The Roosevelt Institution
This project will focus on policy tactics to align the need for affordable housing in the greater New Haven area with the resources of developers, community agencies, the city, state, and federal government, and existing housing units. We will examine policies that affect both the supply of and demand for affordable housing, with a goal of reducing and preventing instances of homelessness and eviction.
Homelessness continues to be an issue in Connecticut and the New Haven area. A January 2006 point-in-time survey found 1,177 homeless persons in New Haven, 21% of whom were children. Per capita spending on homelessness in Connecticut is $2.71, compared with New York's $12.36 or Massachusetts' $13.28. Several cities throughout the state, including New Haven, have adopted Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness in the last few years, and substantial efforts are underway to improve the availability of housing and services for the homeless.
The problem is not limited to the homeless, however. High housing prices force low-income workers to pay disproportionately large percentages of their salary to prevent themselves and their families from living on the streets. A 2006 study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that there is not a single county in the entire country where a full-time minimum wage worker could afford a one-bedroom apartment at the market rate. In Connecticut's 3rd Congressional District (which includes New Haven), a worker would have to earn $20.48 per hour ($42,600 per year) to afford the average 2-bedroom apartment at 30% of his or her income. The median income for a family in the city of New Haven is $35,950.
Part of the solution may be to use policy to increase affordable housing units. We will examine inclusionary zoning or other zoning policies that have the potential to establish a framework for affordable housing development. Another part, though, is to make sure that existing resources are being used adequately. The Housing Authority of New Haven cites a tight housing market combined with a large stock of substandard housing as reasons that it regularly does not allocate all of its available Section 8 vouchers in a given year. Still more solutions may involve assistance to families or individuals who live only one missed paycheck or one unsuspected medical bill away from eviction.
Group members:
Lulu Cheng
Danny Townsend
Benjamin M Bokser
Virginia Calkins
Ann Chou
Philip Costopoulos
Bobby Fischbeck
Lauren Hunter
Jessica Lei
Shelagh Mahbubani
Will O'Shaughnessy
Justin Petrillo
Arsi Sefaj
Sanjeev Tewani
Brandon S Wilton
Efan Wu