For more than 50 years, New Haven’s Fair Rent Commission has intervened on behalf of city tenants.
The city’s Fair Rent Commission helped Kat Calhoun of New Haven, after she reported several code violations and a proposed 20% rent increase.
“We had a lot of, you might say, pain and suffering and non-optimum conditions along the way, but the fair rent commission basically saved us. It was a blessing,” Calhoun said.
The Commission put in place a 75% rent reduction until repairs were made and a hold on any rent increase for a year.
“It's really hard to communicate to an absent landlord and get them to fix things in a timely fashion,” Calhoun said. “With rents going up and communication going down, I think there's a bigger need for the fair rent commissions.”
Calhoun wishes more residents knew about and could benefit from the Commission’s advocacy. Recently, the Commission’s begun spreading their help statewide.
Fair rent commissions spread across Connecticut
New Haven’s Fair Rent Commission is helping others by aiding in the creation of the Connecticut Fair Rent Coalition, a group of fair rent commissions from communities across the state.
New Haven’s commission handles hundreds of complaints and concerns each year, and the rate has quadrupled in recent years, Mayor Justin Elicker said.
“Two reasons for that. One is the challenges that people are seeing in the community with rental increases, but two is the hard work to educate people on the fair rent commission,” Elicker said. “Most people don't know that this opportunity exists out there, and a lot of tenants just either kind of swallow the increase and manage through it or leave their apartments.”
Elicker said leaders of newly formed commissions should embrace the challenge and chance to better the lives of residents.
“It's not going to solve all the problems, but [it] is a very, very helpful tool to support people that are struggling with dramatic rent increases right now,” Elicker said. “We want to live in a state where each municipality has diversity, because that makes our state, I think, better.”
A change in state law
Of existing fair rent commissions, only New Haven and Norwalk had full-time staff members dedicated to fielding complaints and working though rental concerns before they reached a public hearing, New Haven Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermudez said.
The first Connecticut Fair Rent Coalition formed in the 1980s, but was quickly abandoned.
The group was restarted following a 2022 state law change requiring communities with 25,000 or more residents to form fair rent commissions.
“The law was created, but then there wasn't any funding that was attached with the law, nor were there any specific resources in terms of training and guidance,” Bermudez said.
In recent years, New Haven city leaders received inquiries from other commissions around the state, often regarding meeting procedures and commissioner training, which sparked the decision to rekindle the coalition. It held its first meeting on July 19.
The 45 towns and cities with the requisite population account for 80% of the state’s housing units, according to housing advocacy nonprofit Partnership for Strong Communities.
Prior to the 2022 law change, 25 Connecticut municipalities had fair rent commissions. An additional 27 were required to create one, according to Partnership for Strong Communities.
More than 10 municipalities joined the coalition thus far, including Hartford, Stamford, Greenwich, Hamden, New Britain, Bridgeport, Naugatuck, New London and West Haven. West Hartford also plans to join, Bermudez said.
The coalition is guided by several advisors in the housing advocacy field, including State Sen. Marilyn Moore, chair of Housing Committee; Statewide Legal Services attorney Rafie Podolsky and Connecticut Fair Housing Center’s attorney Sarah White.
“It really gave me great hope in terms of the momentum that we're picking up as fair rent commissions to really assist the parties, landlords and tenants,” Bermudez said. “The goal for us is to create a space that's fair for the parties to come and to be able to have their grievances resolved, and to have well-maintained housing stock as well.”
