CONNECTICUT: The House That Political Hacks Built

 At the close of the Second World War, there was a great migration from the southern states of the country to the coasts, along with a postwar baby boom. This influx of additional people caused well-meaning and thoughtful civic leaders to try to find ways to house this overflow of people and family growth. One solution was rental “projects housing,” creating small apartments of many sizes with attractive landscapes to give the residents a feeling of home. And the projects sprung up everywhere. Father Panik Village in Bridgeport, CT. Southfield Village in Stamford. Arnold Court in Greenwich, and the masterful Cabrini Green in Chicago, IL. Starting with visions of success, failure came. Combinations of the welfare system, the destruction of the nuclear family via that same welfare system, drugs, alcoholism, crime, and abandonment caused these projects to meet the wrecker’s ball, crumbling into the dust of needles and shell casings left long before. Families that stayed together followed the original intention of the projects and saved money and moved out to homes of their very own. City mismanagement caused the buildings to wear out much sooner than expected. Overall, it was a pitiful debacle, and the wrecker's ball was the punctuation ending this sad and failed chapter in history.

After this wasteful disaster of epic proportions, one sad lesson was learned: Housing provided without the opportunity of ownership and preserving one’s investment was invariably headed to ruin. However, developments such as New York’s “Co-Op City” and “Cooper Village” provided ownership and equity and have succeeded for decades. So, one would think that to provide success in housing other than abject failure, one would not try to do the exact same approach that failed decades ago and expect a different result.

However, Welcome to Connecticut! 

A place where a chorus of political hacks always have a better idea!

A place where the wrong solution is chosen about every time, and where failure is gift wrapped to masquerade as success.

A place where the failed approaches of the recent past are brought out to the sycophantic and ignorant as "unprecedented".

A place where cries of an “affordable housing shortage”  have caused the serial building of monstrous apartment developments that stamp out any semblance of local zoning and community character, as we find these housing monstrosities are entirely unaffordable due to dead business and salary growth in Connecticut. Therefore these developments head to the express lane to be the Cabrini Greens and Father Panik Villages of the future.

A place where no decent and durable housing can be built as the combination of a dead economy, a welfare-state environment, contaminated zoning laws, and the sheer cost of doing so makes all that a losing proposition not worth the risk for any builder or contractor in his or her right mind.

But never fear! Whenever there is a social or community need that good old economic principles are not permitted to deal with, you can rest assured that a combination of politicians, community activists, “religious leaders”  grossly overpaid “nonprofit heads” and “housing advocates” will step in to make a bad result, even  unthinkably worse.

And worse leads to what we already know.

Housing affordability? For things to be affordable, people must be able to produce sufficient income in order to afford them. “Connecticut gets an "F" on housing affordability screams a recent headline so states a recent report by Realtor.com.”   Connecticut ranked 46th out of 50 in the report. The median household income is just over $95,000 per year in the state, and the median listing price for a home is just over $500,000. “We need more homes, we need more multifamily homes, those missing middle options. But really, we need a combination of all those strategies for Connecticut to catch up to our peers,” Chelsea Ross with Partnership for Strong Communities said. (https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/connecticut-receives-f-for-housing-affordability-and-availability-in-new-report/)

The report itself should be must reading for those running for office in the November election, presuming they possess the basic comprehension skills in order to do so. Housing is a complete debacle for Connecticut, in contrast to the billions of dollars that have and will be spent on the guise of "affordable housing". "If the top of the class reshuffled, the bottom barely moved at all. Connecticut (No. 46, F), California (No. 47, F), Hawaii (No. 48, F), Massachusetts (No. 50, F), and Oregon (No. 45, D-) all hold the same rankings as last year...These states face structural challenges such as high prices, constrained land, restrictive zoning, and building costs that far outpace what middle-income buyers can afford.     (https://www.realtor.com/research/state-report-cards-2026/)

What I find interesting is that the "non-profit" Partnership for Strong Communities” organization is quoted in the above news report. "The Partnership" has been in existence since 1998, and their website states the following: Since our founding, the Partnership has successfully advocated for more than $2.6 billion in public funding in Connecticut. These investments have helped build homes and deliver services to increase housing affordability, supply, access, and stability. We have engaged community, civic, and elected leaders to come together and imagine, plan and execute effective change and to create a new paradigm of thinking about housing. (https://pschousing.org/our-history/). Their finances are interesting also. Their Executive Director, Chelsea Marie Ross received $132,271 in compensation along $5,762 in "other" compensation in 2024 (their last published financial statements) (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/200882009). Executive Compensation along with other Salaries and wages of $454,488 account for 54.3% of all expenses for this "non-profit". 

Many social-media users asking questions of, or making criticisms of "The Partnership" are quickly blocked because "The  Partnership", is imperious, and shame on us for not knowing that. Meanwhile, The State of Connecticut spends more than $1 billion dollars a year for programs such as the “Housing Trust Fund” and the “Time to Own” homebuyer program. After all, no amount of money is too large in order to deal with a "crisis".

Many find it fascinating that with the amount of Connecticut Taxpayer funded programs and "nonprofits" for "affordable housing" through tax credits, subsidies to municipalities and other programs, Connecticut continues its race to the bottom of both a shortage of housing and the affordability of housing. It is also important to note and is left out of the debate, is that Connecticut has one of the highest property rates in the country, with such rate increases attributable in many cases to waste, fraud, abuse, and duplication of services as opposed to consolidation. It is ranked third in the country for highest property tax rates with a real estate tax rate of about 1.54% to 1.66% of a property's assessed value. The logical question would be wouldn't the lowering of property tax rates in turn lower property and rental costs? That simple question seems lost in the race to control zoning by an elite political few, who, while living in their Greenwich mansions, demand a lower standard of housing that they can profit from in the guise of "affordable housing" while, (like Ned and Annie Lamont with Annie’s equity interest in benefit provider “Unite Us”), can sit back and reap the benefits of this obfuscation and exploitation of the relative underclass.  

