March 8, 2010 - This Friday, March 12 at 10 a.m. the Public Health Committee will host a hearing on a supportive housing bill, SB 405, An Act Concerning the Development of Cost Effective Supportive Housing for Frequent Users of Costly State Services. Reaching Home is calling on advocates to testify at the hearing.

The legislation, proposed by the Reaching Home Campaign and the Partnership for Strong Communities, would provide funding for supportive housing targeted for frequent users of state services. Read more.

The Lyceum Resource & Conference Center will host an Open House 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30. The event will feature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres from The Kitchen at Billings Forge and Firebox Restaurant and a tour of the facilities.

Forum focuses on affordable housing
New Haven Register, 3/4
This article highlights the Partnership's "Housing: The Hub of Public Policy" Series, and next week's forum on Housing, Transportation and the Environment.  More info on the series here - www.housingpolicy2010.org.

Read the latest issue of Housing Policy Briefs here.

March 2, 2010 - Gov. M. Jodi Rell's latest deficit mitigation plan proposes to reduce crucial funding for housing and homelessness prevention in more than a half dozen programs needed to solve Connecticut’s vexing supply shortage.

Rell's plan – which includes use of $219 million of the Rainy Day Fund originally intended for deficit reduction in FY '11, and delaying a $100 million state employee pension fund payment – would sweep $1.8 million remaining in the HOMEConnecticut program despite its wide success in moving municipalities to plan for higher density mixed-income housing, and more than $5 million in the Community Investment Act, which has provided funds for affordable housing creation along with open space, historic and farmland preservation.

March 2, 2010 - The number of homeless students attending Connecticut public schools jumped by 18% this year and by 27% over two years, to a total of 2,400, according to state Department of Education statistics reported by Public News Service.

March 2, 2010 - The New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, which has done extensive research on the relationships between land-use, housing, development and tax policy, has announced that Yolanda Kodrzycki, an economist and policy advisor in the Fed’s research department, has been selected as the center's new director.

March 2, 2010 - The Center for Housing Policy and the Metropolitan Planning Council have released two new briefs based on information exchanged during recent listening sessions on the coordination of housing, transportation, and workforce policies.