Over the last two decades, Connecticut streamlined its homeless response system and established programs to help families retain housing and prevent them from becoming homeless.
However, housing advocates understand there’s more work to be done.
The Housing Collective, a nonprofit that works to increase housing access and affordability, is celebrating 20 years in operation, and organizers are looking back at what’s changed over that time.
During the last 20 years, Connecticut eliminated chronic veteran homelessness and built a “Coordinated Access Network” or hundreds of organizations that work together to shelter homeless residents.
One of the focuses of the next 20 years should be preventing families from becoming homeless, according to Housing Collective Chief Executive Officer David Rich.
“There's so much work that we can do, and what we call prevention or even diversion, getting people out very quickly, back to sustainable, safe housing that they were in before,” Rich said. “[It’s] far less cost effective, and it's far less destructive for the individuals and families.”
Over recent years, affordable housing units in Litchfield County doubled and funding for homeless services in Fairfield County increased by 150%, according to the Collective.
Connecticut also needs to diversify its housing stock and create more affordable housing options, Rich said.
“Changing that narrative within communities and saying this is something that we, most of us, believe in, instead of something that we're scared of or is dictated from the outside, I think, is a critical piece and with that comes changes in local planning and zoning and an openness to more multifamily [housing],” Rich said.
One significant change in Connecticut’s housing landscape is the addition of tenants unions, the first of which was established in 2021, when many renters faced housing insecurity following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tonya Harris is a leader of the Bay Point Tenants Union in Niantic, previously called Windward Village. Residents there spearheaded the formation of East Lyme’s Fair Rent Commission and prevented rent increases of up to $900.
The Center for Housing Opportunity in Eastern Connecticut, a program within the Housing Collective, stepped in to help Windward Village residents.
Before moving to Niantic, Harris said she wasn’t aware of tenants unions or Fair Rent Commissions. Her experience with the tenants union made her realize that renters have control.
“Just don't throw up your hands and wave the white flag, there is hope out there,” Harris said. “So you just have to search for and then be united.”
