Proposed CT Budget Emphasizes Affordable Housing: Lamont

CONNECTICUT — In a news conference Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont emphasized that his $50.5 billion biennial budget proposal includes several areas of support to increase access to affordable and workforce housing

Lamont unveiled his fiscal year 2024-25 budget last week, The proposal includes a $500 million state income tax cut proposal, extra funding for schools and a call to keep Connecticut’s fiscal restraints in check.

Before reporters in Bridgeport Friday, Lamont played up his financial plan's housing components:

"We cannot let our state fall into a housing crisis. Our administration is proposing significantly increased investments in affordable and workforce housing because this is a critical component needed to grow good-paying jobs, ensure businesses have the workforce necessary to fill in-demand positions, incentivize young people to stay in Connecticut, and support our economy," Lamont said.

In total, the budget proposal allocates $600 million over the two-year fiscal period for affordable housing using a mix of state and federal resources.

Housing-related budget lines in Lamont's proposed financial plan include:

• $100 million ($50 million annually) in the state’s Time-To-Own program, which offers down payment assistance to low and moderate-income homebuyers. This level of funding is expected to assist in the purchase of about 1,250 homes annually, according to Lamont.
• $200 million ($100 million annually) to expand workforce development housing, which is expected to provide an additional 2,000 units of housing with a focus on those with a household income of 60 percent to 120 percent of the area median income.
• $100 million ($50 million annually) for the Housing Trust Fund, with an emphasis on multi-unit housing in downtown areas close to transportation.
• $200 million ($100 million annually) for flexible housing.

Through these investments, the Lamont administration hopes to create 6,400 new units of affordable and workforce housing over the biennium.

Additionally, Lamont is proposing to enact several statutory policy changes that benefit renters and incentivize the production of new housing units for low and middle-income families. These include:

• House Bill 6666 benefits renters by limiting security deposits to just one month; raises fines for landlords for housing code violations from $250 to $1,000; and ends the ability of small landlords to discriminate based on sexual orientation.
• Senate Bill 985 encourages the creation of new housing units for low and middle-income families by leveraging new bond funding for the Municipal Redevelopment Authority to stimulate economic and transit-oriented development; requiring all municipalities to provide annual data reports on housing production and demolition as a requirement for receiving certain discretionary state funding; and requires a study to be conducted that identifies underutilized state-owned property that could be leveraged for housing.