HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio) - A housing advocacy coalition is looking to reshape the state's housing policies with a two-part proposal that promotes equitable zoning, community engagement and an expansion of housing opportunities.
The Growing Together Connecticut movement has outlined a plan that introduces a housing development policy and an effort to develop a plan for equitable urban investments according to community input.
Based on a policy in New Jersey, the Fair Share Planning and Zoning policy would expand new affordable housing in mixed-income communities.
"It's a new structure for planning and zoning that empowers municipalities and developers to come together to generate 300,000 new housing units, 80,000 jobs and billions of dollars for Connecticut over the next decade," New Haven Housing Authority Executive Director Karen Dubois-Walton explained.
According to Growing Together CT, the Fair Share policy would generate over $12 billion in state and local tax revenue in those ten years, boosting the state's economy.
The second part of the plan focuses on community-driven urban revitalization. Over the next few months, the coalition aims to get intensive feedback from communities about what they need, particularly under-resourced communities.
This feedback will help in the development of an equitable investment plan for urban areas, officials said.
"Our state is in the midst of a complex housing crisis. Housing simply costs too much, because there isn’t enough housing. And decades of disinvestment hold our cities back from reaching their promise for their residents and the state. This collective failure limits opportunity for hundreds of thousands of families,” Executive Director of Open Communities Alliance Erin Boggs said, a member of the Steering Committee of Growing Together CT.