NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Tuesday morning, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, (D-CT) toured a new project aiming to provide free housing for teachers in New Haven.
He believes the state has two crises–the rising costs of housing and a lack of educators.
“If we can specifically discount the cost of housing for teachers and for childcare workers, it helps everybody,” Murphy said.
That’s exactly what the Friends Center for Children in New Haven is hoping to do with their new Teacher Housing Initiative.
“There’s such a dire need for housing,” said the Friends Center’s executive director, Allyx Schiavone. “Housing costs in CT have gone through the roof, and New Haven especially.”
Shiavone and her team decided to eliminate that cost with the help of the Yale School of Architecture.
“We started out with interviews and site visits, we’d walk around and look at the rocks, look at the trees,” said Peter Martinka, one of 60 students designing and building the two-family house.
The home is the first of four, specially designed for Friends Center educators and their families.
“They learn design, they learn construction, they learn how to listen to clients and give them what the clients need,” Deborah Berke, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, said.
Berke said this learning opportunity is crucial for students, but it’s about more than just technical skills.
“To see people moved into it, and to come back next year and see this house lived in, is just going to be amazing,” Martinka said.
Murphy agrees, hoping to bring the concept across the state.
“I just think there’s no doubt that we need to be putting more money into helping people afford housing,” he said Tuesday.
He thinks that money should be coming from the national level.
“The state can do part of this, private philanthropy can do part of it, but the federal government used to spend a lot more money trying to help people afford housing and we should do more of it today,” Murphy added.
The first house is expected to be completed, with tenants moving in, by the end of fall this year.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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