NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A major civil rights lawsuit was filed in New Haven on Tuesday morning against the town of Woodbridge over the lack of affordable housing.
The lawsuit alleges Woodbridge violated numerous laws by barring affordable housing, which particularly harms Black and Latino families and households relying on government-subsidized housing.
Connecticut civil rights groups and housing advocates called it exclusionary zoning practices.
"We are here today to confront this history and move us forward towards a more equitable future, a future where Connecticut towns guide their own zoning but do so within the parameters of laws designed to ensure our families of a range of incomes have choices and every community of the state," passionately explained Erin Boggs, founding Executive Director of Open Communities Alliance (OCA).
Many advocates that spoke during the press conference called the lawsuit a last resort action for change.
"The deep levels of segregation in Connecticut today are foreseeable outcomes of decades of exclusionary zoning practices," Boggs said.
"Other Connecticut suburbs have also embraced these practices and remain segregated. Even as the state has grown more diverse over the course of the 20th and 21st century," said Mira Netsky, Yale Law School Class of 2023.
The suit claims that Woodbridge's zoning violates the state's Zoning Enabling Act and Fair Housing Act, taking account of regional housing needs.
"Time after time, year after year, at each moment when Woodbridge had the chance to zone for economic and racial diversity in accordance with state law it did not," said Boggs.
"To change zoning regulations to comply with Connecticut state law. Woodbridge refused one in a long line of refusals to meet its legal duties," said Netsky.
As they challenge the zoning regulations on various legal grounds—advocates stressed that they can't lose sight of the big picture.
"Challenging the policies and practices of the town of Woodbridge will ultimately help to improve the lives of those families in New Haven and residents in the surrounding region, "explained Bonita Grubbs, Executive Director of Christian Community Action, Inc.
"That's what this case is about a step towards a better, more equitable system of landowners," said Richard Freedman of the Garden Homes Fund.
Raquel Harrington is the race and culture reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at rharrington@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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