HOUSING FACTS: THE NEED TO ACT

The cost of housing in Connecticut is high

  • You need to make $21.60 per hour to afford a 2-bedroom apartment in Connecticut.1
  • A family making median income could not qualify for the median sales price home in 117 of the state’s 169 municipalities.2
  • Between 2000 and 2008, the median house price in Connecticut increased by 62.4% while income rose only 39.1%.2


Connecticut does not have enough affordable housing

  • There are 3 very low-income households for every 1 affordable and available rental unit.3
  • The state’s gross vacancy rate is 31% lower than the national rate.4
  • Approximately 344,000 Connecticut households need housing that is more affordable; they earn less than 80% of the area median income and spend more than 30% of their income for housing.5


Current levels of state and federal assistance are inadequate

  • The state’s investment in housing has dwindled from a high of over $100 million annually in the late 1990s, to $20 million last year, to not a single new dollar in the Governor’s budget proposal.6
  • Our state-financed public housing has a backlog of unmet capital needs exceeding $479 million.7
  • Waiting lists for housing subsidy programs administered by State agencies have wait times of three to six years.8
  • In mid-2007, more than 48,000 households applied for 1,000 anticipated rent subsidies when DSS opened its waiting list.8


The consequences are real

  • Forty percent of owners with mortgages, 23 percent of owners without mortgages, and 48 percent of renters spent 30 percent or more of household income on housing.9
  • Housing-related costs, including utilities, and housing and shelter are the top requests for assistance from callers to United Way 2-1-1.10
  • Among the 3,444 homeless households included in Connecticut’s Point-in-Time Count, the most commonly cited reason for leaving one’s last place of residence was rent problems.11


Sources

  1. National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach, 2009
  2. HOMEConnecticut, Affordability in Connecticut, 2008
  3. New England Public Policy Center Policy Briefs No. 07-2: Crowded out of the Housing Market, March 2007
  4. U.S. Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership, 2008
  5. Klepper-Smith, D., DataCore Partners, LLC, Updated Perspectives on the Need for Affordable Housing within Connecticut, June 2008
  6. Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, FY2010-2011, Governor’s Budget/Capital Program, February 2009
  7. Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, State Assisted Housing Portfolio, May 2006
  8. Partnership for Strong Communities, CT Housing Priority Issues: Section 8 and SEVRA, 4/30/09
  9. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2007
  10. United Way of Connecticut, 2-1-1 Community Connection Newsletter, January 2009
  11. Reaching Home Campaign, 2008 Point-in-Time Count Report, July 2008