Tim Tai, Photography Editor
In Connecticut, the housing crisis worsens as residents struggle to find affordable housing in a market characterized by rising prices and a limited supply of quality units.
While New Haven pledges new housing units and crisis-alleviating initiatives, tensions between the city government, housing activists and the city’s unhoused population continue.
From 2023 to 2024, the state’s increase in housing prices outpaced the national average at 9.64 percent compared to 6.6 percent, respectively, and ranked 7th highest among all states. In New Haven, the percent change in housing price also outpaced the national average at 7.87 percent.
Unmet housing demand
Connecticut lags behind in issuing permits for the construction of new homes with only 959 new permits issued in the first quarter of 2024 – a semblance of its peak of over 3,000 permits in a single quarter of 2004. The state’s current rental vacancy rate sat at 3.5 percent.
Although New Haven boasts the highest number of permits issued over the past three years in Connecticut with 307 permits in 2023, the city continues to struggle with affordable housing access.
According to a 2023 report released by Elm City Communities, New Haven’s public housing agency, over half of the city’s residents face a housing cost burden.
The report estimates that the city will need to build 8,500 new housing units by 2030 to address the housing shortage. Between 2010 and 2019, less than 5,000 homes have been approved for building.
Amid these challenges, Connecticut’s homeless population grew by 13 percent between January 2023 and January 2024. As of August 2023, 30,000 New Haven residents are on the housing waitlist. Waiting times can stretch to over a year.
The city’s housing crisis has posed challenges to Yale graduate students in the search for off-campus housing, exacerbated by the closure of Helen Hadley Hall, a 205-student graduate dormitory, this past summer. Graduate students have reported being unable to find affordable, quality housing due to financial strain, according to a 2023 survey conducted by the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.
As residential colleges take on increasingly large class sizes, undergraduate students who opt for off-campus housing face similar challenges but also hold the potential to influence the city’s housing market themselves. As Yalies continue to migrate off-campus, city authorities have expressed concerns that Yale students may price out New Haveners in competition for housing.
Elicker’s housing agenda
For Elicker, who was reelected in the fall 2023 for his third term, addressing the housing crisis has been at the forefront of his administration.
In his first two mayoral terms, he allocated millions in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act into the “I’m Home” initiative to improve access to affordable housing and provide rental assistance.
Elicker also prioritized the creation of new units to increase the housing supply. In February 2022, the city enacted its first inclusionary zoning law to encourage the creation of affordable housing units. The law, however, has been criticized for providing an insufficient quantity of units, which Elicker said in September 2023 provided 900 new and renovated units.
Elicker’s administration also made strides in formally recognizing tenant unions and their right to collective bargaining.
A major point of contention for Elicker’s administration has been the Livable City Initiative. Established in 1996, the Livable City Initiative is an agency aimed at ensuring high-quality housing supply and public spaces. The agency was criticized for underperforming and failing to respond to residents’ complaints.
In March, Elicker set forth a plan to restructure LCI. The proposal called for the creation of the Office of Housing and Community Development to take over LCI’s task of creating new housing units, eight new housing-related positions, and an additional $1.4 million for housing programs. The Board of Alders permitted the creation of the office and housing-related positions and approved an $1.8 million annual support for the city’s unhoused populations in their amended budget in May.
A month earlier, Elicker appointed former mayoral contender Liam Brennan LAW ’07 as a consultant to head a six-month review of LCI, and later in August, greenlighted Brennan to be LCI’s new director.
Criticisms of Elicker’s Administration
In recent years, Elicker has been fiercely criticized for his treatment of New Haven’s unhoused population.
In 2023, Elicker bulldozed a West River Tent City, a long-term residence for over 40 New Haveners. Elicker’s evictions have been condemned by unhoused activists who argue that unhoused New Haveners face an under-resourced shelter system and limited access to adequate alternative housing. Elicker’s response: tent cities posed public safety risks.
As the housing crisis continues, unhoused New Haveners seek temporary solutions. In 2023, Amistad Catholic, a local nonprofit, erected six tiny homes in a backyard. The city’s Board of Zoning Appeals retroactively approved the tiny homes but issued a temporary 180-day permit set to expire on July 15. As the deadline approached, residents of the tiny homes asserted that they would remain regardless.
Come July 15, tensions between the Elicker administration and unhoused activists rose. As tiny home residents continued to resist the city’s cease-and-desist letter, Elicker moved forward with cutting off power to those homes. With the permit’s expiration, Elicker contends that the shelters are illegal dwelling units.
For the unhoused New Haveners who continue to live in these tiny homes, living without power has posed health risks. In late July, unhoused activists disrupted the city’s announcement of a new land bank to protest in support of tiny homes, demanding that the power be turned on again.
Justin Elicker is the 51st elected mayor of New Haven.
Christina Lee is the head photography editor and beat reporter covering nonprofits and social services at the News. Originally from Long Island, NY, she is a junior in Davenport College majoring in Comparative Literature and History.