There are many free-market solutions to lower the costs of housing and rents in Connecticut. The solutions have worked before and will work today. However, since the "non-profit affordable housing" industry is drive by profit and control and facilitated by overpaid bureaucrats, professional panderers. and Executive Directors, these solutions will never be mentioned. Connecticut's ruling Democrat elite savor and profit by bottom-feeding off the pitiful economic conditions that exist in the state while not paying the debts they create, thereby adding to the $100-150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt and unfunded liabilities. Meanwhile a cacophony of activists, do-gooders, and suffering Sams and Sallies are quick to call anyone a racist, (or even worse, a Trump supporter), for calling this horrific mess to task.

 

One really does not need to read a report or listen to the comments of this chorus of failure to understand what is really happening. Just see what is happening around you. And to the cacophony of the hacks, just keep it up.  For it is certain that if they keep it up, housing will never be affordable in this state. 

The Affordability of Courage

What makes something affordable? How is that defined? And does affordability mean different things to different economic groups in our economy? And why has Connecticut become so unaffordable to those remaining legal, working, middle-class, law-abiding citizens who remain? These are all legitimate questions for the upcoming Connecticut Governor’s race, which is fast approaching.

The election is starting off as scripted. Several candidates have emerged from the minority Republican Party, each with very different ideas and political ideologies, while the Democrat Party begins its familiar, fanatical condemnation of all things President Trump. Meanwhile, Ned Lamont, the ruling/ unaccountable King/Governor has humbly announced that he is running yet again for another term. Left-wing, socialist, communist-leaning young Democrats may also enter the race, declaring that Lamont is unfit to serve any longer because he is too old and not liberal enough to govern. They will threaten him with a primary if he does not give them what they demand. This amounts to free universal health care, free rent, free public transportation, free public education from birth through graduate school, free cell phones, free food, and anything else that comes to mind over the next few months. If you are one of those humble working taxpaying citizens of Connecticut, you will be paying for this as the Federal government is on to the continual waste, fraud and abuse that is the Gold Standard of the omnipotent Connecticut Democrat Party. The spigot for all of that foolishness is about to be cut off by the Trump administration. Trump administration orders review of federal funding in more than a dozen Democratic states | CNN Politics.  

The line is being drawn in the sand for November 2026.

So how does this apply to affordability? Or does affordability have something to do with courage?

If a candidate for Governor, especially a Republican, would boldly state out loud that Connecticut is no longer affordable and present a coherent and genuine citizen-centric economic plan to reduce the economic stress and pain of living in this state, they might actually be heard and could win the election by an overwhelming margin. And if Republicans also ran a candidate for every State House and Senate district rather than leaving many uncontested and unrepresented, this would represent a radical shift in campaign strategy and indicate a seriousness heretofore not present in what has been a weak and disjointed Republican Party. With a gubernatorial candidate advancing such a genuine, citizen-centric plan, they could realistically win General Assembly seats along with statewide offices such as Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller, and more. It really can be done if someone has the courage to address it, and clearly commit to ending the irritating deference to the state workforce and the Connecticut Administrative State.

Affordability in a one-party-ruled Democrat Connecticut, can easily become the ticket to real change in state government. Contrary to the daily deranged rhetoric of Connecticut Democrats and their paid followers, toadies, and lackeys, the reality is that they have made the state totally unaffordable. Excessive local and state taxes on nearly everything especially income taxes, high and excessive business taxes, user fees, vocational taxes, license taxes, gas taxes, electric taxes, natural gas taxes, and high sales taxes have all contributed greatly to the economic destruction of this once-prosperous state. It cannot be denied that the progressive, unyielding, anti-economic- tax rates and  administrative burdens and oppression of Connecticut have damaged the state to the point of becoming a bottom-five state in the country for business and economic performance.

Excessive and unchecked state spending driven by political nepotism with no transparency and sparse resistance at best, have helped nurture these high taxes that have vandalized the economy. This entire wretched mess could be stopped with a rational citizen-centric  Republican plan to cut the bloat of an ever-expanding state government that shows negative meaningful economic results year after year, especially when Connecticut has yet to recover from the Great Recession of 1989 thirty-six years later. Think about how poor that economic record is to run on in every election. But somehow, the omnipotent and incompetent Democrats remain in power, year after year (after year). How is that even possible?

2026 is really Custer’s Last Stand for the once-great state of Connecticut. If Connecticut is to survive both socially and economically, the Republican Party must reject its RINOs and all fealty to the administrative state and its agencies, and claim policies and programs that jump-start the state through lower state spending, lower state taxes, a real adult energy policy, and true transparency in how the state operates. Freedom of Information laws and requests should not be secrets from Connecticut taxpayers. The cries for a citizen DOGE must be heeded and propounded forthwith. The $100 to $150 billion in short- and long-term debt and unfunded liabilities should be discussed and debated daily, along with these real citizen-centric solutions presented.

This election, like the elections of the past 36 years, represents a true social and economic turning point for the state. This year, the Connecticut Democrat Party is out of deceptions, lies, and smokescreens to cover up its inability and lack of desire to represent the legal voters and taxpayers of the state. The Republican Party has a perfect opportunity to flush out the corruption, crime, deception, and fraud that the Democrat Party has utilized for personal and financial gain for years.The change is there for the taking. Does anyone have the vision and the courage to get Connecticut back on track? 

