As pressure grows on everyday families to meet the financial challenges in front of them, that landscape puts more pressure on our systems to provide the supports we need from them. High housing costs and the escalating cost of living are pressing people out of their homes and have them searching for stable housing.

In such an environment, every public dollar we commit to our housing programs must be managed with integrity, fairness and transparency. I fear that may not be the case in Connecticut.

In recent years, auditor reports and developers have revealed serious concerns about how our state’s public housing activities operate. In addition, I’ve heard from construction leaders who say they face barriers in public contracting despite years of promises about equity and inclusion. Our programs are designed and built around raising up all of us for a better life, including residents and businesses alike. There are alarming reports that that’s not happening.

The conclusion I see: we may be talking the talk, but we’re not walking the walk.

State auditors continue to find deficiencies within the Department of Housing. They’ve cited missing documentation, weak project oversight, delayed closeouts and risks of improper payments. Worse, those reports have been repeated in multiple years; despite knowing the problems, they weren’t fixed. That’s a problem.

Construction firms with minority ownership are sharing equally concerning details. They’ve said they’re being excluded from meaningful opportunities, undercut during negotiations or only involved in projects symbolically. Some even report that it’s who you know, not the work you do. They’ve reported connected organizations receive the funding they need with no issue while other contractors can barely access the table.

The latest allegations concern whether projects received equal funding limits across multiple projects and whether organizations may have received the preferential treatment mentioned above.

This is not about one contractor, project or grant. It’s not about any individual problem. It’s about making sure our state is ready to meet its housing future and the needs of its millions of residents. These allegations, and their multiple sources, are raising serious questions that deserve answers, not dismissal.

Our affordable housing systems are meant to be open and accepting of everyone in need in our communities. At this time of income inequality and disparity, at a time when we need to be equitable and honest in government to make sure our systems reflect the world at large, any questions raised by these allegations need to be answered fully and thoroughly.

Affordable housing in Connecticut can’t rely on rules being applied differently depending on relationships, where winners and losers are being made with taxpayer dollars. To properly support state residents in a way they need, these programs need to follow through and provide equal access to opportunity, transparent decision-making and accountability when the proper standards aren’t upheld. And I have significant concerns that not everything is on the up-and-up.

We’ve already seen direct responses for these programs we can implement, thanks to the work of our state auditors. Public housing financing and contracting can and should increase transparency about public scoring and explanations for funding decisions. We can strengthen our rules regarding conflict-of-interest and recusal to prevent people profiting off systems intended for the common good. Expanding audits to include contractor participation and subcontractor payments, and especially ensuring repeated recommendations from those audits are taken care of swiftly and thoroughly, can help.

It’s all in the name of making sure our systems are working –- that people will benefit from public housing, not just those building it — and that minority-owned businesses need to be meaningfully involved, not just a token used to make a program look better.

We remain in a housing crisis, especially for affordable housing. We need to build our way out – but we need to make sure our systems are fair, honest and equitable for everyone, including those at risk of being shut out of a process designed to include them.

Saud Anwar MD represents East Windsor, East Hartford, Ellington and South Windsor in the Connecticut State Senate.