More than half of Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns have failed to meet a June 1 state deadline to submit plans for affordable housing.
The law that created this deadline was crafted by State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey of Fairfield. It was a compromise with affluent suburban communities opposed to a state affordable housing mandate they claimed would undermine local control, she said.
“This particular bill that we passed last year does not have any teeth, and there are no consequences, really, for communities to not submit their plans," McCarthy Vahey said. "So we are really relying on communities to realize what this means for them and prioritize it."
Communities will still have to deal with the issue, she said.
"The thing that we do have to agree on is that there is a problem, that we do have an issue in terms of lack of available housing, not just affordable housing but all levels — a lack of a diverse housing stock in a number of different communities,” she said.
The state’s three largest cities have all failed to meet the deadline.
Connecticut is facing a shortage of housing across all income levels and the construction of new housing has been slow compared to other states.
