In the suburbs of Hartford, far from the streets and pulpits where he would gain fame later in life, a young Martin Luther King Jr. experienced life outside the segregated South for the first time. King worked in the tobacco fields of Simsbury as a teenager in the 1940s, and it was here, he later said, that the call to the ministry first came to him.

The greatest Civil Rights leader of the 20th century considered his time in Connecticut to be formative to the growth of his worldview, and this deserves to be commemorated. But there is more to history than putting up a monument, and honoring the past should be about action instead of gestures.

Housing segregation, both racial and economic, was hotly debated in our legislature in this and recent sessions. No one doubts that it exists, though we debate its causes and remedies. What we don’t talk about enough, however, is its cost.

Its cost, first, and foremost, is moral. Housing segregation shrinks social trust. Our country is beset by polarization and mistrust of people who we are told are different. This is made worse by housing segregation. When we are each other’s neighbors we learn that we share much more, in our values and our hopes for our families, than politicians and media would suggest.

Gov. Ned Lamont this week vetoed what would have been the most significant housing legislation Connecticut has seen in years, over concerns that the bill undermined towns' rights to set housing policy for themselves.

Now the question is: What comes next?

Advocates are expressing disappointment in Gov. Ned Lamont for his Monday veto of a broad bill they say would have helped alleviate the state’s housing crisis.

“There’s a lot of disappointment and, frankly, anger,” said Pete Harrison, Connecticut director of the Regional Plan Association, a think tank that advocated for the bill. “It’s just a real poor leadership decision.”

The bill would have, among many other provisions, required cities and towns to set goals for the creation of affordable housing units, but did not mandate their construction.

When House Bill 5002 passed the General Assembly last Tuesday, it was celebrated as an important step in addressing the state’s oft-discussed housing crisis. However, advocates may have been counting their chickens before they hatched.

The bill has been sitting on Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for more than a week, with advocates holding their breath, as Lamont has expressed some hesitancy over the bill’s version of fair-share legislation known as “Towns Take the Lead.”

The complexity surrounding state zoning laws can seem insurmountable for those who want to create change in their communities and see more affordable housing constructed.

Open Communities Alliance, a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to amending discriminatory policies and actions based on income, race and ethnicity, recently released a guide to help affordable housing advocates. The guide is designed to help them better understand where to start when addressing zoning codes.

Connecticut has a housing crisis on its hands, officials said this week, but there are things residents can do to advocate for affordable housing.

Representatives from Hartford-based Open Communities Alliance, a civil-rights organization, released two reports Wednesday outlining how local citizens can work with town and state officials to attract and retain residents in their communities.

Some Connecticut towns and cities need more than 3,000 additional housing units to help meet the current level of statewide demand, a new report has concluded.

The 'Fair Share' study, commissioned by the state legislature, seeks to distribute statewide housing need across all 169 Connecticut municipalities, based on several different formulas. The results are intended for use in zoning reform policies, one of which recently advanced out of the legislative Housing Committee and could come up for a vote in the broader legislature in the coming months.

Every week, I hear from families in our community who are desperately trying to keep a roof over their heads. Parents tell me about rent hikes that outpace their paychecks, forcing impossible choices between groceries, medication, and rent. Seniors on fixed incomes worry that one unexpected expense could mean losing the home they’ve lived in for decades. Families share the anxiety of living month to month, never knowing when a sudden eviction notice might upend their lives. The lack of affordable housing options leaves them with nowhere to turn. It’s clear that Connecticut needs stronger protections – like just-cause eviction laws – to ensure that landlords cannot uproot tenants without a valid reason, providing families with the stability and security they deserve.

Solving the housing crisis in Connecticut is one of the biggest challenges we've had year after year, and now both market rate and affordable housing options are very much in short supply.

Connecticut, in fact, was recently on a list of the tightest real estate markets in the whole country.

So how do we address that? NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Erin Boggs, the executive director of Open Communities Alliance.