After hours of resistance from Connecticut Republicans, the General Assembly’s Housing Committee voted Thursday to advance several bills intended to reduce the cost of housing in Connecticut.
Senate Bill 12, a priority proposal from the state Senate’s Democratic majority, was among the bills passed by the panel. The bill would broaden participation in fair rent commissions, encourage the conversion of commercial properties to residential spaces, and invest in rental assistance programs, among other provisions.
Democratic lawmakers on the committee advanced the bill to the Senate floor during a nearly 12-hour meeting, which was drawn out by stalling tactics from Republican legislators, who opposed many of the proposals despite a home shortage that has inflated the housing costs shouldered by residents across the state.
Sen. Martha Marx, a New London Democrat who co-chairs the committee, said the legislation attempted to address a variety of housing issues.
“This bill looks to increase our housing stock and help people squeezed by high prices in a tight market,” Marx said. “It’s studying issues we can solve, incentivizes new construction and looks for short- and long-term ways to take deeper, more significant steps forward. Connecticut’s housing crunch is a huge problem that’s holding back our state’s residents and economy; this bill represents concrete steps forward to fix that.”
Other policies advanced Thursday by the Housing Committee included House Bill 6889, a proposal that would require landlords to show just cause before evicting a tenant. The goal, according to proponents of the bill, is to ensure that tenants are not evicted from their homes simply because landlords wish to raise rents.
Over the course of several hours, Republican legislators made around a dozen unsuccessful attempts to undermine the bill through various amendments.
During the meeting, Sen. Rob Sampson, a Wolcott Republican, defended the rights of landlords to evict their tenants.
“For me, this is a very obtrusive change, which is why I’m so adamantly opposed to it,” Sampson said.
However, several landlords disagreed in written testimony filed in support of the bill. For instance, Glenn Barger, a Canton resident and landlord, testified in favor of the legislation.
“When a tenant pays their rent and honors their lease, a landlord should not be able to evict them without cause,” Barger wrote. “Do we want our state to be a state only for the rich?”
Terry Schmitt, a landlord and resident of West Hartford, said he supported the bill because it protected tenants in a “logical way,” and served as an incentive for landlords to act responsibly.
“This bill would remove the ability of a bad landlord to remove a good tenant simply for asking the landlord to behave legally,” Schmitt wrote. “That is more than an incentive; it’s a shift in power away from bad behavior and towards good behavior. I can say as a landlord, that power shift will make us all look, and act, better. Realistically, all landlords should support this bill, because it makes us all behave better.”
Nevertheless, Sampson and every other Republican on the Housing Committee voted against the bill, which passed with 11 Democratic votes and will now head to the House for consideration.
