LETTER FROM THE STATE CEO It’s Up to Us to Educate Legislators on The Right Way to Address Connecticut’s Housing Affordability Crisis By Jim Perras, CEO of the HBRACT A recent national survey done by the NAHB suggests Americans are keenly aware of a housing affordability crisis across our country. I’m guessing you’re not surprised. Affordable housing issues are nothing new in Connecticut where their impacts to our industry and residents have been more acute and persistent by comparison. How the affordable housing crisis is being addressed varies from state to state, town to town. In recent years, here in Connecticut we’ve seen state and local policymakers take the politically expedient feel good approach of squeezing profits via affordable housing trust funds, and inclusionary zoning with no real measurable results. These approaches in Connecticut and elsewhere haven’t been the panacea policymakers have banked on because they don’t address the root the problem in the comprehensive way that is needed. In his remarks about the survey, NAHB Chairman Randy Noel said it best, “These poll results confirm what builders from across the nation have been warning about—that housing affordability is an increasingly serious problem in communities across America. A mix of regulatory barriers, ill-considered public policy and challenging market conditions is driving up costs and making it increasingly difficult for builders to produce homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income families.” Randy goes on to say, “This poll should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers at all levels of government to ease regulatory burdens that needlessly drive up the cost of housing and to enact policies that will encourage the production of badly-needed affordable housing units.” This poll and our Chairman’s comments should be a call to arms for our members. This is the time to act. This January, Connecticut General Assembly will see its largest freshman class in years. Thankfully, most of these freshman legislators will not be settled into political dogma. I encourage you to reach out to your local legislators and have a conversation over coffee. Most of them are eager to meet business owners in their communities. Tell them there’s a right way to address this crisis. Let them know that regulatory burdens make up over 30% of the cost of an affordable housing unit and roughly 25% of a single-family home and addressing those costs associated with out of control regulation is the place to start. In addition, we know a true one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the affordable housing crisis will not work. As such statewide inclusionary zoning bill is ill advised and just plain bad public policy. Mandatory inclusionary zoning laws and ordinances that don’t consider market realities and financial feasibility are doomed to fail. Policymakers need only look to cities where it has been implemented and failed to yield the intended results. What works in the Stamford area may not work in the Hartford area. The same can be said regarding of sale verses rental or small verses large municipalities. Connecticut policy and lawmakers would be well advised to look outside of Connecticut where affordable housing construction is occurring. In those area, success is most often attributed to laws, regulations and markets that encourage affordable housing construction by making it a financially viable endeavor. Couple this approach with simultaneously empowering and rewarding our municipalities and policymakers will see true inroads towards ending this problem. DECEMBER 2018 | HBRA of Fairfield County 29
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