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Housing issues affect everyone in Connecticut, from those who are searching for a safe place to live, to those who may find it increasingly difficult to afford a place they already call home.WNPR is covering Connecticut's housing and homelessness issues in a series that examines how residents are handling the challenges they face. We look at the trends that matter most right now, and tell stories that help bring the issues to light.

Connecticut Cities Have Reached Crisis Point, Says New Report

Hartford, Conn.
Till Westermayer
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Hartford, Conn.

A shortage of affordable housing and an increase in low-wage jobs are to blame for a crisis in Connecticut cities. That’s according to a report from Quinnipiac University and the Urban League of Southern Connecticut.

The report says low-income residents and communities of color are most affected.

Quinnipiac visiting professor Robert Brown, who led the study, said lots of people don’t have access to a liveable wage and are being priced out by younger, more affluent residents who can afford to pay higher rents.

“We’ve gotta focus on employment opportunities that pay liveable wages. The minimum wage in Connecticut is $10.10. But we find that the cost for housing, food, transportation, health care, child care can be prohibitively expensive, particularly for people on the margin.”

Brown says state policies should also pay more attention to disparities in access to quality schools and adequate health services in cities.

“There’s an opportunity gap of access to the resources, which go directly back to some of the structural barriers that have been in place for decades.”

Researchers conducted focus groups and interviews with residents in seven Connecticut cities: Bridgeport, Danbury, Hartford, New Haven, Norwalk, Stamford and Waterbury.

Copyright 2019 WSHU

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Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He fell in love with sound-rich radio storytelling while working as an assistant reporter at KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri. Before coming back to radio, he worked in digital journalism as the editor of Newtown Patch. As a freelance reporter, his work for WSHU aired nationally on NPR. Davis is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; he started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.

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