Lawmakers' clash over affordable housing stalls progress as clock running out
For decades, Connecticut residents have complained about the price of housing.
Whether a recent college graduate seeking an apartment or a young family trying to buy their first house, prices have been seen as too high.
With those problems as a backdrop, the state legislature is considering providing incentives to build more affordable housing as Democrats and Republicans have disagreed sharply over the best way of doing that.
They clashed last week over a 92-page omnibus bill with 51 sections that makes parking reforms, helps the homeless population, and offers incentives to build affordable housing. The measure relaxes parking requirements in order to spur new housing, but the two sides disagreed over whether that would solve the problem.
Lawmakers had expected to debate on Thursday, but the bill was being rewritten amid concerns from moderate Democrats and a threatened filibuster by Republicans that could have stretched overnight. The debate now has been postponed until Tuesday.
House majority leader Jason Rojas, an East Hartford Democrat, has worked on the issue for years as the prices of rental apartments and mortgages have continued to increase.
'I have been described as being impatient with the pace of change on housing policy, and I am because of what you see around our state in terms of the lack of affordability,' Rojas told reporters before the debate. 'For families that are stable in their housing, they are still paying a lot of money towards it. We obviously have a growing homeless population that I think we should all be concerned about. That's really what is driving me because if we don't do something today, 10 years from now, the situation will be far worse than it is today.'
Rojas added, 'It takes a long time to get housing built. … I'm really trying to meet everybody somewhere in the middle to advance a policy that helps us get more housing built.'
In the past, Rojas has described the housing progress as 'painfully incremental,' but he says now that his view is different this year.
'It's still incremental, but not painfully,' he said, adding that the latest measure is 'an incremental step in the right direction.'
The bill, Rojas said, reflects the priorities of Democrats in the House and Senate, along with Gov. Ned Lamont, who supports the measure. The legislation was named as House Bill 5002 to show that it is a high priority among House bills that start with the number 5000.
But Republicans are skeptical.
House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said the multi-pronged housing problem is much broader due to the legislature's past decisions on raising taxes and passing legislation that did not help the business climate.
'We've seen good-paying jobs leave the state of Connecticut,' Candelora told reporters. 'Large companies like GE and Lego move their headquarters out of our state, being replaced by Amazon warehouse workers. It is no longer affordable for those type of jobs for those individuals to live here. We certainly do have an affordability issue, but we've got to look more broadly at the policies they are passing to cause us to have economic loss in the state of Connecticut.'
A nonpartisan summary says the bill 'allows residential or mixed-use development on lots zoned for commercial use to be developed if it meets certain requirements.' Republicans are concerned about that idea, saying that housing should not be built in areas with gasoline stations, propane tanks, and polluted properties.
In addition, the bill 'prevents development applications from being rejected by local planning or zoning commissions on the basis that they do not conform with off-street parking requirements.'
A lack of minimum parking, lawmakers said, can lead to other problems in towns.
'Currently, towns across the state have minimum, mandatory parking requirements,' said Rep. Joe Zullo, an East Haven Republican. 'As I read the bill, that applies to commercial and residential uses. … Do you want a big box store or a busy restaurant or some other type of commercial use around the corner from you, and you not being able to tell them they have to have a certain amount of parking?'
Candelora said there was a similar problem in his hometown when the local planning and zoning commission granted an exemption to allow a pizza restaurant to open next to an elementary school without sufficient parking. The diners started parking in the school's parking lot, but eventually the restaurant closed due to the parking problems.
'This bill is going to make that story a common-day occurrence,' Candelora predicted.
Parking restrictions traditionally vary from town to town, thus blocking a one-size-fits-all solution. The parking concerns are starkly different from downtown Hartford to rural areas in Litchfield County or eastern Connecticut.
Lawmakers could not even agree on the impact of the bill. While Republicans maintained that the legislation would take away local control, Rojas said that was not true.
The debate could 'easily' have lasted 10 hours on the original bill as Rep. Doug Dubitsky, a Republican attorney, had filed 22 amendments alone, Candelora said. He had not seen an updated version of the bill but was hoping to view a new version over the holiday weekend in order to be prepared when the House reconvenes on Tuesday morning.
Besides the merits of the bill, top lawmakers are highly concerned about how many hours the debate will last because extra lengthy debates can crowd out the time that is needed to pass other key bills as lawmakers race toward the June 4 adjournment date.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Hartford Democrat who controls the agenda, keeps a close eye on the clock in the final days as numerous lawmakers want their bills on a wide variety of issues to pass in a scramble before the midnight adjournment.
'We've got a big bill every day that could be easily a big talker from now until we get out of here,' Ritter told reporters. 'Chairs have to understand. Sometimes I think the public has this perception that every bill that's not called was because Jason and I did not like it or there was a vote-count problem. Time is the enemy at this point. … We always take the hit for it, but sometimes it's just not ready for us to put on the board – or the amendment is not ready.'
Traditionally, the Republicans gain power in the final days of the session because they can delay bills through long debates.
'I'm going to try to assist them,' Candelora said. 'Look, we don't agree with what the Democrats are doing, and we're going to point out all the bad policies. But there's only so many bills that we're going to be able to do based on members of my caucus who are willing to fight these.'
Amid the back and forth, Lamont's spokesman, Rob Blanchard, said that he is on board with the original, detailed bill.
'The governor appreciates the legislature making accommodations to their housing bill to include some of his priorities, which include removing local barriers to housing development, while allowing municipalities the ability to maintain control,' Blanchard said. 'Connecticut's housing supply is constrained at a time when our housing needs should be keeping up with demand and affording families the opportunity for home ownership. As there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the housing shortage, this legislation will encourage better collaboration between the private sector, who build residences, and local leadership.'
In efforts to address all levels of the housing crisis, Democrats are also calling for a pilot program for mobile, portable showers that would travel from town to town to help the homeless.
In addition, Rojas is pushing for helping public housing authorities that are controlled by local communities.
'For me, I'm going back to public housing,' Rojas told reporters. 'It's a policy that we've long forgotten about. … There's so much focus on local control. Housing authorities are made up of people who live in those communities. They are the ones who are truly building housing for that population of people that I'm most concerned about, which are families that are 0 to 30% of the area median income — the poorest of the poor.'
Rojas added, 'The private marketplace is not going to do anything for those individuals, and I think it's appropriate for the government to step in and try to secure housing for those people who are at the most vulnerability of being homeless.'
On the other end of the housing spectrum, prices have increased in recent years due to relatively few homes on the market with some buyers entering into bidding wars. The bidding has prompted buyers to pay above the asking price for Greenwich mansions to New Haven condominiums to Greater Hartford homes.
In Simsbury, a five-bedroom home with a three-car garage sold in April 2024 for nearly $800,000, which was $170,000 over the asking price. The homeowner received 27 offers, including many that were above the asking price, and the house was sold within one week to the highest bidder.
Regarding the answer to solving the problem, Republican Rep. Thomas O'Dea of New Canaan, one of the state's wealthiest and most expensive communities, said that towns should be allowed the right of first refusal to buy property that could be used for affordable housing. Prices can reach $1 million per acre in the upscale Fairfield County town, he said.
'There's no incentive to builders,' O'Dea said. 'The state has not helped us build affordable housing in New Canaan. We've had to do it all on our own. The state needs to incentivize towns and help them. … My proposal does work. That's the answer.'
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
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