Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1489471
HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM| JANUARY 9, 2023 3 Clive Cunliffe, North American president for Pietro Rosa, outside the Farmington factory of New England Airfoil. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Rare Alliance Business, affordable housing advocates see common foe in CT's high housing costs By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com I nside an ordinary-appearing fac- tory in Farmington, New England Airfoil Products staff machine parts used in Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, M1 Abrams tanks, power plants and other high- tech applications. New England Airfoil's staff count peaked at 172 around 2019, then rap- idly dropped to around 100 after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and orders were canceled or placed on hold. Now, new business is pouring in, and New England Airfoil is on a recruitment drive. An attempt to hire 14 engineers and quality assurance staff in the three months leading to Christmas had, as of Dec. 12, pro- duced only six hires — even with sala- ries ranging from $80,000 to $110,000. The company anticipates needing 30 additional staff in 2023. Clive Cunliffe, North American president for Pietro Rosa — New England Airfoil's parent company — said Connecticut's high costs of housing and living play a big part in the recruitment challenges. "We tried to employ someone three weeks ago coming from out of state," Cunliffe recalled, during a mid-De- cember interview. "They were very interested in the job. It was the ideal job for them, but they didn't want to move here because the housing was too expensive. We were going to offer them a relocation allowance, but they were buying a house and it was outside their affordability range." With an acute labor shortage leav- ing approximately 100,000 unfilled jobs in Connecticut, companies like New England Airfoil have reached well beyond state lines to recruit. But Connecticut, already a high- cost state, has seen housing prices explode during the pandemic. This has prompted business lead- ers to team up with affordable hous- ing advocates and others around the issue and to develop policy proposals that incentivize affordable housing. For the first time, affordable hous- ing is a top issue on the Connecticut Business & Industry Association's priority list for the 2023 legislative session. "We want to focus on spurring affordable housing development, specifically in towns that have the transportation infrastructure there already," said Wyatt Bosworth, a CBIA lobbyist. "We're really pushing for government incentives to push towns to zone affordable housing in mixed-use developments in areas where a CTfastrak station might be, where a rail station might be, where bus routes are prevalent." New proposal CBIA staffers have heard a rising chorus of complaints from businesses struggling to recruit. Company leaders often cite lack of affordable housing and adequate transportation as key drivers, Bosworth said. "Now is the time to bring everybody to the table and make this a priority because work-from-home is here to stay," Bosworth said. "We've seen people migrate to Connecticut from New York City and the Boston metro area because Connecticut is a great place to live. We have great schools. We have parks. We have beaches. We have rural areas. We have urban areas. But the one thing we are lacking is affordable housing that can attract and retain new workers." The CBIA is hammering out a proposal — to be called "Work, Live, Ride" — with a coalition of affordable housing advocates working under the Desegregate CT banner, as well as the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM). So far, the proposal is coalescing around two main thrusts, Bosworth said. One is better coordination of incentives available through various state agencies to assist transit-ori- ented development. Another would leverage tax incentives to promote development in brownfields and federally desig- nated "opportunity zones," he said. "Maybe you are on the fence about expanding affordable hous- ing in your area — but you may be swayed by government incentives to do so around your transit dis- trict," Bosworth said. New allies, new approach Connecticut does currently have a law that promotes affordable housing, but housing advocates have said more needs to be done to encourage further development. Known as 8-30g, the more than 30-year-old law encourages, but doesn't require, cities and towns to have 10% of their housing stock reserved as affordable. For individual developments to qualify, at least 15% of units must be restricted to low-income house- holds and at least another 15% to moderate-income households. Affordable is generally understood as housing that costs no more than 30% of a household income. Pete Harrison, director of Desegregate CT, said his two- year-old affordable housing coali- tion proposed legislation last year in concert with CCM, but this is the first time CBIA is joining the effort. He said discussions with the busi- ness advocacy group are leading to a common legislative proposal. "The crisis has gotten so bad that folks that were not really checked in on the issue are being forced to by their own members, their own experiences and it's just an issue that is unavoidable," Harrison said. Now, Harrison said, the crisis has become more tangible. "Clearly, it's beyond the anec- dotal phase now, where business leaders are having a hard time recruiting people and keeping peo- ple," Harrison said. "It's not this qui- et-quitting crap. It's not that people don't want to work today. It's that people can't stay in Connecticut and they are moving to places they can afford to live and work." Harrison said the legislative policy being crafted by CCM, CBIA and Desegregate CT differs from previous failed approaches because it would not be compulsory. Instead it would be optional for cities and towns, fueled with incentives such as planning assistance and prefer- ential treatment for existing state development grants. "We learned hard lessons last year in the short session," Harrison said. "One, the mandate approach is a political nonstarter in Connecti- cut. Even folks who were supportive don't want the state to do something without local support behind it." CT'S RISING HOUSING COSTS In November 2015, the median cost of a single-family home sold in Greater Hartford was $209,900, according to the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors. Three years later, in November 2018, the median home sale price was $225,500, a 7.4% increase. In the following three years, between 2019 and 2022, the median cost for a single-family home sold in Greater Hartford rose $80,000, up to $325,000, as of November 2022. That's a 32.6% jump during the pandemic.