According to the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, Connecticut currently lacks 169,400 units of affordable housing.  Initiated by the Yale Urban Design Workshop in response to the acute housing affordability crisis across the state, Housing Connecticut brings faculty and professional students in Architecture, Law and Management together to collaborate with local non-profit affordable housing developers, and the Connecticut Department of Housing, to produce concrete, actionable, affordable housing proposals.   

Taught by faculty Andrei Harwell (who coordinates the clinic) and Alan Plattus (architecture), Anika Singh Lemar (law), and Kate Cooney (management), the course bridges academia, practice and impact on our local community.  Beginning with an intensive “boot-camp” style introduction to affordable-housing design and development, student-led teams then work directly with their community-based partners to prepare new strategic models, identify sites, and create detailed design and development proposals, under the supervision of the faculty.  This unique model prepares students to take on meaningful roles in addressing the national housing affordability crisis in their careers, while also contributing in their local adopted community here in Connecticut.    

Since 2022, eight student teams collaborated with developers on projects in New Haven, Middletown, and Wallingford, with another 3 currently in progress.  With the support of the CT Department of Housing, one project from 2022 clinic—8 units along with improvements to surrounding properties—has quickly advanced and will break ground on Hazel Street in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood in December, 2024.   

Clinic faculty were recognized this year with the 2024 Housing Design Education Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architects. The course was supported by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Fund for the Integration of Theory and Practice.