Why should our community prioritize housing?
Our community does not have enough affordable housing for all the people who live here. And in recent years, it’s become even more expensive to buy or rent a place to live. Affordable housing shortages have a bigger impact on Black and Latino people, who spend larger shares of their paychecks on housing and are less likely than white people to be able to buy homes. To the detriment of all of us, our regional economy suffers if people cannot afford to live and work in Fairfield County.
The State of Housing Equity in Fairfield County
How is FCCF bringing people together to fix this problem?
The good news is our community has resources to fix this problem. But making real change will take more public support, especially in neighborhoods where affordable housing is most limited. Individuals, community leaders, lawmakers, businesses and organizations must come together to take action. With your support, Fairfield County’s Housing Fund invests in collaborative programs that:
Fund Local Housing Efforts
We are making more grant funding available to nonprofits and community groups that are taking action to put safe, stable housing within reach of everyone.
Fuel Proven Programs
We co-founded and help guide the nationally-recognized Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity in its work of creating new solutions to ensure our region has enough safe and affordable homes.
Improve Public Housing
We empower people who live in public housing to create resident-led programs like PT Partners, which support residents in designing and leading solutions to community challenges.
Build Public Support
We are encouraging more people to lend their voices to tackling housing inequity by sharing stories and statistics, educating others, and advocating for lawmakers to enact fairer housing policies.
How can I get involved?
Want to move housing in Fairfield County forward? Here are three ways you can help ensure every person has a fair chance to find – and keep – a safe, affordable home.
DONATE
Give to Fairfield County’s Housing Fund to be part of our collaborative work in this area.
STAY INFORMED
Join our email list to receive information on housing in Fairfield County and how you can make a difference.
ADVOCATE
Write to lawmakers, speak at public meetings, and talk to friends and neighbors about housing issues.
To learn more about housing opportunity and how the Community Foundation can help amplify your impact, contact Julian Pierce, Director of Economic Opportunity, at JPierce@FCCFoundation.org or call (203) 750-3200.
DIG DEEPER
Learn more about past & current projects
Learn about projects that have helped the Community Foundation build a strong network of partners, and inform our ongoing work for housing equity.
The Community Foundation co-created Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity, which in just five years has become a nationally-recognized leader for affordable housing development. Its success has led to the creation of similar centers in Litchfield County and Eastern Connecticut, as well as in Long Island and Westchester, NY. The Center has developed several important resources that include:
• The AffordCT Housing Database, an online dashboard that shows a visual map of supply and demand for affordable housing across the state. It is used widely by housing and social services departments to inform housing policy and practice decisions.
• AffordCT Housing Plan Scorecards, created in fall 2022, rate every town or city in Fairfield County on their creation of an affordable housing plan as required by state law. The scorecards identify best practices and promising solutions, and highlight ways in which plans are still falling short.
• Housing Connecticut’s Future: Meeting the State’s Affordable and Accessible Housing Needs, released in fall 2021, was a research study conducted by national and local experts led by Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity and the Urban Institute. It forecasted supply and demand for affordable and accessible housing throughout Connecticut, with recommendations for prioritizing the needs of low-income residents.
The Community Foundation also funded the Regional Plan Association’s Fairfield County Housing Needs Assessment, released in early 2021 and shared with every town and city across the county. It shows how a history of redlining, racial steering, and other discriminatory housing practices have had a clear social and economic impact, shaping today’s neighborhoods.
People who live in a community have the best understanding of what’s needed to improve the community. Therefore, working with residents is the best way to guide public housing investments.
That’s why the Community Foundation is a lead funder of and collaborator with PT Partners. This resident-led program supports people in Bridgeport’s PT Barnum Apartments to speak up and act for public safety, healthcare, safety, and education. PT Partners’ members become strong leaders by joining neighborhood and citywide groups and have brought new services into their community, such as summer learning programs and Child First, which provides holistic support to improve the health and wellbeing of struggling families with young children.
Additionally, our donor-advised Bridgeport Public Housing Resident Support Fund helps people who live in public housing by supporting two main programs:
• The New Reach Stable Families Program, which helps about 240 Bridgeport residents yearly to avoid losing their homes. 98 percent of the families who have completed the program have avoided eviction.
• Connecticut Legal Services, which hires full-time attorneys, paid through grants, to focus on problems related to public housing. They work to protect the rights of residents impacted by redevelopment projects such as those at Marina Village, Greenes Homes, Father Panik/Pequonnock, and Harborview Towers.
Every three years, the Community Foundation funds an update of the Fairfield County Community Wellbeing Index, a research report that shares statistics on quality of life in our cities and towns. The index looks closely at how easy it is for people to find and afford a home in our area.
During the 2023 legislative session, we submitted testimony asking Connecticut lawmakers for more funding for affordable housing (Senate Bill 980). FCCF’s advocacy contributed to the approval of $200 million in bonding to the Housing Trust Fund, and $200 million in bonding for the flexible housing program.
Moreover, we funded the traveling exhibit “Designing for Democracy,” at Norwalk Community College. The exhibit helped demonstrate how justice, equality and power can be seen in our built environment. It helped people understand the challenges to fair housing, and ways everyone can have a say in how our communities are designed.
Our staff helped lead panel discussions and joined in conversations at “Innovative Solutions to the Affordable Housing Crisis”, a convening organized by Foundation House to bring together key people in the housing field to explore creative solutions to affordable housing in Connecticut.
The Community Foundation also worked with Dr. Tiffany Manuel to study what people in Fairfield County think about affordable housing and identify language to talk about housing equity in a way that inspires and generates public will for more affordable housing. In November 2020, Dr. Manuel shared her findings in The Way Forward: A New Story about Housing in Fairfield County.
Over time, the Community Foundation has built deep, long-term relationships with affordable housing developers, housing advocates, and organizations that work to keep housing stable and affordable. Today, this allows us to make strategic grant investments with organizations that are having a meaningful impact in addressing Fairfield County’s key housing challenges. The work done through these investments is helping to:
• Grow the number of affordable housing units for people who earn 50 percent or less of the area median income
• Increase the number of new large, multi-family housing permits
• Advocate for zoning changes and support affordable housing opportunity expansions in the suburbs for BIPOC families with low-to-moderate incomes
• Move people who don’t have a place to live into safe and stable homes
Our work in affordable housing has deep roots. In 2006, we partnered with others to start the Fairfield County Collaborative Fund for Affordable Housing. Over the course of 10 years, this group of funders awarded $4.8 million in grants, resulting in the development of more than 1,000 homes that people could afford. This investment helped 5,000 people with low-or-middle incomes; created nearly 1,400 jobs; and generated $472 million in economic activity within the region.
Today, we grant more than $500,000 each year to support organizations working to ensure that every person who lives in Fairfield County has a safe, stable, and affordable home in a neighborhood where they want to live.
The Community Foundation is a lead funder and partner to Opening Doors Fairfield County (ODFC), a group made up of more than 150 nonprofits and other leaders who are working to end homelessness. Members collaborate to prevent people from becoming unhoused – and to ensure that if people do become unhoused, they can quickly find a home. ODFC also aims to ensure that everyone in our area can have a home they can afford and live in safely.
We also fund two statewide nonprofits, the CT Coalition to End Homelessness and Partnership for Strong Communities, as well as many local nonprofit members of ODFC, such as Inspirica, Operation Hope, Open Doors, and Pacific House.
In past years, this work has reduced homelessness among veterans, and matched all adults who were chronically homeless with a housing resource.
