Housing and the Workforce:
Eliminating Barriers, Growing Labor Pool, Meeting Demand
January 27, 2010
8:30 a.m. to noon
From merchants to major industries, from municipalities to non-profits, a shortage of professionals and skilled workers is crimping Connecticut's growth.
Can regulatory reform, employer-assisted affordable housing, strategic tax policy, focused investment, government incentives and marketing of the state itself create the affordable housing/transit infrastructure, jobs and growth we need?
Confronted by a huge loss of young professionals and demographic projections of a dangerously shrinking labor pool, state and municipal officials, educators, developers, business executives and other experts focused Jan. 27 on policies to increase the supply of housing that Connecticut workers can afford:
(1) preservation of existing affordable homes,
(2) removal of regulatory and zoning barriers to creation of new homes, and
(3) incentives for employers and municipalities so they foster new housing creation.
Nearly 120 invited guests and members of the public heard DECD Commissioner Joan McDonald, CHFA President and CEO Timothy Bannon and Partnership Executive Director Diane Randall underscore the housing burden many workers in Connecticut face: they are either homeless, perilously close to homelessness, spending so much on housing that they have little income left for necessities and purchases to fuel the economy, or have the financial wherewithal to leave Connecticut for states where jobs are more plentiful or the cost of housing is lower.
Connecticut State University Chancellor David Carter and UConn Provost Peter Nicholls were among educators who said housing for staff and faculty was needed and graduates would leave the state without affordable homes.
Yale University Vice President Michael Morand said employers could follow Yale’s lead and provide down-payment assistance and other housing subsidies to staff.
Meanwhile, state and municipal lawmakers talked about incentives, such as Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Capital Program, to move municipalities to create housing. The Housing Policy Series Continues Feb. 24 with Housing, Transportation and the Environment: The Convergence of Transit, Green Building and Brownfield Remediation.
Media Coverage
Listen to Commissioner Joan McDonald and Diane Randall speaking about housing and the workforce on WNPR's February 2 Where We Live here.
Briefing Memo
Download the Housing and the Workforce Briefing Memo here.
2009 Forum
Read about last year's Lyceum Forum on Housing and The Workforce here.