More than half of the towns and cities across Connecticut are rental deserts.
A community may be considered a rental desert when less than 20% of the available housing are rental properties, according to a recent report by housing advocacy nonprofit, Partnership for Strong Communities.
The report shows rental units represent less than 20% of housing in about 61% of the municipalities across the state. The study also highlights a neighborhood divide, with certain areas within a town only having single-family homes or exclusively apartment buildings.
“We looked at the neighborhoods themselves, and found that a large share of neighborhoods across the states are indeed rental deserts,” Research and Policy Fellow Samaila Adelaiye said. “Your kids who are moving out are unable to live in the neighborhoods where they have strong ties, because there's no rental housing there.”
Rental deserts are also less likely to have affordable housing for residents with Section 8 or Rental Assistance Program vouchers, Adelaiye said.
“You even really want to live there, [and] might find it very difficult competing with people who are wealthy and who have, you know, cash in hand to pay for rent,” Adelaiye said.
When communities lack rental housing, residents are often forced to live in nearby cities with more apartments, like Hartford and New Haven.
The lack of apartments and multifamily homes statewide presents various challenges, according to Sean Ghio, policy director for Partnership for Strong Communities.
“If you want to downsize in your town. You want your children to stay in town. You want your shops to have employees that can live nearby. The lack of rental housing means greater and longer commutes for everyone,” Ghio said.
Neighborhood segregation can also lead to a lack of diversity in local schools, Ghio said.
“A lot of our towns have neighborhood schools, and with that sort of neighborhood-level segregation, it means you're diminishing the types of diversity in your schools,” Ghio said.
“If you look at typical renters' wages versus owners' incomes, renters disproportionately have lower income, so they're effectively locked out of a lot of these communities.”
Changing exclusionary zoning that restricts where multifamily housing can be built can be part of a solution, according to Ghio. Zoning limitations on multifamily properties prevent where new housing can be constructed.
“Areas that have more rental opportunities tend to be places that were developed earlier, before a large-lot, single-family zoning took hold,” Ghio said. “So most of the rentals are in much older homes and and often in neighborhoods that are denser, but also can be the sort of part of the town that's neglected.”
