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.

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.

Following a marathon meeting Thursday lasting more than 12 hours, the Connecticut legislature's Housing Committee advanced several dozen bills on subjects ranging from tenant protections to zoning reform.

Many of the most significant proposals advanced largely along party lines, with Democrats supporting them and Republicans opposing them. Most now head to the broader legislature, which has until early June to pass them into law.

Across Connecticut, households are finding basic needs unaffordable — especially housing. In the face of this reality, Ridgefield is seriously considering a zoning moratorium, which would ban nearly all multifamily housing throughout the town for a year or more.

There are a few key facts to keep in mind when considering this proposal. First, no matter what the town Planning & Zoning Commission decides, the town can’t simply nullify state and federal laws. The much-discussed 8-30g statute, which allows affordable housing to be built in towns where it is in short supply, would still be in effect, as would federal fair housing statutes.