by Donald Eng and Jamil Ragland
HARTFORD, CT (Updated 1:30 p.m.) — A controversial housing bill intended to address the shortage and high cost of housing in the state will not become law, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Monday.
At a news briefing in his Capitol office, Lamont said he would “reluctantly” veto House Bill 5002, An Act Concerning Housing the Needs of Homeless Persons.
“The bill makes a really good start on a really important issue affecting our state,” Lamont said before adding that he would like to seek a better version of the bill.
“We can do better. We will do better,” he said.
Lamont cited municipalities’ opposition to the fair share affordable housing target numbers and the elimination of minimum parking requirements for smaller apartment developments as the main reasons for the veto.
“I just don’t think that it works when it’s us against them,” he said.
Lamont had previously complained of misinformation about the bill circulating online. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, had also lamented online misinformation, which he called the “outrage machine.”
Asked if his message about the importance of housing to the state’s economic growth had been drowned out by misinformation, Lamont admitted that there was “a lot of truth to that.”
Reaction to Lamont’s veto announcement was swift.
Senate Democratic leaders expressed deep disappointment. In a joint statement, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said, “Connecticut cannot create jobs, lower costs, and attract businesses without building more housing.”
The two said officials in the state Capitol placed undue weight “on the opinions of some municipal officials who do not think beyond the borders of their own communities, rather than on the needs of families seeking housing.”
Senate Republicans, who had all opposed the legislation, celebrated the veto and declared it time to go back to the drawing board on addressing housing affordability.
“What began as a one-page bill on homelessness was transformed into a 160-page monster,” read a statement from Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield. “It was rushed through the legislature and voted on at 2:30 a.m. This is not how legislators should be serving constituents.”
Fellow Republican Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich said in a statement he was glad to hear of the governor’s veto of 5002, calling it “a historic attempt to undermine local control of decision-making for towns and cities.”
“As I urged the governor personally last week, we should veto this bill not only because it is bad policy but also because we can still find common ground by bringing Democrats and Republicans to the table to pass a compromise that reforms 8-30g, respects local control, and finds reforms that increase housing affordability and availability,” he said.
While Harding and Senate Republicans had characterized the bill as top-down and filled with mandates, House Democrats said it had built off the foundation laid in past legislative sessions.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and Rojas in a joint statement said HB 5002 “was a comprehensive package of housing policies that included incentives, local options, access to resources, while acknowledging the importance of city and town leaders’ voices in making final decisions.”
The two wrote that the bill “sought to encourage action on status quo policies that have led to the lack of access, availability, and affordability throughout our state.”
The Democratic-majority legislature could attempt to override Lamont’s veto, though the relatively slim 84-67 passage in the House, and 20-15 in the Senate would seem to make that an unlikely outcome.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said the veto was a logical decision.
“Hopefully, this becomes both a lesson and a turning point for Democrats who rushed this sweeping, flawed bill through the General Assembly in the final days of session,” he said. “I hope they will learn that a more collaborative, comprehensive approach that respects local control is the only path forward if we want real solutions and broader support from municipalities.”
Rep. Joe Zullo, R-East Haven, said he backed a sort of grant program for small businesses as a means of addressing the housing issue.
Zullo also said that any solutions to the state’s housing crisis requires Republicans to be in the room to create bipartisan, effective policy, saying that Democrats rely too heavily on large scale developers building dense housing that towns are resistant to.
“Another key solution, quite frankly, is putting money in the hands of small businesses, minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses on Main Street,” he said. “We have builders that are clamoring to build, to do conversions, single families to duplexes and multifamilies, but they don’t have the resources.”
Advocates who had pushed hard for the bill expressed their disappointment while reaffirming their commitment to making housing in Connecticut more affordable.
Melvin Medina, vice president of advocacy and external affairs of The Connecticut Project Action Fund, called the veto “disappointing and short-sighted.”
“Nixing this bill suggests a lack of urgency and a commitment to steady habits that aren’t delivering results,” he said. “We hope that the next housing bill makes significant progress in enabling working-class and middle-class people to afford to live here.”
Chelsea Ross, executive director at Partnership for Strong Communities, said the veto leaves Connecticut families and businesses without relief from the state’s housing crisis.
“By rejecting this legislation, the governor has passed on a significant opportunity to lead on one of the most urgent issues facing our state,” she said. “Without action, our housing crisis will only deepen, hurting not just renters and first-time homebuyers, but the entire state’s economy. The impact of this veto is clear: Connecticut’s urgent housing needs remain unmet.”