A legislative group released recommended changes to 8-30g — a key affordable housing law in Connecticut — introducing measures proponents said would encourage towns to prioritize housing that’s affordable to people in the lowest income brackets.
The Majority Leader’s Roundtable on Affordable Housing, established in 2023, issued a highly-anticipated report Monday with recommendations for adjusting the statute. The recommended changes include letting towns more easily pause developer lawsuits if their existing affordable housing meets certain criteria — namely, that it’s “deeply affordable.”
The recommendations amounted to “more carrots” than sticks, said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, who led the working group.
“The motivation — based on what we’ve heard from towns — is to provide some more carrots for them to change behavior. And I think that’s what’s reflected in some of these recommendations,” Rojas said.
Officials with the state Department of Housing were quick to criticize the approach, given Connecticut’s widespread lack of affordable housing and growing calls on state leaders to address the rising cost of living.
Some asked whether the goal of the report was merely to make it easier for towns to get out from under the law.
“When you look at the theme of the recommendations, it simply appears to be to make it easier for a town to exempt themselves from 8-30g,” said Michael Santoro, DOH’s director of the office of policy, research, and housing support. “Our position is we need more housing. None of these recommendations do anything to help us promote the creation of new housing opportunities.”
The law, 8-30g, lets builders sue towns that deny affordable housing proposals. Towns are exempt if at least 10% of their housing stock is designated affordable. Towns can earn points toward temporary breaks from the law by showing they’re making progress toward that 10%. Many of the report’s recommendations deal with how that progress is measured.
If a developer sues a town under 8-30g, the town must prove it denied the development for reasons of health or safety — and that those reasons outweigh the need for more housing. The law was passed in the 1980s and has been the subject of political ire for years.
Town officials have said it’s difficult to reach the 10% threshold. Only about 30 of Connecticut’s 169 towns currently meet or exceed 10% affordable housing and are exempt from lawsuits, according to 2025 data.
Over the past few legislative sessions, Republicans have proposed reforms to 8-30g that they say would relieve the burden these lawsuits present for towns.
Housing advocates say those proposals would weaken the law.
The recommendations released Monday were part of a requirement under a new housing law that passed during a special session of the state legislature in November. They will be passed along to the legislature.
The report recommends introducing a point system that gives more weight to “deeply affordable” housing — that is, housing units where the rent is affordable to people making 20% or below the town’s adjusted median income, or AMI. (The weight would adjust for units with rents affordable to people making up to 40% of AMI, 60%, and so on.) When towns get a certain number of points, they are eligible for a temporary break, or moratorium, from lawsuits.
The idea is for the system to incentivize higher levels of affordability for regular units and for units designated for seniors. It also recommends making single-room occupancy housing, typically used for students, eligible for weighted points.
Adding these tiers “just reflects the reality that we do have a need for deeply affordable housing, which is not currently accounted for under 8-30g,” said Francis Pickering, executive director of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments.
The report also contained options for changing the ways the Department of Housing awards moratoriums, including shortening the window the state has to make a decision on applications. That window is set at 90 days, and DOH officials said it would be difficult to process applications more quickly.
“If the overall goal is to make it easier for towns, then lower the threshold,” DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said. “If the overall goal is to build more affordable housing, as we are doing, and trying to continue on with the governor’s support of building more housing, that’s kind of a different thing.”
House Majority Leader Rojas said the recommendations were intended to encourage towns to change their behavior, rather than making it easier for them to seek moratoriums. He said the recommendations weren’t about housing production.
The roundtable members included the House and Senate Majority leaders, members of the Housing and Planning and Development Committees, several department commissioners and other appointees. Each member will be able to attach their opinions about the recommendations to the report before it goes to lawmakers.