HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s 169 towns received over $1.5 billion in federal funding, from various sources, like the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), to help with the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, but they’ve allocated just 1% for affordable housing projects.
That 1% is about $15 million and is just what individual towns have budgeted for housing.
With affordability still a big problem in Connecticut, the state says they’ve earmarked much more money.
“It's absolutely an issue here in Connecticut,” said Michael Santoro, director of policy and research at the Connecticut State Department of Housing.
The state is currently short over 85,000 affordable housing units, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Thirty percent of Connecticut’s renter households are extremely low income and residents now need to earn nearly $58,000 annually to afford a two-bedroom rental at a fair market rate. That monthly fair market price is $1,446.
“We can never build enough to keep up with demand, to be frank,” Santoro said. “But every bit of investment we do make takes a bite out of the problem.”
He says there are roughly 3,900 units under construction right now state-wide and the vast majority of development is funded by state dollars.
“Connecticut is one of only four states that invests significant amounts of state resources into the development and preservation of affordable housing,” said Santoro.
He added Connecticut has invested just under $59 million of its direct ARPA allocation for housing-related activities and the Connecticut State Department of Housing received $50 million alone to create new affordable housing opportunities.
“There are a wide array of resources that we are using in conjunction with that $50 million worth of ARPA dollars to create new affordable housing opportunities across the state,” Santoro continued.
Besides just building more affordable units, the state says they’re also funding projects like rental assistance programs.
Santoro says to mitigate this issue, the state needs to continue everything they’re doing now, but on a larger scale.
FOX61 reached out to state representatives on the state Legislative Housing Committee, but did not receive comment.
---
Have a story idea or something on your mind you want to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at newstips@fox61.com
----
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET FOX61 NEWS
Download the FOX61 News APP
iTunes: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Stream Live on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching FOX61.
Steam Live on FIRE TV: Search ‘FOX61’ and click ‘Get’ to download.