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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Proof of High Rents in Connecticut

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Thursday, May 5, 2011   

STAMFORD, Conn. - Connecticut is the sixth most expensive state for rental housing, according to a new report.

Betsy Crum, executive director of the Connecticut Housing Coalition, says the "Out of Reach" report shows that the hourly wage a family must earn for a two-bedroom apartment that costs no more than 30 percent of their income is $23.37 - or just under $49,000 annually.

"Around the state of Connecticut they would have to have 2.8 full-time minimum-wage jobs in order to afford that two-bedroom apartment."

Rental costs vary throughout the state, with Stamford having the second-highest rates in the country, while Waterbury is Connecticut's most affordable rental market.

Two basic economic facts are driving some families into homelessness, Crum says.

"People's wages - median wages - have gone down. I don't think that's a surprise to anyone, but in this recession we haven't really seen a drop in the rental housing rates."

On a hopeful note, Crum says the just-approved state budget includes $80 million in each of the next two years for affordable housing and supportive housing, with case management and employment services.

"I just have to commend the governor and the legislative leaders to understand how important investing in affordable housing is in our state, especially at this time."

A partner organization, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, is holding its ninth annual training institute today and Friday, focusing on the state's homeless crisis response system.

The report is online at nlihc.org.


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