History
The Southeastern Connecticut Housing Alliance (SECHA) has its genesis in a Blue Ribbon Panel for Housing that rose out of the 2002 study commissioned by the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments and others that showed a region in crisis with respect to housing. The study was conducted to evaluate housing needs in Southeastern Connecticut. Housing a Region in Transition: An Analysis of Housing Needs in Southeastern Connecticut, 2000-2005 demonstrated a Region need for between 4,300 and 5,100 new housing units between 2000 and 2005. A 2004 update of the Study predicted a need for as many as 8,000 new units by 2010 in spite of a 60% increase in housing permits since 2000.
As the successor to the Blue Ribbon Housing Initiatives Panel, SECHA established itself in 2007, as a Connecticut, non-stock non-profit corporation in order to provide a regional approach to help deal with the shortage of affordable housing. Our role is to bring together diverse housing constituencies to address imbalances that have caused and that result from the housing shortage. SECHA relies upon the business, government and non-profit sectors as supportive partners in its mission and direction. SECHA seeks to work closely with municipalities, employers, government agencies, developers and financial institutions.
Crucial to our ability to sustain a full-time staff person has been the aggregation of private and public sector financial support. In addition to grant funding provided by the Dime Bank, Liberty Bank, Pfizer, Mohegan Sun, and CHFA, SECHA has received State funding as a result of a recommendation by the Governor’s Commission on Economic Diversification of Southeastern CT. More recently, SECHA was awarded a HUD Neighborhood Initiative grant, funded by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010. Reflecting broad support in the region among municipal leaders, the Southeastern Council of Governments voted in April 2007 to provide administrative oversight for the full-time position and to cover the costs of employee benefits. A Memorandum of Agreement between SCCOG and SECHA was executed on April 25, 2007 to formalize this relationship. As an initial sponsor of the 2002 Housing Study, SCCOG has long been a leader on housing issues, but there is now a direct and financial relationship between SECHA and the SCCOG, which reflects the importance with which the region's municipal leaders regard the issue of affordable housing.
