Connecticut is among 10 states in the nation with the highest average housing costs, and it’s been proven to exacerbate the state’s poverty rate.
Twenty-one percent of poverty, and 26% of child poverty, can be attributed to above-average housing costs in Connecticut, according to a new report by Pew Research Center.
“There's a shortage of housing, and so we've seen rents go up there because there just aren't enough homes getting added,” Alex Horowitz, Pew project director, said. “Connecticut is in a long-term landlords market because tenants are competing for scarce homes instead of landlords competing for tenants.”
The report analyzed 10 states with the highest housing costs nationwide, to determine the impact housing costs have on impoverished families.
“If those states had average housing costs instead, how much of their poverty would that alleviate?” Horowitz said. “Or the converse, how much of their poverty is caused by having above average housing costs?”
Expensive housing is offsetting the financial relief many struggling families could receive from programs meant to help them, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Housing Choice Vouchers and, for developers, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Horowitz said.
“Those programs are crucial, but some of the help they provide is being lost to high rents because even if someone is receiving more assistance, but then their rent keeps going up, some of that assistance they're receiving is going away,” Horowitz said. “If our anti-poverty programs are going to be effective, that means that we need to reduce people's expenses as well as upping their incomes, and more housing can do it.”
The state with the highest rate of poverty caused by high housing costs is Hawaii, followed by California, according to the report. Connecticut was tied for 7th.
The main way to alleviate the strain housing costs place on families is to build more housing, Horowitz said.
Passing state laws that make it easier to construct housing, including decreasing lot size requirements for homes and allowing smaller apartment buildings to have one stairwell, are some of the things that can be done to help the burden being caused by the housing crisis, according to Horowitz.
He also said zoning changes that shift from the single-family home mindset to building more townhomes, condos or apartments will balance the market.
“From 2017 to 2023, Connecticut ranked 49th in the entire United States in housing production per capita,” Horowitz said. “If you look at 2011 to 2016, all states in the U.S. combined passed an average of one law a year to allow more homes. In 2025, there were more than 100 laws passed at the state level to allow more homes.”
It needn’t just be affordable homes and apartments built either, Horowitz said. Any type of construction is beneficial.
“It may be counterintuitive that adding more new housing, even if it's not subsidized, could help alleviate that. But the evidence is clear that it can,” Horowitz said.
