Hartford Foundation grants aim to reshape affordable housing policies to address structural racism

In its continued effort to confront structural and historical racism and how it manifests itself in housing issues, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving announced a second round of funding to nonprofits that advocate for policy change in state and municipal affordable housing laws.

The first round of funding, announced in February, granted $25,000 each to eight organizations. This month’s round awards grants to nine organizations that focus on reshaping affordable housing policies.

The granting initiative is the first time the Foundation has bankrolled lobbying by nonprofits and community members.

Most of the organizations, which work to alter policy, got $25,000. The one exception is Rocky Hill Congregational Church, which got $10,000 to host a speaker series to boost support for affordable housing.

Erika Frank, senior community impact officer at the Foundation, said the Rocky Hill grant was inspired by Foundation-funded initiatives in Simsbury and Hebron to teach suburbanites about the importance of affordable housing.

“It’s really about residents learning about the history of housing policy and how it has affected the way their town looks today and how their current municipal policies continue to uphold that status quo,” Frank said. “This type of resident education, while not legislative, can result in residents getting more engaged in their town’s affordable housing policy.”

Frank said the first round of funding taught the Foundation some lessons. One lesson was the need to award grants before the start of the legislative session to allow time to prepare, and to offer repeat grants to some organizations.

“Systemic change in legislation is often a long-term endeavor. The expectation that you would accomplish all your goals in one year of funding is just unrealistic,” she said.

This resulted in five organizations that received granting last time, getting grants again to continue their lobbying. The repeat grantees are Regional Planning Association / Desegregate CT, Center for Leadership and Justice, Once INCarcerated Anonymous, Connecticut Fair Housing Center and Open Communities Alliance.

Open Communities Alliance has used its funding to form Growing Together Connecticut, a consortium of more than 45 nonprofits, government commissions and businesses advocating for affordable housing.

“The levels of segregation in Connecticut and the lack of affordable housing have ripple effects across the state, hitting all kinds of issues, education, homelessness, children in schools, women who disproportionately need housing to be more affordable,” said Erin Boggs of Open Communities Alliance. “There is such a breadth of impact that it makes sense for the organizations contending with all those challenges to come together and raise their voices as one.”

This long-term paradigm may alter how the Foundation proceeds in the future on this initiative. “We are trying to figure out if single-year competitive funding is the right mechanism for every grantee,” Frank said.

Another lesson from the first round, Frank said, is to widen the diversity of voices in the community. The four new grant recipients reflect this: The Arc of Connecticut, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Rocky Hill Congregational Church and Sustainable CT.

“We included Arc because the disability community really suffers as a result of lack of housing that meets the specific needs of people with certain disabilities, and a lack of housing affordability,” she said.

And while the previous grantees focused on housing that is more affordable, the new round — reflected in the grant for Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness — added the needs of people with no housing at all.

“We didn’t directly call out homelessness in our last RFP. We needed to specifically call it out,” she said.

Sustainable CT is using the money to sustain a database it created that compiled affordable housing plans submitted this summer by every municipality. The state required these plans to be submitted by June 1.

“We hired college students from all over the state. They read every plan and categorized the strategies in the plans according to nine general themes, zoning, financing, etc.,” said Lynn Stoddard of Sustainable CT. “No one else had done this tracking yet.”

The database was created to help cities and town to coordinate their efforts. Stoddard said the students are deeply committed to affordable housing.

“We’re creating a pipeline of passionate, smart students who are being snatched up by towns and councils of governments. They have gotten engaged in the future of Connecticut communities,” she said. “They want to live in Connecticut after they graduate so they can see the importance of this.”

The first round of funding already has had one notable success. Hartford Land Bank, with the help of its grant, spearheaded the creation of a $20 million Urban Act Funding programs fund to revitalize affordable development in cities.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.