired their property.

Dozens of renters and housing advocates spent their Saturday morning in Hartford, asking state lawmakers for change in housing policy.

Renters from across the state, including Manchester, Hartford and Bridgeport, gathered to discuss the need for new affordable housing developments and improvements to current affordable housing.

At the town hall-style event, organized by Make the Road Connecticut, Bridgeport City Councilman Jorge Cruz said Bridgeportt needs to better utilize blighted properties.

“I tried for years, since I came on the council, to get one of those empty lots to build tiny homes, tiny homes with wraparound services, because even the shelters are packed and people are living in the streets,” Cruz said.

Bridgeport councilman Jorge Cruz speaking at a town hall event hosted by Make the Road CT calling for changes in housing policy in Hartford, Connecticut August 31, 2024

Make the Road is calling for state and federal changes to housing policy, including the creation of a state agency to oversee the acquisition of land to form affordable housing and federally prohibiting hedge funds from owning single family rentals.

Bridgeport resident Vanessa Liles, who works with nonprofit Bridgeport housing group PT Partners, said the state needs to invest further in existing affordable housing.

“We are going through a process across the nation where public housing cannot be built with all low income housing anymore,” Liles said. “As they tear down low income housing, hundreds and thousands of low income public housing units, they will not rebuild units that allow low income people to pay the rent at 30%.”

Make the Road Connecticut is a state chapter of the nationwide organization Center for Popular Democracy. Similar town halls were held throughout the month in 12 states.

Corporate landlords are making rent and homeownership unattainable, Make the Road organizers said. The group is supporting a push to create a rent cap that would help establish more permanent affordable housing.

In a statement the Center for Popular Democracy said, “Profit-driven corporate landlords and Wall Street investors are buying up a record portion of homes sold, and are exacerbating the housing crisis for working families by making housing unaffordable and driving up homelessness.”