How to make Stamford a city that really works

Stamford’s housing and zoning policies have been systemically racist, keeping BIPOC citizens in downtown, West Side and South End areas, specifically excluding them from “Gold Coast” areas of our city.

I moved to Stamford in 2000 and owned my own condo by 2001. I am a white (Italians in the United States became recognized as such after World War II), female, second-generation citizen of the USA.

However, I have colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who have lived in Stamford for four or more generations and are still dwelling in rental units, not by choice. No surprise most of these folks have dark skin and/or can speak languages other than English. They provide care for our children and elders, our properties, our private and public transportation. They staff our schools, and clean our places of business and public spaces. They pay taxes. But they cannot afford to buy homes.

Stamford’s housing and zoning policies have been systemically racist, keeping BIPOC citizens in downtown, West Side and South End areas, specifically excluding them from “Gold Coast” areas of our city. Too few for-profit developers are willing to include more than the required percentage of Below Market Rate rental units. Fewer are interested in building homes affordable to low- or median income families, though new Public-Private Partnerships now in progress are welcome.

How can Stamford be “The City That Works” when it’s BIPOC communities are jammed with high-rise apartments for transient, wealthy workers at the expense of affordable homes, communities and schools, perpetuating the country and area’s racial wealth gap where Black families own $1 of wealth compared to their White counterparts’ $10?

Remaining a renter, often “cost burdened,” paying up to 60% of rent in this inflated rental market, means never having the money to save up for a house. One way to lighten that burden would be to make Housing Vouchers universal, capping rent at 30% of renters’ incomes so they can afford decent housing. Another way would be to enact the Renter’s Tax Credit, which, much like the Mortgage deduction for home owners, would enable renters to live in inflated housing markets like ours. Both measures could help families save for a down payment on a house.

Other policies are now being developed, but the long-term goal must be home ownership by BIPOC families to significantly shrink the crippling racial wealth gap—before Covid Black family wealth was 10-15% of White. Home ownership is the foremost way that all families develop and pass on wealth.

I encourage Stamford and our Members of Congress to support policies which build BIPOC home ownership.