Editor’s note: We are now offering an audio version of our Sunday features. To access, click on the player above.

Nearly 1 in 5 Connecticut lawmakers are also landlords, far outweighing the number of renters in the General Assembly, according to an analysis by The Connecticut Mirror of the most recent financial disclosure reports.

While the majority of the 187 members of the state’s Legislature are property owners, the CT Mirror’s review shows that 35, or 18.7% of lawmakers, are also landlords. In the United States, closer to 7% of the population are landlords.

There are only 19 legislators who reported not owning any property, meaning they most likely rent. About a third of Connecticut residents are tenants.

The most recently available forms reflect last year’s legislature, although there are only 22 freshman lawmakers this session. Only four of those who left were landlords, and two were renters. It’s not clear which of the freshmen lawmakers are landlords because their financial disclosure reports won’t be available until May. 

Reps. Joe Polletta, Tony Scott, and Rob Sampson listen to testimony during a Housing Committee meeting. All three men are landlords. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

The landlord-tenant relationship has been one of the chief concerns of the Housing Committee for the past several legislative sessions. In 2023, adjustments that expanded renter protections accounted for most of the Democrats’ signature housing bill.

The issues have also drawn some of the fiercest debate and most-attended public hearings of the past three legislative sessions, with meetings lasting into early mornings. 

While lawmakers hold mixed opinions about whether and to what degree a legislator’s status as a landlord affects public policy, lawmakers from both parties have cited their experiences as landlords during discussion on bills that would alter the landlord-tenant relationship. 

Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, a landlord and Housing Committee ranking member, said he considers his experience an asset.

“I’ve got significant amount of experience in this,” Sampson said. “My interest is completely on the side of making good public policy. I’m not picking a winner or loser in this situation. I want all sides to prevail, and that, in my view, is less government intervention.”

Sampson has historically opposed bills that are supported by tenant union members and tenants rights advocates, such as bills to reform eviction law and cap annual rent increases. 

Meanwhile, some lawmakers said their colleagues who are landlords are prioritizing personal income over Connecticut residents.

“I was taken back. I just didn’t think there would be so many landlords voting on issues, voting to put profits over people,” said Housing Committee co-chair Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London. Marx said she asked to be put on the committee because, in her experience as a home health care worker, she’s seen many people living in bad conditions.

“When I voted on housing issues, it’s through their lens. Those are the people that I’m thinking of,” she said, adding that she doesn’t believe many of her colleagues are thinking of renters.

Lawmakers rarely mention their experiences as renters during public debate on housing bills, according to longtime members of the Housing Committee and advocates.

Housing Committee co-chair Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, claps during Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget address on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Hartford. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

Over the past couple of years, lawmakers have considered bills that would cap annual rent increases and another that would largely end no-fault evictions, which haven’t passed.

The evictions bill is back this session and passed the Housing Committee last month. It would end evictions that typically occur at the end of a lease for apartments with five or more units, if the renter has lived at the property for at least a year.

There is disagreement about whether this bill — and its amendments — is an example of pro-tenant or pro-landlord sentiment on the committee.

Committee ranking member Rep. Tony Scott, R-Monroe, pointed to the bill as a piece of pro-tenant legislation that has gotten attention over measures he thinks would be beneficial to landlords.

Marx said the fact that the bill also includes a caveat requiring a tenant to live at a property for a year before the protections kick in is an example of legislation that’s been watered down by landlords in the legislature.

Other lawmakers said the portions of the state’s tax code that benefit homeowners and a bill that would make it easier for police to quickly remove people from rental properties if they don’t have a lease are other examples of policies that prioritize property owners over renters. 

“If your financial interest depends on squeezing more rent out of the citizens of our state, then you’re not voting the way I think you should be voting,” Marx said. “Housing is a right. Everybody deserves stable housing, and everybody deserves a home.”

Financial disclosure forms

Lawmakers who own rental properties span across parties and chambers. Fourteen are Republicans, and 21 are Democrats. Nine are in the Senate, and 26 are in the House.

About 40% reported owning more than one property, including vacation homes and timeshares.

CT Mirror’s analysis classifies lawmakers who reported owning multiple properties and collecting rental income as landlords. CT Mirror also included lawmakers who report rental income, but their properties were listed as rentals on sites such as Zillow, and one who is a property manager.

