No-Fault Eviction Bill Fails a Third Time. Renters Say Housing Situation is Dire

June 6, 2025 - by James Watson, CT Mirror

Advocates fear CT’s constrained housing market driving up evictions of vulnerable residents, leading to rise in homelessness.

In Connecticut, landlords must legally have “just cause” in order to evict a tenant who is either over 62 years old or has a disability. That includes not paying rent, not abiding by the rental contract, engaging in certain illegal activities or putting other tenants’ health or safety at risk.

For years, tenants and their advocates have been urging lawmakers to extend those protections to all renters in the state.

The proposal has now failed three years in a row. 

Meanwhile, the situation is growing more urgent, proponents say. Connecticut faces an estimated lack of 110,000 housing units to meet demand. The vacancy rate for housing in Connecticut is 7% for this year, well below the national average of 11%, according to researchers with consultancy ECOnorthwest.

Advocates fear that’s incentivizing landlords to evict lower-income tenants — which, in turn, drives up homelessness among the state’s most vulnerable groups. 

“If we don’t do something in the next few years, the situation is not going to get better,” said David Rich, a homelessness advocate and president of the Housing Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to creating more affordable housing and ending homelessness in the state."

Last year, 3,410 individuals in the state experienced homelessness — a 13% increase from the year before, according to the CT Homeless Management Information System, which conducts an annual “point-in-time” census of the state’s unhoused population. It was the third year in a row Connecticut’s homeless population rose.

The increase is also affecting younger people. Data from the point-in-time count shows that among the 2024 homeless population, approximately 700 were children.

For many lower-income families in Connecticut, available housing units often aren’t affordable. The vast majority of the state, 90%, is zoned for ‘single-family’ housing, as opposed to more-affordable multi-family complexes, according to a report known as the Connecticut Zoning Atlas. Even new multi-family construction is often out of reach for lower-income renters, given the high cost of construction.

Rents have also been rising in Connecticut since the COVID-19 pandemic, housing experts say. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of supply and growing demand.

“Many people are working and still can’t afford rents. They need subsidies to keep them afloat,” said Kellyann Day, chief executive of New Reach, a nonprofit in Connecticut addressing housing insecurity. Day said advocacy can only go so far; she believes renters — particularly women and minorities in urban areas — need statutory protections against eviction.

This year, lawmakers put forth House Bill 6889, the latest attempt to extend tenant protections. But the bill died before coming up for a vote in the House.

The General Assembly did pass a sprawling measure tackling zoning, homelessness and fair rent commissions. The bill seeks to increase housing supply by offering towns prioritization for funding if they change their zoning to make it easier to build multifamily housing and increases the number of fair rent commissions, which are local bodies that can make legal rulings on whether rent increases are acceptable. Many called it the most significant housing legislation in years.

No-fault eviction protections didn’t make the cut. Critics of the concept were concerned it would make it difficult for landlords to evict problem tenants.

Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, ranking member of the Housing Committee, described the proposal as creating “barriers for housing providers,” deterring landlords from entering the housing market and thus further restricting available units.

“Taking tools away from landlords, that’s onerous and punitive,” Sampson said.

Landlords contend that “lapse of time” evictions — which allow a landlord to terminate a lease when the contract’s term has come to an end — are a necessary tool for removing tenants who repeatedly engage in destructive or illegal behavior.

“There needs to be something in place for a quick eviction if tenants are not properly maintaining a property,” said Jeff Feroni, President of Trio Properties, a Glastonbury real estate firm with a focus in commercial multi-family complexes.

“It’s not really an eviction. It’s just me trying to get back my property. It is a graceful way to end a contract between two people,” said John Souza, Hartford County Landlord and president of the Coalition of Property Owners, an organization dedicated to helping landlords across the state.

Lawmakers and landlords both worry that excess legislation for tenant protections will create a climate that is untenable for landlords to keep renting.

