In July, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker wrote an op-ed in which he suggests penalizing Connecticut towns that fail to meet the threshold of making 10% of their housing supply affordable. If they don’t comply, he said, they should be taxed.
In the article, he specifically mentions the town of Darien. We used this op-ed as a jumping-off point for two discussions on All Things Considered about Connecticut’s problem with segregated neighborhoods. First, host John Henry Smith spoke with Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson to get her reaction to Elicker’s idea -- and the way her town had been called out.
Then he spoke with Tim Hollister, a partner at the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin who has fought more than 100 cases against towns under the state law that already requires 10% affordable housing.
Hear both interviews below: