After All Things

Differing Democrats

Top Democrats in Connecticut differ on whether President Biden should run for a second term. Sewer infrastructure will be on the ballot in Suffolk this year. Long Island tourism soars post-pandemic. Dan Hurley agrees to a six-year contract with UConn And how effective are Connecticut fair rent commissions?

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 08 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

"You're listening to, after all things, WSHU's daily news and culture update from the Long Island Sound region. Connecticut Democrats differ on whether Biden should run for another term as president. Sewer infrastructure will be on the ballot this year in Suffolk County. Dan Hurley agrees to a new six-year contract with Yukon, and how effective are Connecticut Fair Rent Commissions. Those stories and more are ahead. I'm Sabrina Garone." Connecticut's congressional delegation are all Democrats, but some differ on whether President Joe Biden should bow out of the presidential race. WSHU's Ebong Udama has more. Connecticut Senior U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal says he's reassured by letter Biden sent to Democratic lawmakers on Monday, saying that he's firmly committed to staying in the race. "As a Democratic candidate, he has my support, and I would say most of my colleagues at this point, none has expressed opposition to President Biden in the Senate." Connecticut's junior U.S. Senator Chris Murphy has said Biden needs to go out unscripted to American voters this week, and if you can't do that, the president has a decision to make about what's best for the country. And the Associated Press reports that Connecticut Congressman Jim Hines is one of several top House Democrats calling for Biden to step aside and let someone else lead the party's ticket, Ebong Udama, WSHU's. South County voters will get to choose this November about whether to fund a water quality improvement plan through a sales tax hike. WSHU's Desiree Diorio has more. The ballot referendum will ask voters to approve a sales tax increase to pay for long-term clean water projects, like replacing septic tanks with sewer systems. Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine urged residents to vote yes after he signed legislation on Monday, putting the measure on the ballot. "This is now in the hands of the people of Suffolk County. Our future is in their hands as it should be. We're going to make an investment. I expect in the next few years that we are going to be doing somewhere upwards to a half a billion dollars of sewers over the next few years." If approved by voters, sales tax will increase one-eighth of one percent, a little over one penny per dollar. It says the tax is necessary to reduce nitrogen pollution caused by aging infrastructure. Desiree Diorio, WSHU News. The consolidated college system for Connecticut's commuter schools has finished its first year. Connecticut State Community College was able to close a $33 million budget deficit. WSHU's Molly Ingram has more. Connecticut State Community College was a plan that had been talked about for more than six years before it was officially announced. The 12 campuses were combined to share resources amid declining enrollment and increasing costs. The merger meant layoffs in shorter hours for staff. CT State President John Maducco told Hearst Connecticut media that they were also able to save money by not filling vacant positions. Maducco says combining the campuses has made it easier for students who need to go to another location for class. Now, students are only required to fill out the free application for federal student aid known as FAFSA one time. Molly Ingram, WSHU News. Connecticut towns with more than 25,000 residents have been instructed to implement fair rent commissions, but are they really doing their job? Or on that as a head, first a message from our supporter. Local support comes from Hartford HealthCare, the only health system in the Northeast, with all its hospitals receiving A grades for safety from the LeapFrog group, the nation's leading independent safety watchdog group, HartfordHealthCare.org. After considering a job with the Los Angeles Lakers, Yukon men's basketball coach Dan Hurley is staying put. The reigning two-time national champion has agreed to a new six-year deal to remain with the Huskies. Yukon says it's a $50 million contract that includes additional performance-based incentives. Hurley is heading into his seventh season at Yukon and has led the Huskies to a 14-in-4 record in six NCAA tournament appearances. According to a report from the New York state comptroller Long Island's tourism industry, hit a more than $6 billion high in 2022. Some generated jobs on the island accounted for more than 5% of all jobs, and generated $3.5 billion in income that year. Officials attribute the rebound to the region's large entertainment venues and popular state parks. A new boat haul is under construction at the Mystic Seaport Museum. It's converting 32,000 square feet of its historic Rossi Mill to display around 200 boats from the last two centuries. Peter Ruse is curating the $15 million dollar exhibit. It is the largest collection of small watercraft anywhere in the country, and they've never really been on view, and yet our stories that we tell here are so bound up in all of these boats will be amazing to have them all on view, and for the public to get to see them for the first time. Watercraft will range from an indigenous dugout canoe to modern vessels used by US presidents. The new Wells Boat Hall is scheduled to open next fall. Fair rent commissions were created to help residents who feel their rent has been increased unreasonably, or are struggling with sub-standard apartment conditions. A family in Bloomfield says theirs isn't doing what it should be, and it could point to an enforcement issue. U.S. HU's Ebon Oudama spoke with the Connecticut Mirrors, Ginny Monk, who's done in-depth reporting on this issue. It's part of the collaborative podcast, Long Story Short. Let's start by asking what is a Fair Rent Commission, and why has the legislature decided that towns with 25,000 or more should have them? The Fair Rent Commission is a town body made up of volunteers, typically appointed by a mayor or first selectman who can hear fair rent complaints. If your rent goes up and you don't think it's fair, you can take that to the Fair Rent Commission. They have the power to investigate that complaint to whole hearings. They have subpoena powers. They can really dig into the market, the reason for the increase, and they can look at things like your housing conditions to say, "Is the apartment worth this? Is the apartment safe? Can you increase rent if you aren't making repairs?" So these are all questions they can ask and then they can issue an order that the landlord and tenant both need to comply with, and the legislature expanded these in 2022, in part because of reports of rising rents. This is something we've continued to hear since the early days of the pandemic, rents are rising, people can't keep up. So now let's talk about what you found in the Wedgewood housing complex in Bloomfield. So at the Wedgewood housing complex in Bloomfield, these tenants, they formed a tenant union in 2022, and since then they've been going through several avenues, including complaining to the health department, complaining to the building department, to the town, and opening fair rent commission cases to try to get repairs done at their apartment. And there have been some questions about rent increases as well, but really central to their issue are the repairs and the conditions of their apartment. Your investigation finds that the problem might be the enforcement, which often includes repairs and the lowering of rent. What exactly did you find? Yeah, so this investigation particularly followed the case of an apartment complex in Bloomfield, Connecticut, where residents have been complaining to town officials, to the Fair Rent Commission, to their landlord for about two years, and still are having problems with the conditions of their apartment. So sort of the question that we asked in this reporting process was are these commissions working? If not, why not? So what did you find? They took their complaints to the commission, and the complaints include in mold, peeling paint, and rent increases. Now they took these complaints to the commission, and what did the commission do with their complaints? So the commission ordered a few fixes, some of which were done, and for a period of time waived the rent until certain repairs were completed. The problem is that some of the issues that they complained about at the beginning that were part of Fair Rent Commission cases are ongoing, so residents are still reporting problems with mold, residents still can't use the pool, which is part of their lease, part of what they're paying for. So some things like that are continuing, and they're just not sure where to turn anymore. Now why is it enforcement an issue? The commission had rulings. Why is the follow through not there? Yeah, so it's sort of a complicated question. Part of it goes back to that a lot of these commissions across the state are fairly new, so it's after the 2022 law passed, it took some time for them to get set up for them to get members in place, and for them to start hearing cases. And these Fair Rent Commission members are volunteers, so they have learning to do about what a Fair Rent Commission is, what their powers are, and there have been increasing numbers of questions about, so what are we supposed to do, particularly in some of these more complicated cases that deal with apartment conditions if the landlord isn't complying with our orders? But some of those conditions violate the city ordinances, and can't the city enforce those ordinances? So the city has some powers to issue fines. It's not clear from my reporting why they haven't. The city wouldn't make certain officials available for interviews, but we know that many towns across Connecticut have some of these remedies in the form of fines, which actually the state legislature last year increased the allowable amount for fines because of this problem, because of repeat offenders who break housing code. Okay, what about the health department? Could the health department not do something about the, because some of these are health issues? Right, so the health department has been out to these apartments many, many times, has done investigations issued findings, but residents say they're just not seeing the follow through that the health department will say, for example, the window needs fixed while the window's not fixed, and no one is making the landlord do it. Now, what about elected officials? What did you talk to them? What can they do? So elected officials, there were a couple of city councilors out at the apartment complex on Friday, who say they're looking into the issue, trying to put some pressure on the movies town departments to go back out there to visit with residents again to see what's going on. One of them works in construction and had some concerns about mold, about some of the works that had been done at the apartments, and he actually repaired a window while he was out there. Wow. So in the meantime, what does tenants do? This law was passed with a lot of fanfare in 2022, and it was seen as the remedy to increase rents with fewer services being provided by landlords, and where we are today. Yeah, so I want to be clear, there are many cases where fair rent commissions have been helpful to tenants, particularly with rent increases, but sort of moving forward for the tenants in Bloomfield, particularly, they're just continuing to talk to city councilors. They've reached out to some state representatives. They're really trying everything they can to get these repairs done because they don't feel safe in their housing. So enforcement is the key. Right. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Jenny. Thank you. For listening to After All Things, supported by Hartford HealthCare for all the latest news from our region, listen on the radio, stream online at WSHU.org, or download the WSHU app, which is also where you can find more great podcasts from WSHU like Long Story Short, which we just heard a bit from there, Higher Ground, Sunday Baroque, Conversations, Off the Path, and more. They're also available wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much to Molly Ingram for filling in for me last week. Have a great rest of your day. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye. a lot. Bye. a lot. a lot. (gentle music) [ Silence ]