One of the foundation’s key strategic priority areas focuses on creating thriving neighborhoods. Thriving neighborhoods are defined by a variety of factors, including low unemployment, better performing schools, lower crime, and greater availability of quality, affordable housing stock. This work seeks to ensure that everyone in Greater Hartford prospers, and it starts with addressing disparities and removing barriers that keep residents from reaching their full potential.
Achieving equity requires strengthening neighborhoods so that opportunity for social connection and economic mobility reaches everyone. This means increasing the number of residents living in quality, affordable housing, and the growth of prosperous, resident-owned small businesses across the region. The foundation is committed to supporting the region in becoming a more inclusive and equitable place to live, work, and support a family.
We support increased preservation and development of neighborhood assets such as parks, gardens, and other places where neighbors can gather and connect as well as resourcing activities that bolster a sense of belonging and mutual support among residents. We prioritize planning and developing solutions that are community-informed or driven and responsive to needs and aspirations that reflect all community members, especially those who face barriers to having a seat at the table. The foundation also invests in efforts designed to increase the stability, availability, and quality of affordable housing in the Greater Hartford region; align and leverage additional investment in Hartford neighborhoods; and increase the social strength and connectedness of Hartford neighborhoods. This work includes supporting efforts of nonprofit, government, and other community partners.
To support these efforts, the Hartford Foundation is a part of the statewide HOMEConnecticut Campaign. Its mission is to ensure everyone in Connecticut has access to safe, stable, accessible, and affordable housing in an equitable community of their choice. The partners of HOMEConnecticut recognize that when people have stable housing, their economic and health outcomes improve.
Given these interrelated issues, we urge legislators to support immediate interventions as well as to examine systemic challenges that are driving housing instability in Connecticut. Based on our investments in housing stability and security and advancing access to affordable housing and economic mobility, the foundation supports Senate Bill 151’s provisions.
Recognizing the important role homeownership plays in family wealth building, in 2023 the foundation awarded a $600,000 grant to the Housing Development Fund (HDF) toward its Homeownership Equity Fund which provided approximately 30 BIPOC households in towns served by the Foundation with zero-percent loans for down payments and closing costs.
Finding an affordable starter home has become increasingly challenging. As of 2024, the median home sales price had risen to $370,000. In 2019, the median sales price was $234,000. Home price increases have vastly outpaced increases in household income. A median sales price of $370,000 requires a household income of $123,3000, but median household income is only $91,665.
According to DataHaven’s Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing 2023 Index, rising housing costs have exacerbated housing unaffordability: About a third of households are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Forty-nine percent of renters are burdened by housing costs, with higher shares among Black (55 percent) and Latino (54 percent) renters.
According to the findings from DataHaven’s 2025 Connecticut Community Wellbeing Index, the number of adults who ran out of money for housing has increased by approximately 150,000 adults. In 2025, 11 percent of adults statewide (about 320,000 people) said they ran out of money for housing, which is about double the rate that was measured by the DataHaven survey 10 years ago.
According to Pro-Homes Connecticut’s (formerly Desegregate Connecticut) Issue Brief on Minimum Lot Sizes, approximately 81 percent of Connecticut’s residential land requires the minimum lot size to be an acre or more. These large lot sizes severely hinder our communities’ ability to create more affordable, traditional housing like Capes, bungalows and starter homes for Connecticut families. Research demonstrates that large minimum lot sizes raise housing prices and contribute to the development of properties that do not meet the needs of many of Connecticut’s residents.
Limiting development to larger single-family homes can price out many families from living or becoming homeowners in Connecticut, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and other families of color. DataHaven reports indicate significant racial disparities in Connecticut homeownership. As of 2021, the statewide homeownership rate was 76 percent for white households, compared to 41 percent for Black households and 37 percent for Latino households.
The CBIA Foundation reports that large employers in every region of the state have expressed major concerns about their ability to grow their workforces in Connecticut due to the cost and availability of housing. This housing shortage acts as a major bottleneck, directly preventing companies from hiring and retaining employees across all sectors, from entry-level to skilled trades and engineers. The lack of more affordable housing options effects the entire workforce, with many employers reporting that potential employees simply cannot afford homes in areas near job centers.
The foundation encourages the Committee to support Senate Bill 151 which would be a powerful tool in the effort to meet the economic needs of the state to create more attainable and affordable housing options for young families, first-time homebuyers and seniors looking to downsize.