Lawmakers who are involved in the real estate business or those who serve as attorneys for landlords are not classified as landlords in the CT Mirror analysis.

Lawmakers also varied widely in how thoroughly they filled out their financial disclosure forms. Some listed companies that own property but didn’t include the property on their forms, while others listed out each property and the income from that property individually. This could mean that there are rental properties that went unlisted on financial disclosure forms, in which case the CT Mirror’s analysis is an undercount.

Several lawmakers listed multiple properties in Connecticut but didn’t list rental income.

Luke Melonakos-Harrison, an organizer at CT Fair Housing, speaks at a press conference on housing policy at the Legislative Office Building on February 3, 2025. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

Advocates say the disproportionate number of landlords often means that tenants’ experiences don’t hold as much weight in public debate.

“There are so many conversations I’ve had with legislators where the first frame of reference is, ‘What I’m hearing from landlords,’ or, ‘My friend is a landlord,’ or ‘Myself as a landlord.’ Just anecdotally, that discourse is so often defaulting to a landlord perspective,” said Luke Melonakos-Harrison, vice president of the Connecticut Tenants Union.

State ethics rules require that lawmakers abstain from voting only if the legislation would disproportionately affect their business, compared to others in the industry. But advocates say public policy, particularly in the area of rental properties, is still shaped by the professional and financial goals of members of the General Assembly.

Advocacy groups that represent landlords and several legislators said they don’t think the impact is so obvious. They say state policy is usually more pro-tenant and that housing providers are best equipped as experts to craft policy.

The majority of landlords were also homeowners. For many legislators, it’s been years since they were last renters, and they might not know what it’s like to be a renter in today’s economy, advocates said.

“Much of the work that tenants have to do participating in the process is just providing a basic education of what it’s like to be a tenant,” Melonakos-Harrison said.

Housing Committee co-chair Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, speaks to the press at a press conference on housing policy at the Legislative Office Building on February 3, 2025. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

Shaped by personal experience

Connecticut has a part-time legislature, meaning the elected officials are typically either retired or hold other jobs because lawmakers only meet for part of the year. Several said they can’t help but be shaped by their experiences, and those experiences help color policy debate.

“I would love to see those folks take a little bit more of a step back and understand it from a holistic perspective,” said Housing Committee co-chair Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport. Felipe is one of few renters in the legislature. “But when you have personal experience, that personal experience is going to weigh in, and I think it might have overweighed itself in certain situations, but it’s kind of the name of the game.”

Felipe added that a lawmaker’s salary at a base of $40,000 annually makes it hard for people who work hourly jobs or don’t have passive income to run for office. He added that he hopes lawmakers understand that access to passive income isn’t the typical experience for Connecticut residents.

“You cannot support a family, or let alone yourself, on a legislator’s salary without some other income, whether it’s pension, retirement benefits, or a second job,” he said. “You have to figure out a way to pay the bills.”

Scott said he’d talked to many landlords in the legislature who have said they think the legislation is “going against them.”

Rep. Geoff Luxenberg, D-Manchester, left, owns nearly 60 properties. Luxenberg is also a former chair of the Housing Committee. Credit: Yehyun Kim / CT Mirror

Former Housing Committee co-chair Rep. Geoff Luxenberg, D-Manchester, said separating from personal experience often comes down to research. Lawmakers are barraged with sometimes hundreds of bills to consider and often don’t have time to research all the topics, he said.

That means they often lean on their own experiences, he said.

“When you’re lacking expertise in a certain area, as an elected official, I think there’s a tendency to rely on your values, your experiences, your life experiences, to shape how you might view a particular issue,” he said. “And that’s probably where it seeps in the most.” 

Luxenberg reported owning close to 60 properties — the most in the legislature — and draws rental income from most of them. He said his policy views have been shaped by the number of people who come to him desperate for housing.

“It’s like a harrowing front row seat to the most painful part of the housing crisis,” he said.

He added that it can go the other way — that lawmakers shape policy without an understanding of what it’s like to be a landlord. But he thinks it more frequently disadvantages tenants.

“It has been my experience, frequently, that policies that specifically help renters economically face a hurdle in the legislature, and I suspect part of that hurdle is a disconnect between the lived experience of legislators and the lived experience of extremely large number of people in Connecticut who are struggling to pay their rent,” he said.

Advertisement