Jessica Doll, executive director of the Connecticut Apartment Association, said the stress should be on growing housing and not targeting landlords. Others also said that a debate around landlords’ agency over properties they own was not useful to addressing the needs of vulnerable tenants in the state.

“Our goal is never to have vacancies, it is always to have long term tenants,” she said.

Negotiating Positions

Renters — particularly those who are lower-income — say they feel they’re at a relative disadvantage when they need to work out issues with their landlords.

Advocacy groups, including the Connecticut Tenants Union, New Reach, Make The Road and All In, say protections are needed so people have the ability to raise concerns about poor conditions — such as doors that don’t lock, lack of heat or sewage issues — without feeling they’re risking eviction or a non-renewal of their lease.

Julian Eileen, long time renter at the Manor House Apartment Complex in Bloomfield and one of the leaders of the Manor House Tenant’s Union, said certain landlords try to “blame the victim.”

When landlords initiate eviction proceedings, many lower-income tenants can’t afford legal representation — which also puts them at a disadvantage, advocates say. 

“The vast, vast majority of tenants still go through the eviction process unrepresented,” said Luke Melanokos-Harrison, vice president of the Connecticut Tenants’ Union. Trying to represent one’s self, while also trying to find housing, is particularly challenging, he said.

Jay Osborne, a social worker and advocate, said his landlord took him to court three times for eviction. Osborne has a disability, and is protected under the current regulations from no-fault eviction. Still, he lost all three cases in court.

Following an ongoing legal battle, Osborne founded the Windham Mills Connecticut Tenant’s Union to protect tenants in his building who were subject to ‘lapse of time’ evictions, with leases not being renewed.

“There is a big problem in the state,” he said. “There are over a million renters in the state and most of them don’t know their rights.”

In 2020, COVID shifted landlord-tenant dynamics temporarily, with moratoriums on evictions and emergency rent assistance programs. But when those came to an end, the number of people who could no longer afford to rent rose, leading to more non-payment evictions and contributing to the rise in homelessness.

Disproportionate Impacts

Amid the current strains in Connecticut’s housing market, the state’s most vulnerable communities are losing their homes.

Antoinette Humes moved out of her housing in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood last August in order to avoid eviction proceedings after she was unable to make rent. She has been staying in a shelter and living apart from her 16-year-old son so he can continue to go to school in their former neighborhood.

“Everyone has the same story,” Humes said. “People here are working and not getting treated right by their landlords.”

Humes, a single parent, said she doesn’t feel that members of the legislature see her plight clearly — if they did, they’d do something, she said. “I have a pressure that sits with me all day long. I don’t think they voice our pain enough,” she said.

Minorities and women in urban areas have been the biggest casualties of this strain, making up the majority of homelessness cases. According to the point-in-time count, 66% of the state’s unhoused population were minorities — twice as many as those from Caucasian backgrounds, according to the point-in-time census.

A recent survey of 1,400 Black women in the Detroit area found that evictions commonly lead to poor health outcomes for individuals and their communities. The researchers found that more than a third of individuals who experienced an illegal eviction reported worse health. And those who experienced eviction before age 18 — whether court-ordered or illegal — faced higher rates of poor physical and mental health.

Amy Eppler-Epstein, a housing attorney in Connecticut, has seen first-hand that Black women experience homelessness more than any other group in the state. “You can see certain ZIP codes where evictions are particularly concentrated,” she said.

Sarah Fox, head of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, a nonprofit dedicated to homelessness prevention, said people of color are more likely to be renters, and are thus at a higher risk of homelessness.

Minorities and low-income families in urban areas including New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford, face the highest rates of evictions that lead to homelessness, advocates said. In these areas, evictions are particularly common among single mothers, like Humes, who struggle to afford rent whilst holding stable jobs and looking after children.

Advocates say they’ll be back again next year to push the General Assembly to address what they see as systemic issues driving up homelessness among the state’s most vulnerable communities.

“Until legislation is put in place, there is only so much we can do,” Osborne said.

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