That is what Connecticut voters are voting for in November. And as of the time of this writing, this type of vision and courage is what we are still waiting for.

 

 

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, And Your Private Equity Investors

 For many years, the poor beleaguered Connecticut taxpayer has been lectured to by their morally-superior Connecticut politicians and representatives as to how the poor beleaguered Connecticut economy is stagnant because there is not enough “workforce housing” or “affordable  housing” in order to house workers that are needed to make businesses grow.  Lapdog and pandering “business leader” organizations such as the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (“CBIA”) that are influenced heavily by state directives and paid lobbyists, parrot these “economic assessments” giving them a false air of objectivity and technical soundness. If all of that is not bad enough, “white guilt”- manufacturing assemblies of uncertain form such as “Desegregate CT” and the “Open Communities Alliance” shame and berate innocent homeowners in fine and clean communities for “living on all of that space that they do not need.” It has been nothing but an incessant barrage from all state-connected sources telling you, the citizen, that citizen that never asked for anything from Connecticut government other than the basics it cannot deliver, that you are the enemy, and politics are the solution.

First, in my decades of observation of Connecticut and in being a Professor of Economics and a financial professional, no one has yet to see this burgeoning demand for housing. If there truly was an economic energy in Connecticut with a lack of housing, we would see state motels continually full. We would see campers and vans parked in lines on our avenues with people “camping out” waiting for that next elusive home or apartment to appear. We would see four our five young people routinely crammed in one-bedroom apartments in Hartford. But strangely we see none of that. As a pure matter of fact, we are seeing exactly the opposite. We see our unsafe and decrepit cities continually exhibiting new levels of decay. We see an exodus from the cities due to an economic hardening of the arteries. https://hartfordbusiness.com/article/major-hartford-real-estate-investor-faces-third-office-building-foreclosure/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Hartford%20investor%20faces%20third%20office%20foreclosure%20%7C%20Medical%20Billing%20firm%20moves%20HQ%20to%20CT&utm_campaign=HBJ%20Today%20112125 We see major business depart for serious states run by adults: https://hartfordbusiness.com/article/edgewell-to-close-milford-schick-plant-cut-293-jobs-as-part-of-broad-restructuring/ We see continual crime in what I call “Crime-Free Democrat Connecticut”. We see a corrupt and inept Department of Economic and Community Development wasting millions of dollars, now under Federal investigation. But yet, we never hear of any champion of “workforce housing” ever successfully explain why destroying neighborhoods and turning that part of suburban and rural-residential Connecticut into a steroidal version of “Father Panik Village-The Sequel” will generate organic economic growth and make things wonderful for all.

We realize that cars cannot run without fuel and people cannot build muscle on starvation diets, yet somehow with the Magical-Mystical Connecticut Plan Of "Economic Diversity” this will all take care of itself.Unfortunately, nothing could ever be farther from the truth. First, let us examine the concept of “Economic Diversity” that every Connecticut Democrat wishes to slam down your throat.

Unfortunately, there is and can never be no diversity in “economic diversity.” This is evident when one reads the monstrous and economically irrational Connecticut Bill (“Bill,” HB 8002) that was recently passed by the economically illiterate Connecticut State Legislature. There is not much to like—if anything—about this Bill, which is somehow named “AN ACT CONCERNING HOUSING GROWTH” (https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/TOB/H/PDF/2025HB-08002-R00-HB.PDF) with said Bill forcing Connecticut’s 169 towns to achieve this nebulous concept of “economic diversity.” The Bill was forced down Connecticut taxpayers’ throats with no public hearing, no public input, and in many cases without even being read by members of the legislature. It essentially creates a false narrative that Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities must follow. The language of the Bill is a garbled mess of potentially litigious rhetoric but it is quite evident that its real effect is to eliminate local planning and zoning commissions from ruling over their own cities and towns and remove people from the very property that they worked so hard to own. Local dominion has been stripped from communities by the state with the creation of “Priority Housing Development Zones” allowing higher population densities by decree. These zones allow four units per acre for single-family homes, six units for duplexes and townhouses, and ten or more for multifamily properties. Projects of this size will no longer require local hearings, meaning local property owners near these projects will no longer have any real say over what happens around their own properties. In brief, one day a homeowner will open his front door and see a housing monstrosity going up across the street, and he will be powerless to stop it or raise an objection.

But recall: This Bill is engendered by those dear souls that think it is best for you to not own the vehicle of your choice, let alone own any vehicle at all. That said, these dear souls wish to provide public transit for you, wherever you may be. The Bill leans on the cure-all of “transit-oriented districts” that must be approved by the state. These districts are clustered around taxpayer-subsidized transit, such as near-empty buses running around the clock and “reliable” trains that will transport workers to jobs in parts unknown at this time. This costly exercise will provide the same results as the illustrious CTfastrak to nowhere from New Britain to Hartford—a huge waste of taxpayers’ money and, many argue, unsafe to ride. But when it comes to another union project, these dear souls cater to their largest voting bloc and continually roll over and play dead, (and you as usual, can be damned).

