Housing Facts

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