West Haven must do more on housing

Housing is a human right.

We demand that the city of West Haven invest more of its COVID relief money into housing

Safe, dignified housing is a human right and an essential component of a healthy life. But in West Haven, working-class families struggle to afford renting a home. Because of monthly rent increases, the average tenant in West Haven is $13,000 short of affording a two-bedroom apartment, according to a 2019 report by DataHaven. The federal government states that for housing to be considered affordable, it must cost 30 percent or less of a family’s monthly income. By this definition, an individual needs to be earning a minimum of $27 dollars an hour in West Haven to afford a two-bedroom apartment. This is more than twice minimum wage.

Affording rent was hard enough before the pandemic, and COVID-19 has only made things worse. We all know someone who lost their job, or had their hours severely reduced, or had to quit to take care of loved ones who were sick. When you’re working paycheck to paycheck, these hardships mean the difference between eviction and having a home, with long-term consequences for families but also entire communities. It also means never having the possibility to save. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, “increasing access to affordable housing is the most cost-effective strategy for reducing childhood poverty and increasing economic mobility in the U.S. … Without affordable housing, families have constrained opportunities to increase earnings.”

Many families in our community live in apartments that are much too small and crowded, even though their parents work around the clock to provide for their families. While federal housing subsidies exist, the wait lists far exceed the number of available affordable units.

We, the Sisters in Diaspora Collective, want to see the urgency of this housing crisis reflected in the city’s spending and priorities. Last year, the city of

West Haven received a one-time payment of $29 million from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan to help recover from the effects of COVID-19. Mayor Rossi has proposed a plan to allocate just $1 million of this fund towards housing, creating a “housing crisis fund” that would “establish short-term emergency housing facilities for families experiencing an unavoidable housing crisis.” Meanwhile, the mayor’s plan proposes to allocate $2.4 million in bonuses to police officers for the next two years. This plan demonstrates the mayor’s willingness to prioritize policing, a move which community members and organizers across Connecticut and the U.S. have opposed at least since 2020, over providing affordable housing for West Haven community members.

We urge the West Haven City Council to reject the current proposed plan in favor of one that centers the basic living needs of West Haven’s workingclass residents. Given the severity of the city’s housing crisis, and the limits of existing housing access programs, we urge our city to take advantage of this federal funding to create real solutions for the thousands of people who don’t have access to the basic human right of safe, affordable housing. As a start, we propose that 50 percent of ARP funding, or $14.5 million, be used to provide rent relief for six months to West Haven families. We also urge the city to invest funds over the next few years in structural solutions to the housing crisis, such as increasing the number of affordable housing options in this city. By accepting these proposals, Mayor Rossi and the City Council can take meaningful first steps towards alleviating the housing crisis in West Haven, and show that they are listening to their constituents and prioritizing their needs.

Sisters in Diaspora Collective is a group of mainly immigrant and refugee women.