Root Cause

MHA Strategy

Supply and Demand:  Fairfield County’s quality of life attracts many people, but offers too few housing options.  A healthy housing market provides a balance of affordability, choice, and quality. The future of Fairfield County is becoming increasingly dependent (and constrained) by the lack of diversity in our housing stock and the strength of our major urban centers. 

Housing Programs:  MHA is Fairfield County’s leading provider of affordable housing with the development of new units and the preservation of existing housing through the acquisition of “at-risk” affordable housing units. MHA also leverages its development capacity by collaborating with other housing and social services agencies to expand the supply of affordable housing of all forms – ownership, rental, senior, and people with special needs (see Our Programs).

Urban Blight and Disinvestment:  Connecticut is home to some of the country’s wealthiest communities, as well as it’s poorest.  Within many of our urban communities are the blighted and abandoned housing units needed to begin solving our affordable housing crisis.  Our best opportunity for economic growth and a long-term solution to the affordable housing crisis in Connecticut is in the rebuilding our urban neighborhoods.

Comprehensive Community Development: MHA addresses the breath of problems facing many of our urban neighborhoods in Connecticut with a comprehensive approach to community development.  MHA does more than rebuild housing units, we targets all our programs - housing development, education, investment capital, and community services – in a coordinated, strategic way to create healthy, diverse, sustainable neighborhoods (see Armstrong Initiative).  

NYMBYism (Not In My Back Yard): Local concerns and restrictive land use regulations limit the development of new affordable housing in the affluent suburban communities of Connecticut.  Our state needs a diverse housing stock to stay strong and vibrant.  From Bridgeport to Greenwich, affordable housing is a community asset serving the poor and middle-income alike including teachers, police, and firefighters.

Changing Minds with Results:  More than any other organization, MHA has been at the forefront of demonstrating the value of affordable housing in suburban Fairfield County.  MHA is changing the minds of local residents and community leaders by proving affordable housing can be attractive, well-maintained and an asset to a community (see MHA Residential Communities and New Projects in Development

Lack of Resources:  Over the past decade, Connecticut has seen a dramatic decline in state funding for affordable housing. At a time of increasing housing needs and unprecedented cuts in federal housing programs, Connecticut – the wealthiest state in the Union – has all but abandoned its fundamental role in supporting the development of housing for the people who live, work, and pay taxes in the state. 

Creating New Capital Sources:  Today, Connecticut has a $200 million gap in resources for the development of new affordable housing.  MHA has been a leader in securing each and every resource available for new housing and seeking out new sources of capital to fill this gap in Fairfield County, including new social investment strategies to increase private-sector participation in affordable housing (see Social Investment Program) 

Poverty:  Too little income makes any home unaffordable.   The widening gap between the richest and poorest in our communities is felt, perhaps most dramatically, in the cost of housing.   Lower-income families are caught in a tightening grip of stagnant or decreasing real wages and the unrelenting increase in housing costs.  Today, across Connecticut, and particularly here in Fairfield County, it is not uncommon for working families to pay 50% or more of their income for basic housing.

Wealth Creation:  MHA is not a direct provider of poverty or social service programs, but it does provide one essential building block to increasing a family’s economic outlook – a safe, secure, affordable place to live.  MHA’s programs have a direct impact on creating wealth for low-income families in Fairfield County.  Mutual Housing residents enjoy greater opportunities to save money and achieve the American Dream of Homeownership through the organization’s affordable housing and homeownership programs (see Measuring Impact).