As the legislative session moves into high gear, Connecticut’s housing crisis continues to be top of mind.

Lawmakers are considering a variety of bills aimed at increasing supply, which is a prerequisite for bringing prices down. Many of these proposals have been modified from previous years based on feedback from supporters and skeptics.

Unfortunately, the rhetoric from opponents has stayed the same. People who favor doing nothing have been so successful in recent years that they may think running out the same tired arguments is enough to find success yet again. Lawmakers need to ensure that isn’t the case.

My organization, Open Communities Alliance, has proposed a plan aimed at increasing affordable housing supply across the state. We call it Towns Take the Lead, because that’s how it works. Meeting the requirements of the law rests entirely on planning and zoning, not the number of units produced.

Under our proposal, towns would decide for themselves where their share of the housing needed by their region could be built. They would decide what it could look like. The state would provide structure and guidelines, but all the decisions would be up to the local municipality. Towns could even substitute a different figure for the state-generated number if there is a reason the state calculation is not feasible.

A town-based approach to meeting CT’s housing needs, Erin Boggs, CT Mirror, March 12, 2025, available here