New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Fair Share Zoning the right thing and the smart thing
Connecticut is facing a series of crises. We are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of segregation, income inequality, housing affordability, infrastructure and economic mobility — and in the bottom half of states for fiscal stability. Over 208,000 families in Connecticut earning less than half of the median income (about $50,000 for a family of four) are paying over half of their income or more toward housing costs. The extent to which COVID-19 has ravaged Black and Latino communities is a palpable reflection of this inequality.
These current crises are in large part the result of federal, state and local government policies that fostered and perpetuate housing segregation.
These policies include redlining, which started in the 1930s and was not technically banned until 1968, limited government-backed home loans and insurance to “stable” neighborhoods that deliberately excluded areas with significant Black and Latino populations. Scholars attribute a significant portion of today’s 90 percent wealth gap between Blacks and Latinos, on the one hand, and whites, on the other, directly to the home appreciation experienced by white families under this discriminatory government policy.
In a state like Connecticut, where most predominantly white suburbs, acting under the color of state law, require housing lots to be very large, effectively ban most multifamily homes, and deprioritize infrastructure development that would allow for a greater diversity of housing (like sewers), access to the rich resources these communities provide remains out of reach for many Black and Latino families.
So here we are in Connecticut in 2021, emerging from an era when our differences were used to separate us rather than strengthen us and, for many, it is a moment of awakening of racial consciousness after the murder of George Floyd. How do we get out of this mess? Next week, the Connecticut Legislature will hold a hearing on an innovative proposal, Fair Share Planning and Zoning (Raised Bill 6611), that can tackle multiple challenges at once while honoring municipal local control.
Modeled on an effective process in New Jersey and grounded in Connecticut’s current laws, Fair Share Zoning puts municipalities in the driver’s seat by empowering them to plan for their fair share of the regional need for affordable housing over a 10-year period. If they do that well and their plan successfully generates units ranging from 30 percent to 80 percent of the median income (approximately $30,000 to $80,000 for a family of four), they are in the free and clear. If they fail to plan or their plan does not work, developers and others can seek court approval to develop units meeting the town’s fair share requirements, or compel the town to implement a meaningful plan. The proposal allows for adjustments to towns’ obligations in cases of infeasibility and to protect natural resources.
Fair Share Planning and Zoning is the right thing to do because it addresses poverty concentration and empowers individual housing choice. Critically, zoning reform in wealthy communities will decrease housing pressure on urban communities most at risk of gentrification and displacement. Further, it helps both the children currently attending and those who would be joining our disproportionately white schools by fostering the cultural competency that is essential to success in the more diverse work forces of the future. By asking each town to take on a fair portion of the need for affordable housing in a way that is sustainable, municipalities can embrace and adopt better, more equitable planning, knowing that their neighbors are doing the same.
Fair Share Planning and Zoning is also the smart thing to do. We’ve learned a lot from New Jersey’s experience with its law, which has been honed through trial and error over the past 50 years, to emerge as a system on the path to generate 100,000 units of affordable housing. The same kind of production in Connecticut plus additional market-rate units developed through inclusionary zoning, would likely yield $60 billion of income for Connecticut residents and $12 billion in state and local tax revenue and produce 80,000 jobs over 10 years. More than that, it would set Connecticut up to be a great place to live for generations to come by providing affordable housing options, attracting employers to relocate closer to a burgeoning workforce, and staunching decades of painful outmigration.
Fair Share Zoning works without dictating a one-size-fits-all solution, but by empowering towns to shape their futures.
Fair Share Zoning is a carefully developed, thoughtful approach that resolves many of Connecticut’s toughest social justice challenges. It provides meaningful guidance to local planning in a way that puts our state on a path to the kind of economic vitality it has not experienced for over a decade — and it does so without dictating a one-size-fits-all solution, but by empowering towns to shape their futures. Fair Share Zoning is the right thing and the smart thing to do for Connecticut.
DANBURY — While nurses and grocery store employees go to work, Fanny Rodriguez watches some of their children.
The child care provider watches six kids under age 5 in her Bethel home, and when the coronavirus pandemic hit, she worried about being exposed to the virus.
“I felt a lot of pressure on myself, like I’m doing this but I hope I don’t get sick,” said Rodriguez, who has been a child care provider for four years.
Rodriguez was one of 100 child care providers to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday at Rogers Park Middle School, a vaccination clinic run by the city health department that has vaccinated the majority of public school educators and plans to vaccinate most child care providers next week.
“I feel I can work more freely,” Rodriguez said after getting her shot.
The vaccinations for child care providers are seen as a key way to help working families and support an industry that has been hard hit by the pandemic.
“It is liberating,” Gov.
Ned Lamont said on the bright day in front of a dozens of Rogers Park educators who have already been vaccinated. “And this sunshine is liberating and it’s a good day.”
Capacity for child care providers in the state is at about 70 percent of what it was before the pandemic, said Beth Bye, Connecticut early childhood commissioner. Parents working from home have opted to watch their children, rather than send them to child care, she said.
That’s one of the reasons Bye and the governor announced Friday at the Danbury clinic that the state would use $8 million of federal COVID relief money to help cover child care costs for parents.
“This is a big deal for programs and our family child care homes and a big deal for families, who are so stressed,” Bye said.
“This is particularly focused at families who have suffered the most during this pandemic.”
For six months, the state will waive the cost of a fee for parents associated with Connecticut’s child care subsidy, which goes to families of four earning less than $60,000 annually, Bye said.
That’s an average of $129 a month for families, she said.
“Getting our care providers vaccinated today and as a priority is so incredibly important, but also investing in the families and providing subsidies and paying six months of child care [is important],” said state Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury.
“I remember when I was paying child care with my three kids. Getting six months’ of fees waived would be immensely important.”
The money to cover the fees comes from a previous federal relief package, not the $1.9 trillion one President Joe Biden signed on Thursday.
The latest bill gives $170 million to child care providers and $100 million to families in Connecticut, said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
“This money is an investment in our future,” said Blumenthal, adding the funding may be used to start new child care centers, since many have gone out of business.
At the end of the month, the state expects to roll out grants for providers, too, Bye said. Half of providers in Connecticut have been putting expenses on their personal credit card, she said.
“These folks are so committed to the families they work for,” Bye said. “So getting a grant will help them pay back those expenses that they’ve incurred and will also help with things like, maybe they’re behind on the rent or the mortgage.”
Most child care centers have lost 10 to 20 percent of their clients, but it’s worse in “priority” districts, she said.
“The grants will be structured in a way that recognizes communities like Danbury that have struggled the most with enrollment,” Bye said.
“This American Rescue Plan will enable children to get out of poverty in a way we haven’t before in this country,” Blumenthal said. “And we know that if the providers get more vaccine they will be safer, but families will be safer.”
The package provides school funding, with the state planning to use the money for education programs this summer, Lamont said.