Life is hard for a lot of people right now. That’s not anything new. Paying bills, keeping up with housing costs, and making ends meet have become increasingly difficult for people across Connecticut. We are living through an affordability crisis.  

In this election cycle, Connecticut residents are once again hearing plenty of promises about affordability. Candidates are offering plans, proposals, and long-term solutions. Those conversations are important. But we also need to ask a more immediate question:  

What can we do for people who are struggling right now?  

Part of why the current campaign rhetoric on affordability feels so out of touch is because most politicians are ignoring a massive group of people who are deeply weighed down by the cost of living: renters.

The Connecticut General Assembly has an opportunity to begin answering the need for action by prioritizing a rent affordability agenda in 2027. Doing so would not only help people survive now but build faith in government. 

One in three people in Connecticut rent. And when asked, renters named housing costs as their number one affordability concern. But our state has done little for them.

It’s true that Connecticut has passed significant housing legislation intended to increase supply. Those efforts are worthwhile and important for the long term, but they do not put money back into a family budget today, especially for people who rent. And our state has to offer both long- and short-term solutions to give people hope. 

Neither major party candidate for Governor has an explicit, direct rent affordability plan. Both have ideas about housing overall, focused on increasing supply – which is a worthy goal and may decrease costs years from now, but won’t do anything for the approximately 230,000 Connecticut renters who are housing-cost burdened today. 

If someone is struggling to pay their rent this month, telling them that housing supply may improve years from now does not make today’s rent any more affordable.  

If a family is struggling to make ends meet, a promise of future relief can feel a lot like no relief at all.  

Long-term solutions matter. But so does helping people survive long enough to benefit from them.  

Over the last two years, voters have gone to the polls hoping that the people they elect will make their lives more affordable. They have voted for candidates from both parties. But when the bills keep coming and the financial pressure doesn’t let up, people understandably begin to question whether government is working for them. That is where the problem becomes bigger than affordability. It becomes a problem of trust.  

When people hear promises but don’t see results in their own lives, they can lose faith in their elected leaders. Some stop voting. Others conclude the system is rigged against them. That should concern all of us. 

Renters contribute to the property tax system, even though they don’t receive a property tax bill themselves. On average, around 20% of people’s rent pays property taxes. Property taxes are part of the cost of housing, and renters ultimately help pay those costs through their rent. Yet when we talk about property tax relief, renters are often treated as though they are not part of the equation. 

They should be. 

We need a renter’s affordability agenda for Connecticut. This agenda should include a renter’s tax credit to provide direct relief to people who need it. It should also include just cause eviction protections to make sure good tenants have stability and security, and prevent new landlords from creating skyrocketing rent hikes when they buy a building. And it should prevent astronomical security deposit fees that keep people from being able to move out of bad situations, even if they can afford the rent on a better place.  

This renter’s affordability agenda would not solve Connecticut’s affordability crisis, including its housing crisis, and it wouldn’t be a silver bullet. But it would be a tangible way for our state government to say to renters: We see you. We understand that you are struggling. And we are willing to do something about it. 

People should not have to choose between believing in government and believing what they see in their own lives.  

We cannot keep talking about affordability while forgetting the people living through it. This legislative session, let’s give renters meaningful, direct relief while we continue working on the long-term challenges that make housing and everyday life so expensive. 

Let’s pass the renter’s affordability agenda. Let’s show people that government can deliver.

Tyler Mack is a policy and advocacy strategist for the Connecticut Project Action Fund.