Some of the evident problems with the Bill that impact many towns and cities in the state are laid out in legislative analysis (https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/BA/PDF/2025HB-08002-R00SS1-BA.PDF), but even that state-manufactured source raises more questions than answers. For example, who runs a “Fair Rent Commission”? Is it an elected commission? What exactly is a “fair” rent? Is it free monthly rent? Ten dollars a month? Or a state-approved number pulled from the sky that, as usual, completely disregards the real costs of rental property such as property taxes, maintenance, and insurance? Who pays for the costs of this Fair Rent Commission? Will landlords be forced to foreclose and walk away from their properties as they cannot support them through choking legislation? Who cares? Your state Legislature is working diligently with you in mind! Look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

Then we see the concept of a “Municipal Goal.” What is it, and how is it derived? Who has the final say on it? Are all Municipal Goals effectively the same thing as “economic diversity”? How can Municipal Goals be achieved if there is none of this magical “economic diversity” taking place in that municipality? Again, look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

Beyond that, there are the inevitable downstream costs that are never  honestly addressed. Who pays for the additional costs of public education when all these supposedly new families with children move into a town? Class sizes, staffing, school buildings, special education needs—none of this is free. How many of the people coming in are legal? Who cares? The Legislature knows better than you, anyway. Who pays for the additional costs of road infrastructure and the increased traffic with all these supposedly new residents? Or will these new people be told they cannot own personal vehicles and must rely solely on public transportation? Again, look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

This Bill is a massive power grab and will be yet another force pushing Connecticut taxpayers to move out of the state, since they will no longer have meaningful control over their own property. It helps create a new layer of state bureaucracy where unelected, Democrat Party–connected individuals and businesses once again make decisions for Connecticut taxpayers. More failed state-run "somethingCT" programs with no transparency and no accountability are on the way. Again, look forward to higher taxes, increased crime, and an added social service burden, because it is your taxpayer duty to support whom your Legislature deems you must.

But finally, we are seeing the real reasons for this dastardly and nonsensical plan to destroy the last remnants of life as we know it in the State of Connecticut: That reason is, The Lamont Family. On the 11/20 edition of THIRTY WITH TONY, my friend and colleague Tony De Angelo, a weekly contributor to the Lee Elci Show on WJJF 94.9FM produced a riveting and documented show with extensive exhibits clearly walking us through the real reason behind why the fabric of the state is being ripped asunder purely by the real mission of Ned and Ann Lamont which is to capitalize Connecticut for their benefit using a sophisticated structure of nonprofit organizations and offshore tax havens. We all know that Tony has documented this situation for years. However we find on this show that the Republican Party admits they have known of this situation as well, but have never mentioned anything about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNWCrtUXAog

But always keep in mind that it is not too late to fight back. The Republican Party, along with ordinary citizens, needs to challenge this in the legal and court system and question the legality of stripping local control over private property from lawful property owners. Whosoever the Republican candidate of Governor is, must finally call out the blatant and sickening Lamont corruption and finally assume the role of an adult, otherwise please save our time and energy and do not even bother to run. Whosoever the Republican candidate for Governor must declare he or she will sign an Executive Order on Day 1 symbolically setting the lead to obliterate HB 8002, for once and for all, unions be damned. 

This is the reality of HB 8002: a Bill that will continue the rape of personal freedoms of those lawful citizens who remain. The Connecticut Democrat Party owns this new economic nightmare and the economic pain it will inflict on Connecticut taxpayers while trying to achieve its absurd, pointless, and unachievable vision of “economic diversity.” Meanwhile, the Republicans are in the “Last Chance Saloon” to right the wrongs by being bold and forthright which is uncharted territory for them.

For any meaningful change to the horrific, putrid, wreckage HB 8002 will cause, all of this must happen. It is either a beginning, or an end, and it is entirely up to the people who are there at this moment.

 

What Exactly Is The Connecticut Housing Crisis?

 What is the actual Connecticut Housing Crisis? Can it be defined? Can any of the Legislative geniuses that are constantly crying about the same explain in simple terms what it actually is? Is it a lack of apartments, condominiums, and houses for people to live in the state? Is there a lack of rental housing for people who are unable to work due to a disability and live on government subsidies? Is there a lack of rental housing for people who do not work, can work and live on government subsidies? Is there a lack of rental housing for people who do work, but do not earn enough money to pay for all their personal and family expenses, especially for rent? Is there a shortage of one family homes in the state that cannot be purchased due to high property taxes and high mortgage rates? Is there a lack of housing for Senator Chris Murphy's "Undocumented Americans" to be developed into future voters?

 

Considering all of the above, please define the “Connecticut Housing Crisis” for me. However, before you do, kindly provide answers the following: 

If Connecticut has a shortage of housing, then where are these people living in Connecticut since they purportedly cannot afford rents or mortgages? In 2023, Connecticut has about 148,506 citizens live in subsidized housing (https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-people-live-in-subsidized-housing/state/connecticut/). That is approximately .04% of the state's population. But to this point how many people are actually homeless in the state? Connecticut has a population of approximately 3, 625,000. We find that Connecticut has a "point in time" count in January. This  "is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. HUD requires that Continuums of Care (“CoC”s) conduct an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens on a given single night. CoCs also must conduct a count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness every other year (odd numbered years). Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally." (https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hdx/pit-hic/#2025-pit-count-and-hic-guidance). For February 2025 they are apparently over "5,000" people homeless in the state. (https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/never-seen-it-this-bad-rates-of-homelessness-on-the-rise-in-connecticut/). That is .00137% of the state's population that is homeless.  According to the state budget, Connecticut funds fifty-three emergency shelters and thirty-nine transitional housing program state grants. If one contacts Connecticut's 211 network, they will find sixty-two homeless shelters that can be contacted. (https://www.211ct.org/searchterms=Homeless%20Shelters&page=1&location=Connecticut&service_area=connecticut). Connecticut will spend in for various Housing and Homeless services/programs/subsidies $101,123,923 in 2026 and $114,323,923 in 2027. If we focus on the "5,000" who are "homeless" one may wonder why these people cannot be sheltered if the state is spending over $100 million dollars on these programs to help them? (If you are keeping score at home, this translates to more than $20,000 expended each year for each purportedly homeless person).

