Thomas Breen photos
Shafiq Abdussabur and Gov. Lamont at Brazi's lunch: 2 takes on a crisis.
Who needs a home in New Haven? Who can afford a home in New Haven? And whom should the state prioritize supporting with its housing policies and subsidies — biotech transplants or working-class first-time buyers?
Two different takes on those housing-focused questions came to the fore during a conversation among the governor, a top state housing official, and a now-former Beaver Hills alder.
The conversation took place Thursday at Brazi’s Italian Restaurant at 201 Food Terminal Plaza on Long Wharf. That’s where first-term governor and Democratic candidate Ned Lamont held a campaign-stop lunch with local clergy as part of his bid for reelection for another four years in the state’s top elected office.
While most of Thursday’s conversation focused on concerns around public safety and rising gun violence, Lamont and state Department of Housing Deputy Commission Shanté Hanks did receive a handful of questions about state housing policy — and about the challenges many New Haveners face in finding an affordable place to live.
The questions reflected a sense of urgency, desperation, and frustration felt by New Haveners as their incomes struggle to keep pace with rising housing costs.
Lamont’s responses — true to the governor’s upbeat approach to campaigning and politics — focused instead on the successes of his administration’s pandemic-era rent relief program, and on the need for more housing for young professionals working in New Haven’s biotech sector.
“To my knowledge, the state has decreased the amount of financial incentives for builders around affordable housing,” said Shafiq Abdussabur, a Beaver Hills community leader and retired former police sergeant who recently resigned as alder.
He said that New Haven homeowners and taxpayers have instead had to foot the bill for affordable housing development in town, in the form of local “tax abatement incentives. The cost is passed on to the taxpayers and the homeowners of New Haven.”
Abdussabur also pointed out that, big picture, New Haven’s economy has changed dramatically in the past few decades. “Unlike in the past, when New Haven would have had Winchester gun factories and all these industries, the job market has now shifted to biotech. So the average working-class person cannot even afford the affordable housing that’s available.”
What is the state doing to help with those challngess? Abdussabur asked. Will the governor “double down” on providing affordable housing subsidies for New Haven?
State housing deputy Shanté Hanks (standing).
Hanks took the lead in responding to Abdussabur’s questions.
She said that the Department of Housing, working with its financing arm — the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, or CHFA — has supported the development of affordable rental housing and affordable homeownership alike in New Haven.
“We’re working with developers. We’re working with nonprofits,” she said. “In New Haven in particular, we have a number of projects” supported by CHFA. (Click here and here to read about some of those local CHFA-supported projects.)
“We want to find a balance” between promoting the development of more market-rate and affordable rental housing, Hanks said. She stressed the importance of making sure that new apartment complexes have both market-rate and affordable units, and that affordable housing is “not in one concentrated area” but rather spread out “throughout the state.”
“We want to see diversity throughout the State of Connecticut, and not just in one area.”
When Lamont then jumped in to respond to Abdussabur’s questions, his answer focused on the issue of housing supply.
“We’re desperately short of housing,” the governor said. That includes “housing for our teachers, firemen, and cops,” as well as “housing for workforce.”
“Every single business I talk to says: ‘Connecticut’s OK if I have two kids in a little house in the suburbs, but we’re desperately short for that 20-something who’s looking to start his career in the life science or a business right here in New Haven,’ ” said Lamont, who was a Greenwich tech entrepreneur before he took office. “Is there housing for them? That’s a key priority. We’re making this one of our real priorities.”
Pastor Wilkins (right) asks Lamont about first-time homeowner support.
Abdussabur wasn’t the only attendees at Thursday’s lunch to ask the governor about state housing policy.
One of the event’s co-organizers, Newhallville pastor Roger Wilkins, asked Lamont about what his administration is doing “to help with affordable housing and first-time homebuyers.”
Lamont began his response by referring to the state’s UniteCT pandemic-era rental relief program. That program distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to renters and landlords. It also stopped accepting new applications in February, at the same time that the state’s modified eviction moratorium expired.
Lamont described UniteCT as a “really expansive rent relief program.”
It was so successful, he claimed, that “I didn’t meet anybody kicked out of their apartment of this last two, three years. We don’t want that now.”
Evictions are now back on the rise. (Click here, here and here to read about the local and statewide increase in evictions this year.)
“In terms of homeownership,” Lamont continued, “there’s nothing more important, I think.” He pointed to how the state has made available “tens of millions of dollars” through a new downpayment assistance program that will provide grants worth up to $50,000 to qualifying first-time homebuyers.
Plenty of jobs and housing for people who stay in school and get an education. The alders and activists are always asking for more, meanwhile they have failed on public education. Only 40% of kids graduating from New Haven schools can read at the 12 grade level. They need to look in the mirror before pointing their fingers at the State.