Despite Gov. Ned Lamont’s recent veto of a sweeping housing bill focusing largely on zoning reform, several other laws signed this year will help more people find affordable places to live.
Advocates for housing affordability programs say one major achievement during the most recent legislative session, which ended in early June, was an increase in funding and capacity for Connecticut’s Rental Assistance Program (RAP).
An approved bill will provide $18 million for the program, according to Chelsea Ross, executive director of the housing advocacy nonprofit Partnership for Strong Communities.
The bill provides 275 vouchers for families with young children through Head Start on Housing, 100 for people with intellectual disabilities and 325 for elderly and disabled people, with a priority for those most at risk of homelessness, Ross said.
“That was a big win for housing stability for folks, and RAP typically serves people who are experiencing homelessness and other high need populations,” Ross said.
The new state budget includes a 9% increase in RAP funding for the new fiscal year, which starts this month, and a 30% increase for fiscal year 2026-27, Ross said.
With six housing-related bills that passed, state lawmakers are chipping away at Connecticut’s housing affordability crisis, Ross said.
“They're wins, but they're very small, and they weren't things that folks were pushing,” Ross said. “They're more of technical changes and fixes that strengthen existing practices, not things that people sort of have been hard fighting for.”
The small wins include establishing an interagency council on homelessness and a task force to study the rise in corporate ownership of apartment buildings, she said.
A bonding bill also included an annual $150 million for the next two years to support the state’s Housing Trust Fund, which would primarily go toward developing workforce, or middle-income, housing developments.
“There's also programs around supportive housing, middle housing in smaller towns, home ownership initiatives and housing for people leaving incarceration,” Ross said. “The administration and the legislature was able to show real recognition of the need to build and preserve affordable housing at scale.”
Lawmakers and housing advocates are also looking to the future, and considering which measures that failed to pass this year should be reconsidered in a special session this summer or during next year’s legislative session.
One such measure would place limitations on the ability of landlords to not renew a lease. Ross said the push for so-called just cause eviction protections will be renewed next year.
State Rep. Eleni Kavros-DeGraw, a Democrat who represents Avon and Canton, recently said the proposal is evolving as lawmakers reconsider it each year.
“I certainly think that there were more people who understood it and were leaning in the direction of voting for it than we have had before,” Kavros-DeGraw said. “There's something to be said for the iterative process. I think that that iterative process will be important for just cause.”