Needless to say, any reasonable person with reasonable intelligence sees this situation and realizes that nothing seems to add up with this housing shortage situation. And regrettably, the ostensible insanity of “building where they ain’t,” continues. This past week a bi-partisan celebration of the building of 154 institutional-style housing units occurred. https://www.wshu.org/connecticut-news/2025-07-09/ct-new-britain-affordable-housing-crisis . Spiked by state loans, tax credits, and giveaways, the average $2,100 per month rental price of a unit here is well above what most in the “need of housing” class can pay. But I would assume this is not a problem since continual subsidies are perpetually imagined, as the rents collected from whatever sources continually fill the coffers of wealthy investors. However, no one ever seems to mention that once the subsidy payments outstrip the market rentals, this project like hundreds before will be on the fast track to becoming the next Father Panik Village or Barnum Court and will meet the same fate. Unfortunately, politicians lie and deceive themselves that they have a magic solution, however dollars and cents will always determine the outcome of any pipe dream or illusions.

But alas, there are far better solutions than the messes described above. Unless you watch my good friend, Tony De Angelo on “Thirty With Tony” or listen on the “Lee Elci Show,” you probably did not know that Connecticut currently has seventy-two “Qualified Opportunity Zones”. (OPPORTUNITY LOST -TONY DE ANGELO LEE ELCI 7- 8- 2025)  A Qualified Opportunity Zone is an economically distressed community located within the United States or its territories, designated for the purpose of attracting private and rental housing investment a and stimulating economic development through powerful Federal tax incentives conditioned upon a long term community commitment by the investor or builder (https://opportunityzones.com/location/connecticut/).  As Tony had mentioned on July 8, Connecticut is in such bad economic shape that almost a full third of the state could qualify as an economic Opportunity Zone under the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Further, a third of these new zones must be in rural areas! But in a high tax, excessively bureaucratic and Trump-hating state like Connecticut, there is little to no chance of either attracting investors into zones with no commitment to police and public safety and/or getting this exciting concept through the heads of politicians with severe cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

OPPORTUNITY LOST -TONY DE ANGELO LEE ELCI 7- 8- 2025

But why actually talk about propounding solutions that work since such solutions would eliminate the need for many redundant bureaucrats and political hangers-on? Can anyone rationally explain as to why the Connecticut Democrat Party wanted to force through the ill-conceived and draconian housing bill HB 5002 shifting zoning from the 169 cities, towns and villages to a state run, non-elected bureaucracy? Considering the above, it now makes sense since we now see that in a socialistic economy the citizen becomes more and more dependent upon the state governmental bureaucracy for every aspect of their life and their survival through subsidized housing, free state medical care, free public transportation and subsidized food.  Please take just one look at the figures mentioned earlier. Connecticut would be far better off if it consolidated taxpayer monies and fully audited the money it spends in housing and improve its efficiencies and allowed free market solutions to its "housing/homeless" crisis. Instead, it chooses a politically entrenched socialistic corridors of power for personal financial gain that continually worsens the problem. Such, is the "Connecticut Way"

Wasting time, money, and productive energy is a hallmark of the Democrat-driven Connecticut political system, so much that even when it is provided with workable and positive solutions will ignore them continually, only to drive society from bad to worse and forever ensure their employment and false sense of purpose.

House Bill 5002: Connecticut’s Horrific Housing Hell of Horrors

Ever since the dawn of the Republic, it has been the desire of about every happy and productive American to either buy or build their own home and go about living by their own chosen design. America is the land of free people, and many people developed their skills and talents to start on the trek to living life in the manner they wished in a place they could call their own home. All being well, the home was the economic driver for many trades and professions, and in the vast majority of cases the home became the single largest asset owned by many families, an asset that could be sold or passed on to the next generation.

Entire communities and economies were built around residential homes. Connecticut was a great leader in this effort with no state income tax until 1991 and a great commitment to community and value in its cities and towns. In the residential sections of our once great cities, skilled tradespeople and machinists of color left the racism and oppression of the south and came to work in the burgeoning Connecticut firearms industry. Their employment and hard work granted them fine homes and cars in the northern parts of Connecticut’s major cities. There was no welfare. None was needed. There were no cries of systemic racism. If the Black guy worked more hours that the White guy, he made more money and had a newer car and a bigger home. Life was not perfect, but it was simple, and it worked. And it worked up until the time of the enactment of the dastardly and economy-killing income tax 35 years ago and the shutdown of the firearms and manufacturing industries throwing many working class and Black people onto the welfare system.

But in Connecticut, citizens know nothing, and politicians know everything. This great politically based masterminding has disenfranchised people of color and the working class and thrown Connecticut into a perpetual, debt laden and welfare-burdened economic stupor. And the horror movies worsen every day. Regardless, (and undeterred), the Democrat-Socialist majority-driven political system is now doggedly proceeding to destroy the last vestige of economic freedom and security for legitimate and taxpaying citizens in this state, being their home. Therefore, enter House Bill 5002: Connecticut’s Horrific Housing Hell of Horrors.

As is standard procedure in Connecticut, journeys to economic and social destruction are preceded by the pontificators of the impending plague: "Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) issued the following statement today on House Bill 5002: "...“No matter how loud the anger, lies, and irrational voices get, we must remain steadfast in our mission to build more housing, lower costs, and grow the economy.” (https://www.senatedems.ct.gov/senators-looney-and-duff-release-statement-on-house-bill-5002-2). After systematically destroying the Connecticut economy over time, I, and many others did not realize that elitist/socialist State Senators Looney and Duff were experts in housing construction, experts in free market housing economics, Connecticut Taxpayer funded "affordable" housing and removing local control of land from Connecticut's 169 villages, towns and cities.  All in one big, beautiful, communistic/socialistic, power grab of a bill, the same HB5002.

