We are so excited to announce that 2024 marks the Connecticut Fair Housing Center’s 30^th anniversary! For three decades, the mission of the Center has been to ensure that all people have equal access to housing opportunities in Connecticut, free from discrimination. The Center has provided free investigative and legal services to residents who believe they have been the victims of housing discrimination since its inception 30 years ago. To further support the mission, the Center also regularly conducts education and outreach to ensure that residents understand their fair housing rights and works with state and local governments, housing professionals, and others to promote compliance with federal and state fair housing laws.

To celebrate three decades of fighting for equitable and sustainable housing in Connecticut, let’s look back at a brief history of the Center.

1994:  The Center opens.

2008: The Center expands its scope of work to include foreclosure prevention and anti-predatory and fair lending efforts.

2009: The Center launches the Opportunity Project to draw attention to the significant levels of racial segregation in Connecticut’s towns and cities.

2015: The Center launches the Moving Forward Project to empower residents with the information and tools they need to find housing that fits their needs and protects their housing rights.

2020: The Center becomes involved in movement lawyering and tenant organizing. The goal of movement lawyering is to build the power of people over the power of law.

Throughout our 30 years as a fair housing organization, we have promoted housing security and access by confronting acts of housing discrimination through investigation, litigation, preserving homeownership, and supporting tenant-led movements. Below are just a few of our success stories from over the years.

• Challenging the practices of housing authorities in Mansfield and Winchester that discouraged Black applicants from seeking housing in predominantly white communities.
• Vindicating the rights of individuals with disabilities to live in community settings, including affluent suburban locations and to be free from paternalistic requirements to demonstrate their ability to care for themselves.
• Fighting to make all housing available to families with children and people using vouchers.
• Supporting the creation of a statewide tenant union and numerous local tenant unions.
• Coordinating multiple tenant led campaigns including the campaign for a Right to Counsel in Eviction.
• Improving Hartford housing code enforcement through tenant organizing leading to the allocation of $2,000,000 to address poor conditions through a $1,000,000 repair fund, and increased code enforcement including the hiring two additional housing code inspectors and two enforcement support staff.

Connecticut Fair Housing Center is a leader in fair housing. Our work across all 169 towns and cities in Connecticut transforms lives and communities by helping residents overcome housing discrimination, exploitation, and unjust eviction and foreclosure. Through free investigative and legal services, tenant organizing, and education and outreach, the Center helps thousands of Connecticut residents each year.

Through advocacy, we are building collective power. Ensuring that all people have equitable access to the housing of their choice, free from discrimination, removes barriers to opportunity, success, and health that may otherwise impact families for generations. Safe and affordable housing leads to better health outcomes, stronger educational opportunities for children, and gives families the ability to build wealth and make forward-thinking decisions for their future. Desegregating our communities increases access to employment, revitalizes neighborhoods, and builds resiliency.

We are thankful for all the community support the Center has received over the years and we look forward to continuing to work alongside you to fight back against systemic discrimination and exploitation.