HARTFORD, CT — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined housing advocates this week to promote the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, legislation he says would take a “holistic approach” to tackling the nation’s housing crisis by building millions of new homes, lowering rents, and curbing private equity’s role in the market.
Blumenthal was joined Tuesday by Tara Capone of My Sister’s Place and Amy Peltier of the Partnership for Strong Communities in support of the bill, co-sponsored with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Raphael Warnock.
“Housing is key not just to the American dream of home ownership,” Blumenthal said. “It is key to renters and homeowners achieving the American Dream, the biggest expense and the biggest investment anyone in America makes is in fact, housing.”
The legislation would provide down payment assistance for renters and homeowners, expand VA home loan eligibility to descendants of veterans, create a grant program incentivizing municipalities to make more land available for affordable housing, and strengthen anti-discrimination laws in lending.
“We are seeing how private equity exploits affordable housing, fails to maintain it, drives it into the ground, and then either goes into chapter 11 or sells it at rock bottom prices. The ones who suffer are the renters” Blumenthal said.
This is another problem he is looking to fix with this legislation, he said.
Blumenthal cited a 2024 independent analysis by the non-partisan Moody’s Analytics that estimated the bill would produce 3 million new homes and reduce rents nationwide by 10%, calling the projected impact “monumental for American families.”
Peltier said Connecticut faces a shortage of nearly 93,000 affordable homes for extremely low-income renters, with only 33 affordable and available units for every 100 households at that income level. She pointed to a recent Connecticut Business and Industry Association Foundation report estimating the state is short up to 350,000 housing units overall.
“With housing costs up 64% in the last five years, we’re losing both workforce and opportunity,” Peltier said. “Affordable housing is the foundation of economic mobility. It allows people to plan for their future, access better jobs in schools and build financial security.”
A news conference was held in front of Beaumont Lofts, a 24-unit affordable housing development in Hartford renovated by My Sister’s Place with federal and state funding. Half of the units house formerly homeless families.
“What solves homelessness? Housing solves homelessness,” Capone said. “It’s much easier to maintain someone’s housing through affordability than it is to put them into shelter and then try and get them back into housing on the back end.”
Capone said zoning reform is essential to creating more developments like Beaumont Lofts, countering “preconceived notions and stereotypes” about affordable housing.
“It’s about security, and it’s about basic dignity,” Blumenthal said. “What My Sister’s Place has given people through this development is really a life, not just a house.”