 

Needless to say, the bill itself is the usual Connecticut Democrat Party mumbo-jumbo of incoherent gibberish that offers payouts to the politically connected in the state. The politically connected who know they can profit from it with its over one hundred amendments and supplements that have been added. Trying to read it all and actually understand the bill defies logic. (https://legiscan.com/CT/bill/HB05002/2025). It is inarguable that the bill is a true and classic rip off of the independence of local zoning laws, local land use laws and ultimately, the Connecticut Taxpayer. It promises a Utopian creation of all sorts of housing/transportation/affordability and a dream society that would be well beyond the reach of the collective mental candlepower of those comprising the Connecticut political and administrative system. Furthermore, this hellacious monstrosity proceeds as the state continues its economic decline to socialism and ruin with state government being the largest employer in the state, high taxes, a declining business environment and $100 to $150 billion dollars in short and long term debt along with unfunded liabilities in excess of any of the “fiscal guardrails” you may have heard of.  

But we know none of that does not bother the Connecticut Democrat Party in the least. Why should it? They know you are there to write the check.

Needless to say, the underlying grand design of this bill would be the Soviet-style veneration of a limited elite while working class areas will look like communist block homes of all the same sizes, color being gray, drab and uniform. Herein, the failed concept of the perpetual slum and the encouragement of vagrancy is once again resurrected, a concept that was reduced to a hail of gunfire, drugs, and gang violence in places like Father Panik Village in Bridgeport and Southfield Village in Stamford.

For example:

(https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/ACT/PA/PDF/2025PA-00049-R00HB-05002-PA.PDF)

House Bill No. 5002
Public Act No. 25-49
AN ACT CONCERNING HOUSING AND THE NEEDS OF HOMELESS
PERSONS.

Page 9:Sec. 4. (Effective from passage) The Commissioner of Social Services
shall, within available appropriations, develop and administer a pilot
program to provide portable showers and laundry facilities to persons
experiencing homelessness. Such program shall be implemented in not
fewer than three municipalities and shall provide not less than three
portable shower trailers and not less than three traveling laundry trucks.
The commissioner may contract with one or more nonprofit
organizations to administer the program. Not later than January 1, 2027,
the commissioner shall submit a report on the success of the pilot
program, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a of the
general statutes, to the joint standing committee of the General
Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to housing. The pilot
program shall terminate on January 1, 2027. 

Page 10:(1) "Affordable housing plan" means a plan for the development of
affordable housing units in a municipality pursuant to subsection (b) of
this section;
(2) "Affordable housing unit" means a dwelling unit conveyed by an
instrument containing a covenant or restriction that requires such
dwelling unit, for at least forty years after the initial occupation of the
unit, to be sold or rented at, or below, a price that will preserve the units
as housing for which persons and families pay thirty per cent or less of
their annual income where such person or family is considered a low-
income household, very low-income household or extremely low-
income household;
(3) "Compliance implementation mechanisms" means (A) changes to
a municipality's policies and procedures, and (B) proactive steps a
municipality may take in order to allow for the development of
affordable housing units, including, but not limited to, (i)
redevelopment of a site, (ii) seeking funding for the development of
affordable housing units or sewer infrastructure, (iii) donating
municipal land for development, and (iv) entering into agreements with
developers for a development that includes affordable housing units;

What does this mean? There are many examples from this bill that should alarm all property owners and taxpayers. The bureaucracy that this bill creates should be an impetus and impulsion to move out of Connecticut ASAP. It is a land grab pure and simple. Unions and the politically connected will cash in building the slums of the future, which slums with no state economy to speak of will then become the taxpayer-supported welfare projects of the future. Bad and out of control residents will eventually receive the protection of an eviction-free world where regardless of what they do, they will be guaranteed a roof over their head and ruin the residential experience for good residents. Drugs, (then-legal), crime, and gang violence will return. But do not talk to me. Talk to the esteemed Senators Duff and Looney, who claim this is “economic development.”

Home ownership is a constant debate in our economy. Affordable housing has been a debate in our economy for well over 50 years. How is "affordable" housing defined in our economy after billions of dollars has spent by all levels of government to make it more "affordable"? The definition of "affordable" housing seems to change constantly according to political needs and wants not from a prospective of economic needs and wants. It should be logical that the less governmental interference there is with the housing markets, the quicker free market solutions can take place to make housing "affordable". It worked simply fine before Democrat-centric politicians systematically began destroying the system and the Black working-class almost four decades ago. Connecticut through this hellacious HB 5002 wants to control the entire process of housing to protect the wealthy mansions of Greenwich where King Governor Ned Lamont The Unaccountable and his cronies reside while destroying the working middle class communities throughout the state, the places where families saved money and bought their own homes without governmental intervention and ridiculous zoning laws.  

HB 5002 goes against any type of common sense when it comes to this concept of "affordable" housing. The costs of this bill for both the town and state are astronomical. My question to Martin Looney, Bob Duff and the Connecticut Democrat Party is how many homeless people do you have living in your spacious homes? Any? And what gives you the right to control housing in the state? Just more madness and controlled destruction, compliments of a political regime out of touch with any reality, and not caring the least bit about any of that.
 

