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Clear Red Tape

Affordable housing as a concept is important to ensuring fair and safe homes for a variety of people, but Connecticut’s current housing laws do just the opposite. Branford is a perfect example. Do we have an abundance of affordable housing? Yes, we do. Does the state acknowledge our affordable housing? No, it won’t.

Our existing homes with affordable rents don’t count, so we end up losing the right to make local choices about where and how we want new housing to be built. When that happens, outside developers get to ignore our local laws and build whatever they want, wherever they want. These developers don’t care about aesthetics. They don’t care about traffic snarls. They don’t care about straining local resources. All they care about is building, taking the rent money and tax breaks, and running to the bank while we get left to clean up their mess.

This is about to start happening in Indian Neck, and our fellow citizens living there deserve to have a say in what happens to their community. Marc Riccio wants to adjust our state’s current affordable housing regulations to clear red tape and give Branford the credit it deserves for its existing affordable rents. This is one of many reasons why he will have my vote this November for Branford’s 102nd District state representative.

Carolyn Sires

Branford