A CT group was born at a kitchen table 60+ years ago. Last year it created jobs and helped hundreds find homes

Pictured above: As Capital for Change celebrates its 10th anniversary, keynote speaker State Representative Matt Ritter reflected on his grandparents' role in helping establish one of the three organizations that later merged to create Capital for Change, advancing the mission of expanding access to homeownership and addressing housing inequities across Connecticut.

Great ideas are often born around the kitchen table.

And one of them helped lead to the formation of Capital for Change, a statewide community development financial institution that provides low cost capital to businesses, creators of low-income an affordable housing, non-profits and for home ownership.

The statewide agency is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

But some of its roots go back to 1964 when George and Pat Ritter, grandparents of Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter, helped establish an organization to address discriminatory housing practices and expand homeownership opportunities.

The Ritters helped establish Robert Littleton, Inc. in response to discriminatory housing practices that prevented Black families from purchasing homes in many suburban communities.

The organization provided down-payment loans and homeownership counseling to help Black families purchase homes in communities where discriminatory practices had limited their opportunities.

The 1930s brought a form of housing discrimination: redlining. In hundreds of cities across the nation, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation assessed the ostensible “security” of various neighborhoods, offering color-coded recommendations on which areas were safe for banks to lend in. The most “desirable” neighborhoods were shaded green, while less-appealing areas were labeled blue, yellow or, worst of all, red, the Courant has reported.

Manuals from the Federal Housing Administration instructed appraisers to beware in their assessments of “inharmonious racial or nationality groups.”

In a glaring example, in 1973, a Hartford-based civil rights group called Education/Instrucción trained volunteers to pose as homebuyers and pretend to seek homes in the Hartford area, while following a common script. Again and again, Black and Latino volunteers were pointed toward homes in Hartford and Bloomfield, while white volunteers were directed toward Avon and West Hartford, the Courant has reported.

Researchers have found that In one of the poorest neighborhoods in Connecticut, in Hartford, they have found evidence of the persistent harms of redlining, a discriminatory 20th century practice of denying mortgage loans to ethnic and racial minorities. The evidence is in its soil — high levels of lead, which a study from the University of Vermont found in certain Hartford neighborhoods.

During Robert Littleton, Inc.’s first year, $153,400 was used to purchase homes or provide second mortgages for 24 Black families. By the end of 1966, more than 70 families had received loans totaling more than $400,000.

In 1967, Robert Littleton, Inc. became the Connecticut Housing Investment Fund and expanded statewide.

That organization is one of three who merged 10 years ago to create Capital for Change. The other two were Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund and Community Capital Fund.

Over the decades Connecticut Housing Investment Fund grew to include homeownership counseling, rehabilitation lending, affordable housing, energy conservation and community development.

Matt Ritter is proud of that and was the keynote speaker at a recent 10th anniversary dinner for Capital for Change at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford.

Pictured above: Keynote speaker State Representative Matt Ritter and Capital for Change President and CEO Diane Smith. In recognition of his family’s enduring impact on housing equity and community development in Connecticut, Ritter was presented with a Resolution of Appreciation by Smith.

“In politics we always talk about ‘kitchen-table’ solutions — a practical, everyday policy that will directly impact the finances, stability, and daily lives of families,” Ritter said in a statement. “CHIF was literally founded around a kitchen-table – my grandparents’ kitchen-table. The goal has always been simple: to increase access to homeownership and integrate segregated neighborhoods.”

He went on to say, “The roadmap has not always been easy, with challenges like exclusionary zoning, economic headwinds, and skyrocketing real estate prices popping up like roadblocks. But CHIF, in all its forms over the past 60 years, has always navigated these roadblocks and persevered to increase access to homeownership in cities and towns across Connecticut.”

Since that start, redlining or the practice of withholding mortgages and other financial resources from a neighborhood based on race or ethnicity, has been outlawed. The practice became illegal as part of The Civil Rights Act’s fair housing component.

But economic inequality persists across the board.

Today Capital for Change is helping, in part to give people of lower income choices of where they want to live, including typically upscale Litchfield County where affordable housing is being built, said Diane Smith, president and CEO of Capital for Change. That includes in swanky Washington, Conn.

“Ten years is an important milestone, but this anniversary is really about the people and communities behind the work,” Smith said. “Capital can do much more than finance a project. It can help a family build stability through homeownership, preserve affordable housing, help an entrepreneur grow a business and give a community organization the resources it needs to serve its neighbors.”

Smith said a report entitled Housing in Connecticut states: “Connecticut is estimated to be short over 93,000 rental homes that are affordable and available to extremely low income (ELI) renters.”

The report also states that there is an estimated need of 119,000 to 380,000 homes to be constructed to counter historic underproduction.

Smith said in its most recent fiscal year, Capital for Change reported 376 housing units created; 935 housing beneficiaries; 32 jobs created; 623 beds created. They are located in Wallingford.

Smith said the organization is funded federally and through grants, by private donations and can borrow money from banks at a lower interest rate than the public.

Capital for Change now serves people, nonprofits, small businesses and public institutions throughout the state. That includes creating and preserving affordable housing, expanding housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents, investing in job- and wealth-creating small businesses, supporting community-centered nonprofits and financing energy-efficiency improvements, according to the agency.

"For 10 years as Capital for Change — and for decades through the organizations that came before us — we have learned that meaningful community development requires more than money,” Smith said. “It requires relationships, trust, creativity and partners willing to work together. There is still much more to do. Our next decade is about building on that foundation and finding new ways to expand opportunity, strengthen communities and ensure that capital reaches the people and places where it can have the greatest impact.”