 

Déjà vu All Over Again. The New Connecticut Slums of 2024

Most readers are familiar with the timeless Christmas movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life," made in 1946. In this film, viewers are transported to the quaint town of Bedford Falls, where the intricate tapestry of human lives unfolds against the backdrop of two contrasting visions of community. At the center of this narrative lies the enthusiastic figure of George Bailey, whose dreams of adventure are perpetually tethered to his hometown's fate. Yet, looming over Bedford Falls is the bleak shadow of his wretched banking competitor Mr. Potter, a miserable miserly man whose wealth and influence cast a long, dark shadow over the town.
As the story unfolds, viewers are drawn into a captivating exploration of these two men and their divergent visions for the future of housing for Bedford Falls. On one hand, there is Potter, whose intention for housing is in his ownership of “Pottersville,” a pathetic, decaying slum where depressed renters pay their substance to this miserable wretch of a man having no regard for them nor any incentive to do better by them. However, in stark contrast stands Bailey, a man whose dreams soar far beyond the confines of his modest hometown. Unlike Potter, Bailey sees housing as a cornerstone of community prosperity. His unwavering commitment to personal development culminates in the creation of Bailey Park – a vibrant oasis amidst the urban blight, a home ownership park where people could live and love and enjoy the fruits of their ownership and respective individual visions, free from oppression.
In the battle between Potter's greed and Bailey’s vision, the enduring spirit of hope and belonging fostered by Bailey created a much better future for all for the most obvious of reasons.

Fast forward to 2024. Rather than making housing policies that foster the growth, development, and financial empowerment of Connecticut citizens, the omnipotent One-Party Democrat machine (with no real opposition) has decided to bring a New-Age version of the slums to every city, town, and village in this formerly great and proud Nutmeg state. Forced socialistic housing.  Government mandated housing. Ugly and/or non-descript buildings.  Rentals only.  No homeownership, as rental properties need to be controlled by political cronies under the guise of “Transit Oriented Housing.”  These days, we are to willingly throw away local control of property and hand it over to yet another highly paid, unelected unaccountable, (and ostensibly racist) bureaucrat with political connections to the omnipotent Connecticut Democrat Party. 
Welcome to “Pottersville-CT 2024” (aka “Slums R’Us”) . Numerous bills such as Senate Bill No. 6; "An Act Concerning Housing to make housing more affordable for Connecticut residents." and House Bill 5390 “An Act Concerning Transit Oriented Communities”, have been introduced and or passed claiming the Utopian "affordable" housing mantra along with "free" public transportation in the form of "exceptionally high-speed trains” and or electric "green" buses in some cases .  These items will sprout up so that people will no longer need horrifically polluting efficient private vehicles nor discriminatory, unjust, biased and racist private homes to live in. (These are not my words, but rather the words of various “housing advocates” that have been on this trail for several years). Moreover, the system must crush all individual vision and initiative for growth because the government and the bureaucratic state can never be anything but the gold standard in their continual quest for the perfect economic and residential train wreck coming soon to a town near you.

What the moronic forces of government continually fail to understand is that socialistic collectivism has failed for over 2000 plus years, but now is again the "best" alternative that the Democrat Party can produce as it drives both the most votes and campaign contributions. This money especially comes from those developers and political hangers on that are seeking these new rental properties and housing developments. It is a devastating game played at the expense of the poor non-connected taxpayer. Further it is laughable that none of these brain-dead legislators and “housing advocates” would be caught dead living in any one of these projects, perhaps recalling the episode of Democrat Mayor Jane Byrne of Chicago. Mayor Byrne fended off complaints of combat zone conditions in the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago by volunteering to live there. (She lasted five whole days).
Why is affordable housing such an issue for the past 40 years in Connecticut?  Could it be a prohibitive cost of living coupled with high local property and state taxes caused by the exceptionally high cost of redundant and incompetent local and state governments and/or their associated unions and lackeys?   Could it be that excessive zoning and permit processes have contributed to the high costs of housing in in the state?  Could it be that businesses in the state have a difficult time staying open and providing higher paying jobs due to the endless taxes, rules and economic burdens they daily must abide by that are force fed to them by elected and appointed governmental officials who have never run a business in their lives nor would they have any idea as to how to run a lemonade stand

My friend and colleague Tony De Angelo continually points out on his two show appearances each week that the “Pottersville” model of housing is a farcical and dangerous charade, proved useless long ago by the devolution of the “affordable” housing projects of the past into drugs, gangs, murders, and eventually, demolition. Tony asked as to why if there is a genuine (and not contrived) need for housing, why not make the units cooperatively owned by residents and subsidize them with mortgages rather than fill the pockets of dubious corporate developers? But there never is an answer to that particular question as that is not how the game is played. This new “workforce” or “Transit Oriented” housing must be taken away from local town and city governments and placed into the hands of new "zoning" czars handpicked by Hartford elitists.  (And questions remain as to why Connecticut needs “workforce housing” where there is only business shrinkage and citizens are leaving the state in droves?)
Further, think back to March 2023 and House Bill No. 6890 a bill, also known as "Work, Live, Ride" giving incentives for “transit-oriented development” within a half mile of bus and train stations, executed under an autonomous new "Coordinator" working in the new "Office of Responsible Growth" within the Intergovernmental Policy Division of the Office of Policy and Management.  How does affordable housing equate to "responsible growth" when cities and towns are wrecked in the process?  Is the "responsible growth" designed to benefit those politically connected to the Ned Lamont and his Connecticut Democrat Party? Citizens of Connecticut are not supposed to ask those questions, nor are they to question the actions or motives of the new acolytes of Mr. Potter. End of story.
Housing is a problem in our economy.  Like the cooperative model above, there are actual ways for housing to become more affordable without the state of Connecticut picking winners and losers, as it does with all the free money it gives to failing businesses in the state.  As just one small example zoning restrictions should be removed in the state with a much lower rate of taxation especially for regions that could actually stimulate real housing growth and make housing more affordable.  Or, how about a pro-business agenda that allows for free market wages to be paid as opposed to an excessively high minimum wage for jobs that require little work skills. This would stimulate more employment and taxation on its own and eliminate the need for governmental interference in the labor market. 
The current economic stagnation that the state has been in since 1990 shows little signs of abatement also contributing to the state's housing crisis.  Instead, the brainless plans being offered are reheated versions of the same failures of the past fifty years and will help create the new slums of the future. Moreover, given the current crop of legislative stalwarts as presided over by King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable, there is little hope for change in sight. 
Just maybe a different course of action might help to house those who need housing in the state. “It’s A Wonderful Life” showed us the blessings of Bailey Park. Instead, Connecticut is brainlessly proceeding to the 2024 version of Pottersville, and a new generation of failed publicly driven housing disasters in progress. When, will we say, enough is enough.

