Letters to the Editor - July 30, 2026

A crisis in affordable housing

In 1968 the world population was 3.5 billion, today it is over 8.3 billion. No wonder affordable housing is a world-wide problem. But in Washington the administration cut 13% of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Purchasing a house is the most important investment people can make, and it helps them start accumulating wealth. A homeowner becomes a part of a community and meets his neighbors. As the owner pays property tax, he becomes aware of the town government, schools, fire and ambulance service. Home ownership is an important part of the American Dream, and it is important for our towns and suburbs.

Young people used to be able to buy their first home in their twenties, now the average age of first-time buyers is thirty-eight. The medium price of a family home in the US is $440 000.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was passed as bipartisan legislation despite the President refusing to sign it. Among its benefits is to stop institutional investors from purchasing small family homes and reselling them at a higher price. The Act gives renters credit for purchasing a home. It encourages building factory-built modular homes to reduce prices and it creates a pilot program to make available small mortgage grants to pay for down payments and closing costs. It is time for the young people working at Walmart and other low-entry jobs to afford to buy a home too.

The administration with the legislature in Connecticut is doing its part, they built twenty-one thousand new units of housing for rentals and built ten thousand new starter homes. We need affordable housing to convince young people to stay in Connecticut. There are just not enough houses available for the demand.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition says there is no state in the country with adequate affordable rental housing.

Lizbeth Piel

Sharon

This year, how you vote matters

Starting with August’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, Connecticut’s voters will have an option they’ve never had before: to cast a mail (aka “absentee”) ballot with no excuse required. Here’s why all voters should cast a mail ballot.

Mail voting is under attack by those who want to make voting harder. Donald Trump and his allies keep insisting it can’t be trusted, even though it has been used safely and securely for decades in thousands of elections with tens of millions of ballots cast, in red and blue states alike. Mail voting is convenient and makes voting more accessible for everyone — especially people juggling work and family responsibilities, caregivers, students, older voters, younger voters, and people with disabilities. Choosing to vote by mail is a way of pushing back against Trump’s fearmongering and standing up for voting rights.

There’s a practical reason, too. Connecticut only recently gained no-excuse absentee voting, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2024 and the legislature followed up this year with the law needed to implement it. But lawmakers kept the existing schedule of in-person early voting intact — 14 days before general elections and 7 days before primaries — meaning every town, large or small, must still fully staff polling operations for that entire stretch, even on days when barely anyone shows up.

That made sense back when early voting was the only alternative to voting in person on Election Day itself. It makes little sense now. A mail ballot is, in effect, early voting, but without requiring a trip to a polling place, and it opens up a longer window: 31 days before a general election and 21 days before a primary.

It is also considerably cheaper for municipalities to administer than staffing an early-voting site. That’s why town clerks and voter registrars across the state, Republicans and Democrats alike, have pushed for the legislature to scale back early voting days. Skeptics of that idea argue we don’t yet have enough experience with the new absentee system to justify the change. The best way to prove them wrong is for voters to actually use it. Every mail ballot cast this year makes the case that Connecticut doesn’t need to keep running expensive early-voting operations alongside a mail option that does the job better.

And remember: despite the name, a “mail ballot” doesn’t have to go through the mail at all. You can drop it off in person at your town clerk’s office, use the secure drop box outside your town hall, or send it by U.S. mail — whichever is easiest. To get an application, reach out to your town clerk or visit the Secretary of the State’s online portal.

Voting is always important. But this year, how you vote matters, too.

Lee Greenhouse

Salisbury