5 ways to take a stand for affordable homes

You can push for change today

Maybe you are a renter worried about how you’ll make ends meet after another rent hike. Maybe you’re a renter looking at the costs of down payments and houses, and worrying you’ll never be able to afford to buy a home. Or maybe you own a home and are struggling with the rising costs of keeping your home, and a community that people can’t afford to stay in or move to. 

Every community in Connecticut is struggling with the cost of homes. Our state is known for its charm, but our towns lose it when people are priced out. 

Whether you rent or own, there are ways you can fight to keep our neighborhoods together and make housing more affordable.

Here are five ways you can take a stand for affordable homes:

Attend your town’s planning and zoning board meetings

Many attempts to build homes, or to renovate existing buildings into homes, require approval from a local planning and zoning board. But this is where the road ends for many good ideas.

People who are against affordable homes, and against creating growth and opportunity in their towns, can use zoning meetings and threats of lawsuits as weapons to stop things from being renovated or built. But if they are the only people who show up to their local planning and zoning meetings, then they are the only ones being heard.

We need to add more homes to our cities, towns, and neighborhoods, so people can afford to stay and live here. To do that, more people need to show up to spaces like planning and zoning meetings.

Get the facts on your town

Big decisions in your city and town are made by your local representatives. That makes it crucial to know who is representing you and if they support affordable housing.

Look up your town councilmember, planning and zoning board members, mayor or first selectman, and state senator and representative. Find out if they have supported creating more affordable homes, or if they have been against things like renters’ rights and building or renovating housing.

Renters and homeowners won’t get relief from rising prices if our town councilmembers or commissions are against good ideas. Ask your candidates how they feel about the price of rent in your area, if something needs to change, and what their ideas are for making housing affordable.

Contact your lawmakers

Your elected lawmakers are supposed to represent and work for you. And ff they don’t know what your concerns are, they can’t act on them.

Your story, struggles, and experiences are important. Sharing them is a powerful way to spur change. You can make yourself heard by emailing your legislators and local officials, attending public meetings, and signing petitions. You can get involved in your local Connecticut Project community action team.

The more people who take a stand for affordable housing, the harder the issue will be to ignore from people in power.

Form a tenants union

Does your landlord keep hiking your rent without a real reason? You can band together with your neighbor to create a tenants’ union to try and fight it.

Different towns have different rules about how many people you need in order for the town to acknowledge your union. If your union brings a case to your local fair housing commission, then your argument can have more weight if the entire union complains.

Learn about your fair rent commission

If your town has a fair rent commission, it can be a place to make your voice heard. Fair rent commissions hear complaints, mediate issues with your landlord, and can decide if a rent increase is too much. They can order your landlord to stop an increase, phase it in, or put it on pause until repairs are finished.

You can bring a complaint to the fair rent commission yourself. Or, if you want to extend your advocacy, you can apply to be on one. 

The cost of living in Connecticut isn’t sustainable. Rent and home prices keep going up, but wages aren’t. Lifelong residents are being priced out of their communities, adult children can’t afford to move out of their parents’ homes, and buying a house is becoming more out of reach.

Join us in the fight for a better Connecticut so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive, no matter what their zip code is.