Break, Enter and Squat: Another Tool in The Liberal Toolbox To Help with The Manufactured Liberal Housing Crunch

Many brainwashed citizens in places like King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable’s Connecticut honestly believe the pap and claptrap that is thrown at them every day by state-run media sources. Talk to any one of them. They believe Covid-19 is still a pandemic and anyone walking around without a mask is a diseased murderer. They believe a demented shell of a man acting in the office of President of The United States and his acolyte Blue-State governors actually care about them and keep them safe, even though about every city in these states lies in dangerous drug-infested ruin and the U.S. borders are being trampled daily by illegal migrants in a veritable stampede. They believe that the “deep state” should be celebrated rather than investigated and dismantled. They believe that Donald J. Trump is a potential assassin of their very way of being and should in turn be assassinated if the opportunity came about. They believe no person entering the country without papers is (gasp!) “illegal”. They believe that climate change will kill us all in three years. They have felt this way since 1996. They believe there is an “affordable housing” crisis never surmising that housing of any sort is unaffordable without any market-level jobs, skills, and industries in their economically pitiful states. But most recently, they either look placidly ahead and/or turn the other way as illegal migrants and other freeloaders pry their way into legally owned homes and “squat” there, believing that these “not illegal” people just have to live somewhere. Further, regardless of the rights of others, you must be obedient and do God’s work and continue to give up your property for the greater good.
In this connection, I do not understand why private property is bad in our economy. I also do not understand why it can ever be right for someone else to take another person’s private property just because they can. What governmental agency has decided that? What non-elected bureaucrat determined that private property laws and rights needed to be disregarded? Why do “elected leaders” never make any sort of statement as to how this illegal taking will be stopped? Why do these same “elected leaders” such as The Unaccountable and his lieutenants run from the very question of if they would ever force homeowners to house migrants in their homes in a manufactured future "public health crisis?" Who really is behind all of this, as I and many others are curious as to how this new theft of personal freedoms allowed by the totally incompetent and incoherent Democrat Party of America came into being? A party that I must add is running on total disregard of any type of competency, coherency, personal freedom, responsibility and/or logic as the norms of our society. And also, a platform that continues to bankrupt America at all levels of government daily since the current Biden/Lamont Regimes have come into power.
If you own private property such as a house, trailer, or condominium, you own it as far as the law is concerned. How is it legal for a Democrat run New York City council to give over rights of home ownership to an illegal squatter after 30 days? We see that happening in the borough of Queens, NY right now with the owner of the property being arrested for trying to change the home’s locks as an illegal squatter sublet the owner’s house to unsuspecting people. (https://nypost.com/2024/03/20/us-news/suspected-squatter-in-1m-nyc-home-is-sublets-space-in-the-house-resident-says). This is sickening. Is this supposed to be law? Where (pray-tell) is the serially incompetent New York City Mayor Eric Adams in all of this? Also, what would an equally serial incompetent leader of your state or city do in an identical situation?
An unchecked and fully open border in Mexico has led to a Democrat-manufactured massive housing crisis and has caused for many illegal immigrants to figure out how easy it is to break, enter, and squat. For instance, a brazen illegal immigrant and Venezuelan national Leonel Moreno, who is near a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, said in a recent video that under US law “if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it.” (https://nypost.com/2024/03/21/us-news/tiktokker-tells-illegal-immigrants-how-to-invade-american-homes) Apparently, we are seeing the new normal that legal American taxpayers and citizens must embrace thanks to the totally incompetent and incoherent Democrat Party of America. Private property rights be damned except for the rights of the elite of the Democrat Party. It would be fascinating to see how quickly laws would change if an elite member of the Democrat Party's High Society had a squatter living in one their properties. The outrage of it all would hearken back to a time when illegal immigrants were bused to the Democrat Playground of Martha's Vineyard. But those same illegal immigrants can come and go as they please in Republican Texas and Florida. It is a sickening abuse of both our laws and personal freedoms to see this occur.
Break, enter and squat! A new way to welcome Joe Biden’s “Newcomers!” What can be better than this as squatters have more legal rights than the rightful owners of their confiscated property? This kernel in the Cracker Jack box of taxpayer-paid freebies is the re-election modus operandi of the failed Biden-Harris ticket. Both deserve to stand trial rather than being re-elected for the utter destruction they have helped to create in our country and our world. Joe Biden's 50-plus years in politics can only be seen by any rational person as complete nonperformance, neglect and dereliction of duty, regardless of where Joe Biden has been. However, he has been useful in gaming the system to help make money for his son and his family. And even in that, he has needed a lot of help from his relatives.
America was not founded on a system of lawlessness and a lack of ethics. But today America is totally unlike that, and the Democrat Party is both proud and smug of its accomplishment of failures. The Democrats will realize this reality come November as their lies and theft have disenfranchised the Taxpayers who will refuse to support it in 2025.