Do towns deserve local control on housing?

The state may not have a stick, but some towns may be holding out for carrots. Two years is long enough for state officials to recognize the need to hold towns accountable.

We probably should have had hosted a pool for readers to guess how many Connecticut towns would miss the state’s deadline to submit affordable housing plans.

As of last week, 34 municipalities have still had not done so. Given Connecticut’s 169 towns and a June 1 deadline, that might not sound too bad.

Then again, that deadline was June 1, 2022.

Sadly, chipping the figure down to 20 percent does indicate progress. As of a year ago, 82 of the state’s towns had missed the deadline.

None of the towns can act like a fourth-grader claiming they never got the assignment. The need for more housing has been clearly identified as a crisis in Connecticut. The pushback from towns demanding the need to maintain “local control” has only served as a reminder that too many of them have done little with that authority before or since.

Still, we’d like to think that even readers would lowball guesses at how many towns would fail to comply. Thirty-four towns is a lot. And they’ve had six years to think about it, as the state Office of Policy and Management created the mandate in 2017 calling on municipalities to submit affordable housing plans and make them transparent to the public by posting them online.

What has become transparent is that some towns may never cooperate. To date, there are no consequences for noncompliance.

The state may not have a stick, but some towns may be holding out for carrots. Two years is long enough for state officials to recognize the need to hold towns accountable.

The OPM doesn’t even ask for specific plans, just a general strategy for increasing affordable housing options. When CTInsider reached out to the 34 towns in noncompliance, 25 responded with various explanations. Some say they have plans, but had yet to submit them. Others report being in the final stages. Some jumped right on the task of sending in their work. Four thought they already had.

Then there are the nine who didn’t give the media query any more mind than the state. Those are Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Derby, Griswold, Norwalk, Oxford, Shelton, Sterling and Watertown, some of which have substantial affordable housing.

There are decent explanations for some of the tardiness. Some towns say they are striving to refine plans. Others cite staffing challenges.

Gov. Ned Lamont sounds satisfied that towns want to participate in creating more affordable housing. We’re not convinced. Counting how many towns handed in their homework is a lot different than grading the submissions. Some will surely come up short.

This has to be more than a polite request. If Connecticut wants to fill jobs, and create new ones, it needs to offer people somewhere to live. The current template isn’t working, and never did.

We’re no longer thinking about last year’s deadline, but the next one. This process is designed to repeat itself every five years, which means towns are expected to provide updated plans in 2027.

Maybe by then Connecticut will have figured out a better way to get every town to help stem this crisis. But we wouldn’t bet on it.