Here’s an argument on housing and homelessness that comes up all the time and has no connection to reality. It goes something like this: “When advocates say we lack 100,000 units of affordable housing, that doesn’t make sense because there are only a few thousand homeless people in the state.”

This is an actual claim put forth by people claiming to care about public policy. To cite one example, it came up in an op-ed in the Connecticut Mirror last year from the head of the conservative Yankee Institute.

It doesn’t hold any weight and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Here’s why.

To start with, we should make clear which numbers are real. According to the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, there were approximately 5,000 people experiencing homelessness late last year. 

At the same time, a state study this year showed we are the most housing-constrained state in the nation. We’re not building enough units to meet demand.

There is much more to the state’s housing shortage than a question of providing shelter for those who currently lack housing. The often-cited 100,000-plus figure is derived by counting the number of renter households that are both extremely low income – earning less than 30 percent of their area’s median income – as well as highly cost-burdened, paying more than 50 percent of their income towards housing. It represents a proxy of the state’s housing need.  

The simplistic answer would be to, instead of building new homes, make the homes of those who are cost-burdened more affordable. But it’s not that easy. 

For one thing, there aren’t enough subsidies from any level of government to help everyone who would qualify. Also, there are thousands of people across Connecticut living in substandard housing that is in desperate need of rehabilitation or replacement. 

Further, there is a separate need for more people. Connecticut suffers from a stagnant economy driven in large part by a lack of population growth. Connecticut employers reported 92,000 job openings at the end of January, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. If people can’t live near their work, they’ll look someplace else.

We need to let the private market work and allow housing to be built. 

The current situation, where disconnected local control allows individual towns to severely limit the growth that the state needs to remain economically competitive, is not working. We’re not building enough homes to serve a population in need.

Statewide zoning reform, which would give towns a framework around which to plan and zone for the housing we need, is the solution. Towns Take The Lead, HB 6944, is the way to get there. The Legislature should see that it passes.

Hugh Bailey, Policy Director
Open Communities Alliance (OCA)