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As the building rush booms loudly in the State of Connecticut. Investors are both empowered and incentivized by legislation going back decades ago with laws like 8-30g and more recently, The Zoning Enabling Act, which created The Commission on Connecticut’s Development and Future. Public, private, partnerships, like this are infected with cronyism and much of what they do is behind closed doors. Why is Timothy Hollister a member of this commission?
Timothy Hollister, formerly of Shipman and Goodwin, and an architect of 8-30g, also made controversy in Westport as an attorney for Shipman and Goodwin while representing the developer in a contentious battle over zoning. Another note of importance is our House Speaker, Rep. Matthew Ritter, who is a partner at Shipman and Goodwin. Ritter is a land use attorney, and on the flip side, he represents towns negotiating with developers, you can read more about that here: A Conflict of Many When Developers Are Empowered by The State.
Today’s story is in Bridgeport and there is no place more fitting than Bridgeport. A once thriving city on the water, now a bastion of corruption with national infamy. Home of convicted felon, Joesph Ganim, who was elected mayor in 1991, and had to resign as mayor in 2003, because of corruption. Ganim is the come back kid and was re elected in 2015. You can’t make this up! Recently Ganim was in the spotlight again for corruption and fraud. A Bridgeport employee was caught on film stuffing ballots for Ganim in the ballot box. A firestorm ignited across the nation shining a glaring light on the reality of election fraud in living color with a legislative body totally okay with it all. The Bridgeport employee took the fifth when testifying and became a viral meme for fraud. The judge ordered another election, and lo and behold, Ganim won again! Ganim is now in his eighth term as mayor. This is Connecticut, in your face corruption.
Never mind rampant election fraud, the super majority in office today is banging the drums of an “affordable housing crisis”. I have written in the past how this is nothing more than jingoism and “affordable housing” is anything but affordable. In actuality “affordable housing” is a tax giveaway to developers who will own the largest base of rental and commercial property in the state. The developers, many of which are foreign LLCs, are controlling the rental market, driving up the cost of housing, and making housing unaffordable. Problem, reaction, solution. Nowhere is the fraud of “affordable housing” more clear than in the real world. Bridgeport is being looked at as a place to revive, to make money, and build. Large developers from NYC are becoming the mecca of the city with a vision for a yuppy utopia complete with SMART city features, mixed use, and luxury apartments. The poor people the government proposes to be the champions of when they stand in front of cameras breaking ground on “affordable housing” developments? Well, it sucks to be poor, now let’s smile for the camera.
Families in Bridgeport are being evicted by large developers, because they are poor and already living in affordable rentals. Ironic isn’t? They are the unfortunate people to find their buildings being sold to developers looking to make money as they ride the developer’s housing boom. There are only so many affordable housing quotas developers have to allocate as affordable, the rest are market rate. The market the developers are creating is luxury pricing for all, with lots of government subsidies. I don’t know if one can really call a massive building with hundreds of apartments luxury, but the rent they are charging is quite a luxurious price. Leslie Caraballo of Bridgeport wasn’t having it. Carballo was served with an eviction notice in March. By 4/15/24 Carballo organized a protest and got media attention, by 4/16/24, the legal action was withdrawn. Other families are currently still locked into the eviction process or have already been evicted. It is unclear who the developer is? The plaintiff wanting to evict Carballo is 503 E Main St LLC, the principal holder is SAY Properties LLC, a registered foreign limited liability company. Who is this developer? Why is Connecticut being redeveloped by foreign limited liability companies? Why are people living in affordable housing being evicted, especially if we are in a housing crisis?
The optic of evictions for the “affordable housing” narrative is like a giant pimple on the end of the government’s Pinocchio nose. Developers do not care about affordable housing, neither does the super majority. It’s all optics, politics, money, corruption and power. The government is creating an affordable housing crisis with bad legislation being written by the very entities that benefit the most, lawyers and think tanks, paid for by developers looking to cash in as Connecticut becomes a state of renters. Nowhere is safe from this corruption and the developer’s boom! Re zoning is the battle cry, because Connecticut is racist, just don’t look at the people being evicted from affordable housing by developers in favor of luxury apartments.
One last note to leave readers with, Boomers, they are coming for your house. No, I am not kidding. I can see it in the tea leaves from reporting by propaganda rags like NPR. Where older people are being blamed for the housing crisis, both for the audacity of paying off their homes, and buying at a time when interests rates were low. There is no mention of the real estate investment trusts, venture capital LLPs, private equity firms, private angel investors, and the multifamily industry, nope, just those nasty Boomers owning property and living in houses too big for them. The answer to this? Put the seniors in mixed use housing complexes as they are taxed out of their affordable homes and forced into government sponsored industrial housing. This is what is known as “right use” and “right of action”. This is the equity the government is striving for.
Among the many hard truths for those trying to enter America's brutal housing market, here's one: Baby boomers continue to own many of the country's large houses, even after their households have shrunk to one or two people.
Baby boomer empty nesters own twice as many of the country's three-bedroom-or-larger homes, compared with millennials with kids, according to a recent analysis from Redfin. That means those larger homes aren't hitting the market, one factor limiting the supply for the younger generations who could use those extra bedrooms.
Some baby boomers, the generation now between the ages of 60 and 78, are happy in their large homes, using the extra bedrooms for hobbies and visiting family. Others say they want to downsize, but it just doesn't make sense financially. Many baby boomers own homes that are too big. Can they be enticed to sell them?
Links References:
Please see CT169Strong for a list of all the bills in the legislature right now that need your attention.
