Connecticut is years into a crippling housing crisis, and the situation is only getting worse. Home prices are up nearly 10 percent just in the past year, even as a recent study found the state was the worst in the nation for renters. Meanwhile, action at the General Assembly to deal with the crisis has been slow and halting.

To face a problem of this magnitude — which hurts families and hinders our economy by making it harder for companies to fill open positions — it’s necessary to offer a solution equal to the challenge. To that end, our organization, Hartford-based civil rights nonprofit Open Communities Alliance, has in recent sessions recommended Fair Share Planning and Zoning. It is a proposal that builds on existing state zoning laws to allocate affordable housing needs to towns across the state and require that municipalities adjust their planning and zoning to allow for the needed housing to be built.

It’s a large-scale proposal, and it won’t be easy to pass. But while Connecticut has stood still, other states from Utah to Massachusetts to Florida have realized it’s time to act on zoning reform. In Connecticut, Fair Share is the only plan yet offered that meets the scale of the crisis, and OCA and its partners in the Growing Together CT coalition plan to fight hard for it in 2025.

Opinion: A stunning misreading of the Fair Share housing proposal, Erin Boggs and Hugh Bailey, CT Mirror, June 28, 2024, available here