Connecticut’s housing crisis is no longer up for debate. Across party lines and across regions, residents agree that housing costs are one of the greatest threats to our state’s future.

That consensus was on full display during the recent special session, where concerns about affordability, supply, and fairness dominated the conversation.

One concern raised repeatedly — including by the Connecticut House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora — deserves serious attention: the growing role of private equity and large corporate investors in our housing market.

I was a bit surprised to hear that because I had pushed for this in the 2025 legislative session. Families are being outbid, rents are rising faster than wages, and communities are losing stability as homes become financial instruments rather than places to live.

That concern is valid. What’s perplexing is the suggestion that Connecticut can do nothing but fail to build housing — that somehow Connecticut can’t solve this issue, so we shouldn’t even try.

The reality is the opposite. The state has powerful tools to curb harmful consolidation in housing — and we are now actively developing them.

Corporate ownership of housing distorts the market in ways traditional supply-and-demand models don’t account for. Large investors can absorb losses that families cannot, outbid first-time buyers, extract higher rents, and leave municipalities dealing with deteriorating properties and increased enforcement costs. This is not the free market at work; it is a market skewed by scale and financial leverage.

Recognizing this, I secured approval for a working group during the 2025 session to develop tools for municipalities and the state to address this issue. This group included legislators, advocates, and policy experts, has been developing concrete solutions that would allow Connecticut to lead nationally on this issue.

Among the ideas under consideration:

• Tax policy reforms to discourage excessive portfolio concentration and reduce incentives for large-scale corporate ownership.
• A statewide licensing and registry system for landlords and property managers, improving transparency and accountability.
• Expanded tenant protections , including just-cause eviction standards and reasonable limits on excessive rent increases.
• Empowering municipalities with stronger housing code enforcement tools, better support for fair rent commissions, and the authority to respond to consolidation pressures locally.
• Strengthening and expanding Tenant and Community Opportunity to Purchase Acts (TOPA/COPA), giving residents and nonprofits a real chance to buy when properties go up for sale.
• Supporting community land trusts and limited-equity cooperatives, ensuring long-term affordability.
• “First Look” foreclosure reforms to give owner-occupants and nonprofits priority before large investors sweep in.
• Reviewing how state retirement funds are invested to ensure public dollars aren’t worsening the housing crisis.

These are not radical ideas. Versions of them are already being implemented in other states and cities, red and blue alike. What makes Connecticut different is that we have the opportunity to assemble these tools into a coherent, statewide strategy — one that balances housing production with protections against predatory consolidation.

During the debate on HB 8002, critics argued that private equity posed a serious risk. I agreed then, and I agree now. But concern without action is not leadership. And I worry that my republican colleagues only used this performatively and have no actual interest in dealing with this issue with any meaningful legislation. I hope I am wrong, because if private equity is truly a problem, now is the moment to address it—not as a talking point, but as policy.

Housing affordability is not a culture-war issue. It is a kitchen-table issue. It affects whether young people can stay in the towns they grew up in, whether seniors can age in place, and whether workers can live near their jobs. It affects municipal budgets, school enrollment, and long-term economic growth.

Connecticut has already taken an important step forward on housing supply. The next step is ensuring that the housing we build and preserve actually serves the people who live here — not just investors looking for the next asset class.

We have the research. We have the ideas. We have bipartisan recognition of the problem.

Now we need the will to act.

State Rep. Nick Menapace is a teacher and Democratic State Representative of the 37th House District serving East Lyme, Salem, and Montville.