Renters' squeeze offers opportunity

9/18/07
For the well-off, times have never been better. The richest 1 percent of Americans enjoys an ever-growing share of the national pie, and as the wealth gets higher, so does the growth rate. In a state and a region full of money, we know all about conspicuous consumption.
But, of course, those happy times don’t apply to everyone, or even most people. By many standards, ordinary workers are having a harder time lately just keeping pace, and are being forced into tough choices in trying to stay above water.
This applies more than ever to the 32 percent of the U.S. population that rents, instead of owns, a home. With data showing southwestern Connecticut as among the most expensive places to live in the country, people are facing fiscal challenges at every corner.
Experts recommend spending no more than 30 percent of household income on housing, but that can be an impossible standard. In Stamford, our well-to-do neighbor down the coast, a worker would need to earn more than $30 an hour to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment and fall below the 30 percent threshold — a tall order for working- and middle-class residents.
The Stamford-Norwalk area has much to recommend, but as the most expensive metropolitan region in the country, it is out of most people’s range. People who work in the service industry are often forced to live far away and commute in, clogging up the highways and contributing to even more problems.
This is where Bridgeport has an opportunity to step in. By offering an affordable alternative within (relatively) easy commuting distance, people could have a chance to stay in the county and keep their jobs. To get anything affordable now, it’s necessary to drive up Interstate 95 toward New Haven or into the Naugatuck Valley on Route 8. Bridgeport could cut a lot of people’s commuting times.
But if all the new housing in the works here caters to the most affluent among us, then we’re adding to the problem, not solving it. Of course, developers need to make a profit to be convinced to take on a project, and that means market-rate accommodations. But the state and city should do everything in their power to see that people can afford to live where they work, or at least close by. Bridgeport offers that opportunity.
We already know the state is losing population compared to the rest of the country. We know the Northeast is falling behind the South and the West. We also know why — people can’t afford it here. Now we need to do something about it.