To the Editor:
Getting your first job, post-schooling, is as nerve-wracking as it is exciting. It means taking the first step in your professional career, finding out where you’ll be spending the majority of your waking hours for at least the next few years, and, in my case, moving to a whole new city. Yet it also means that any guardrails are off and it will be up to me to make sure the budget balances at the end of every month. It was this mix of feelings I had when I found out that I had been accepted for a position in Bridgeport. I was thrilled as the job pays well and has great benefits but, as I began my search for an apartment, that mix of feelings rapidly tilted towards the negative as I realized just how unobtainable housing has become.
To not be cost-burdened when it comes to housing, which includes not just rent or mortgage payments but also all the costs associated with housing such as utilities or fees, then total costs should be roughly 30% of your income. But finding such a place quickly became impossible. I was made abruptly aware of how limited options were below the 30% income threshold in the greater Bridgeport area. It is slim pickings when considering just the base rent, let alone when including the costs of utilities and move-in fees. This isn’t exactly surprising seeing as how Connecticut has one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. Yet it also felt incredibly insulting. Is this how Connecticut treats their workers? Furthermore, how was I expected to make ends meet every month? Any remotely affordable place had long wait lists, so where was I supposed to go till then?
How did the status quo expect me to survive…?
I am not alone in this problem. A study recently published by the Regional Plan Association found that housing is the number one issue among voters in Connecticut with 77% of respondents saying that there are not enough homes in their community that average people can afford. Few have felt this burden as distinctly as young people have. These increased costs to afford the bare essentials has a debilitating impact on mental health which has led many to need to flee the communities that they grew up in. This crisis of housing and affordability was a major driver for the historic turnout in last Tuesday’s election as the focus on “kitchen table” issues led to young people coming out in droves. Yet Connecticut seems to be falling behind on this issue as the state slides further and further into unaffordability.
I eventually found an apartment though I am paying well over 30% of my income on housing costs. The apartment was actually one of the cheaper ones in the area yet I, like many others, still struggle with the cost of housing. I’m anxious about making rent every month while still being able to afford groceries; I debate what more I can give up so that I can purchase a table or chair; and I stay up at night worrying about where I’ll be once student loan payments kick in.
Many of my colleagues and former classmates are in the same boat. A few are able to stay with their parents to cut down on costs, but most have had to take jobs far away from their families as those were the only ones available. Yet, every time this conversation comes up with my peers, I am told the same thing. They want to live here. They care about this state and want to build their lives here. I care about Connecticut too but with this struggle to find affordable housing it does not feel like Connecticut cares about me. Young people need real action on this issue not the callous indifference of the status quo. We deserve to be able to afford to live in the state we call home.
Because the truth of the matter is this, if bold action wasn’t needed and the status quo was capable of solving our housing crisis, it would have done so already.
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Torres is a law clerk for Connecticut Superior Court. He previously served as Policy Director and legal fellow with the housing advocacy nonprofit Desegregate CT