OPM-commissioned study finds subsidized housing correlates with segregation but stops short of proving causation; recommends statewide portal and tax-credit re‑

A state-funded study presented to a Connecticut housing roundtable on Tuesday concluded that subsidized housing is correlated with racial and economic segregation across the state but that the data do not show a proven causal relationship. The Office of Policy and Management contracted New York firm Urbanomics to analyze housing and program data from 1990 through 2020 and to map program locations and participant demographics.

Manisha Shrivastava, an economist and policy coordinator at OPM, said the work flowed from statute: "Public Act 20 one-two required OPM to aggregate data related to state and federal housing programs and then use that data to analyze the impact of such programs on economic and racial segregation in the state." The study team also published data tools and a report appendix cataloguing more than 80 federal and state housing programs.

The report examined nine segregation and inequality indices at multiple geographies and ran spatial and regression analyses comparing the share of subsidized housing to 27 socioeconomic variables. "While there is a correlation between subsidized housing and segregation," Peter, a senior planner at Urbanomics, summarized, "there…