The Fairfield County Housing Needs Assessment Report finds the County’s housing supply is misaligned with current population needs, lacks affordable rental options, and contributes to broader disparities in access to public education, transportation, and healthy living environments

STAMFORD, CT – A new report titled Fairfield County Housing Needs Assessment released today by tri-state civic group Regional Plan Association (RPA) and its partners at Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity provides data and analysis intended to help communities meet current and future housing needs for all residents. The report offers demographic analysis and housing characteristics for all of the county’s 23 towns and cities which can help guide jurisdictions as they work to increase housing opportunities.

A critical part of the report is the housing gap analysis which breaks down discrepancies between available housing in each town and what residents of Fairfield County can afford to pay. This forms the crux of the evidence showing perpetuation of racial segregation in the county’s housing market. The report also shows the impact of decades of redlining, which prevented Black and Brown families from purchasing homes in suburban communities and accumulating wealth over generations - all of which is still evident in the Fairfield County housing market today. The report found that as the post-pandemic suburban recovery drives housing prices to record highs across Connecticut, housing stock is divided by race and outdated zoning restrictions are preventing the County from updating its housing supply to more equitably address the needs of residents.

“Fairfield County is an economic engine for all of Connecticut, and not everybody has been able to share in that prosperity,” said Tom Wright, President and CEO of Regional Plan Association. ​“Together with our partner organizations, we must undo the legacy of racist zoning and land use policies and create opportunities for decent, affordable housing for everyone.”

The report provides local communities with the data they need to assess housing needs and update their land use regulations to create the housing necessary for Fairfield County communities to thrive socially and economically. Residents can also use the index to explore their community, compare it to the County as a whole, and see housing trends over time. This tool will help municipalities better understand their specific housing needs of their diverse communities - from cost burdened residents and potential future residents, to essential workers who work in town who can’t afford to live there, to older residents who want to age in place, to young people who want to move out of their parent’s basements and live on their own.

Among the 15,000 data points organized within the assessment, key takeaways include:

• Exclusionary zoning is limiting the County’s ability to build affordable housing in neighborhoods with strong quality of life indicators, despite strong demand. The history of redlining, racial steering, and other discriminatory housing policies and practices, including racially restrictive covenants and the placement of affordable housing, is embedded into the fabric of communities.
• While the racial makeup of Fairfield County is similar to that of the United States as a whole, two thirds of the towns within the county are more than 85% White, highlighting severe residential segregation.
• Owner households make over twice as much as renter households, highlighting glaring income inequality. In almost every town across the county, the median income of renter households is less than half of owner households. Non-White households in Fairfield County are three times more likely to be renters than White households.
• In Fairfield County, median income has fallen slightly since 2000, while housing costs remained virtually unchanged until last year -- when the exodus of Manhattanites into the suburbs created a more competitive and expensive housing market than ever before.
• Between 2000 and 2020, the percent of cost-burdened households in Fairfield County has increased from 31.5% to 35.7%. The largest group of cost-burdened households are low-income renters.
• Overdependence on local property taxes to fund public education contributes to the region’s housing shortage as many communities resist new residential development. This is despite the fact that data consistently shows multifamily housing generates few school children.

RPA’s report comes as the Desegregate CT coalition pushes for land use reform that would enable more affordable housing creation. Housing experts at the Urban Institute and Fairfield County Center for Housing Opportunity (FCCHO) are also reinforcing the findings of RPA’s report -- with a recent statewide study that found Connecticut lacks 86,000 homes for low-income residents. RPA is the financial sponsor of the Desegregate CT Coalition and a partner of FCCHO.

“This report delivers powerful data for Fairfield County towns as they plan for housing affordability,” said Christie Stewart, Director of Fairfield County’s Center for Housing Opportunity (FCCHO). ​“It is one of a slate of new resources that FCCHO partners have assembled for the region which will provide critical, regional context for local planning. It is an exciting project and a big step forward for Fairfield County.”

“This report will help all of us understand the need for more inclusive housing in Fairfield County,” said Sara Bronin, architect and founder of DesegregateCT. ​“We should all support policymakers in making the decisions necessary to create housing that meets the diverse needs to residents.”