Connecticut Fair Housing Center urges Norwalk to back just‑cause eviction, zoning changes

Rashida Reed of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center told the Norwalk Fair Housing Advisory Commission on Jan. 12 that Connecticut remains highly segregated and that local action must pair with statewide advocacy to expand housing access. "Our mission is to ensure that everyone across the state has equal access to housing opportunities that are free from discrimination," Reed said during a roughly 40‑minute presentation.

Reed summarized the Center’s recent work and data: in 2025 the Center ran 275 outreach events reaching 6,481 people and assisted about 2,000 clients. She described the top intake areas as landlord‑tenant disputes (evictions, habitability, security deposits), rental discrimination claims, and disability‑related reasonable‑accommodation requests. Many callers receive advice only rather than legal representation, Reed said.

Reed reviewed historical drivers of residential segregation — industrial‑era exclusion, HOLC redlining, suburbanization and highway construction — and said those patterns still shape outcomes such as homeownership, banking access and policing in formerly redlined neighborhoods. She presented a segregation map and cautioned that stronger fair‑housing enforcement alone will not reverse those patterns without deeper affordable housing, accessibility measures and zoning reform.

Her principal local recommendations for Norwalk included:

• Back statewide expansion of just‑cause eviction protections beyond the current limited statute that covers renters 62 and older or those with disabilities in certain federally subsidized buildings. Reed cited a Partnership for Strong Communities figure that no‑fault evictions increased roughly 24% over the last five years and said expanded protections would require landlords to provide a justification for evictions while preserving landlords’ ability to evict for nonpayment or lease violations.

• Encourage developers to build diverse housing types (duplexes, townhouses) and reduce regulatory barriers such as excessive parking requirements and large lot‑size rules. Reed urged Norwalk to deepen inclusionary‑zoning provisions and to integrate reasonable‑accommodation policies into zoning code to reduce discrimination against people with disabilities.

• Strengthen and promote the Fair Rent Commission, which Reed noted has a full‑time employee, and arrange targeted trainings (attorney‑led, hybrid or in‑person) so residents and service providers can better use local remedies.

• Expand multilingual outreach in places where residents gather — faith institutions, supermarkets, salons and barbershops — and tailor translations beyond Spanish to languages common in West Norwalk, including Haitian Creole and South Asian languages such as Hindi, Tamil and Punjabi.

Commissioners responded with praise and local context. An unidentified commission member said Reed "actually did a really, really good job in a really short period of time," and members discussed Norwalk’s land constraints, the role of median‑income definitions in making housing unaffordable for Norwalk residents when projects are built in higher‑income towns, and the potential to convert unused storefront space into housing.

The commission also noted a local need for more three‑bedroom affordable units to serve larger households. Reed offered to share Partnership for Strong Communities fact sheets with the commission and to collaborate on future trainings.

On routine business the commission moved to approve the minutes; the motion was moved and seconded and carried by voice vote. The commission also moved to adjourn and voted by voice to close the meeting.