During his highest profile speech of the year, Gov. Ned Lamont made a bold claim.
"Last year, we built more market rate and affordable housing than anytime this century,” Lamont said in his budget address to legislators at the state Capitol in February.
Since then, he's repeated that talking point, describing a monumental building spree going on across Connecticut.
He has often used such declarations to express optimism that local communities – long resistant to new development – will finally step up on their own to allow more new housing construction while signaling he does not support pending legislation that would take control away from local officials to block housing construction.
"You know, last year, we built more new housing than we had any time this century," the Democratic governor told reporters at the Capitol last week. "I want towns to take the lead."
There’s just one problem: Lamont’s refrain is false.
In fact, a CT Insider review of housing construction data published by both the federal government and a state agency under Lamont show new housing construction last year was far below many other years since 2000.
Experts agree the governor’s claim is wrong, and they say the rosy narrative he’s pushing on housing could stall legislation that would spur new construction in Connecticut – a state that’s woefully behind many others nationwide in building new homes and rental units.
After repeated questioning from CT Insider over the past month, a Lamont spokesman...
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