Broad racial disparities persist in Greater Hartford and beyond: housing, food, transportation, more

[Excerpt from news article by Sean Krofssik, June 11, 2026]

A new regional equity profile report shows persistent racial and geographic disparities in the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation’s 29-town service area.

The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation service area 2026 Equity Report is compiled by New Haven-based DataHaven. It was completed last month and shows persistent inequities and challenges related to housing affordability, food access, transportation, income and education.

The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation area includes more than 750,000 people in 29 towns. People of color make up 41 percent of the foundation’s area compared to 37 percent statewide, according to the report.

“We hired them [DataHaven] to do this kind of deep dive into the 29 towns that we serve where possible,” said Chris Senecal, Greater Hartford Gives Foundation’s senior public policy and media relations officer said. “These are individual people who take the time to answer quite a few questions, and it really gives you a kind of a snapshot of where people are at now.”

“I’m optimistic that providing these reports are a really an important part of the process to help our region and people who live here,” he said.

The report shows racial disparities that include lower median incomes for Black and Latino households.

“This report from DataHaven provides a concise overview of resident wellbeing, while still reflecting a wide range of indicators that matter for our neighbors and communities,” said Kate Szczerbacki, the Greater Hartford Gives director of learning, evaluation and capacity building.

“It brings together publicly available data alongside insights from the DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey, which captures residents’ lived experiences through in-depth phone interviews. Those perspectives are not available anywhere else, and they enhance our understanding of community strengths and where more attention is needed. This report is an important resource for grounding our decisions in the experience of the people who live in Greater Hartford.”

Basic needs also are a part of the report. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program provides food assistance to those in very-low-income households which are those earning less than 130 percent of the poverty guideline.

The 2026 Equity Report shows that the need for SNAP use is higher among Black and Latino households, and households in Hartford.

Usage of SNAP statewide and in the foundation area is at 12%; for Black households it stands at 25%; for Latino households at 35%; and for white households at 5%. For Hartford residents the rate is 37%.

“If people lose access to SNAP, that’s going to be a real challenge,” Senecal said. “We’re fortunate to live in a state where our state government is financially in a better position than most states in the Rainy-Day Fund and in policy on how we answer needs in the community.”

“We heard last week the governor announced they were going to hand out $300 grocery cards for (about 25,000) folks losing their access to SNAP. It’s extremely helpful in the short term but in the long term, the government will need to look at long-term remedies to make people more stable,” Senecal said. “It’s really the onus is on these agencies to develop a plan to respond to this and develop the infrastructure necessary to respond to the increased demands and needs of folks who are in danger of losing access to the federal services and federal support.”

Senecal said this data is invaluable in those discussions.

As far as access to a personal vehicle for reliable transportation, 29% of households in Hartford have no vehicle, compared to 9% statewide, the report says. Also, statewide 19 percent of Black households lack access to a vehicle. The number is 16% for Latino households and 6% for white households.

As far as housing, the report said that home values in the state have increased 32% from December 2019 to December 2025.

Thirty-five percent of Latino households, 44% of Black households and 77% of white households own their own homes in the Greater Hartford Gives service area.

Twenty-six percent of all residents in Hartford own their home. In the Capitol Region Council of Governments service area, which represents 38 Metro Hartford municipalities, 35 percent of adults ages 18 to 34 own their homes, including 46 percent of white households, 21 percent of Black households and 21 percent of Latino households, the report says.

As far as housing cost burdens, 53% of Hartford residents are housing cost-burdened, which compares to 32%, when factoring in the entire Greater Hartford Gives service area. Housing-cost burden is measured by households spending 30% or more of their income on housing, while severe cost burden refers to spending 50% or more.

“Once the child credits and things like that went away post COVID, we saw numbers picking up as far as food insecurity, housing insecurity and many struggling to pay their rent or mortgage. None of that is new, but what sticks out to me is that it’s continuing,” Senecal said. “We haven’t turned that around and with some of the federal changes the concern is that these things are going to get worse.”

The report shows 26% of Hartford households lack a high school diploma. Statewide, the number is 9%, and for the Greater Hartford Gives service area, that number is 8%, for Black households is 12%, Latino households is 25% and white and Asian Households is 8%.

Median annual income for Capitol Region Council of Government Service Area for men overall is $78,000, and $65,000 for women; Asian men ($100,000), Asian women ($79,000); Black men ($52,000), Black women ($50,000); Latino men ($51,000), Latino women ($41,000); white men ($85,000) and white women ($73,000).

About 119,000 residents, which is 16% of the foundations’ area residents, are foreign born, the report says. The largest numbers born outside of the United States were born in Jamaica, India and China.

As far as health, the highest rates for diabetes in the Capitol Region COG service area among those 65-and-over include Black residents (41%) and Latino residents (38%), the report says.

The report shows asthma is most prevalent among 18- to 34-year-olds in the Capitol Region COG service area with 17%. White residents have a rate of 14%, Black residents 16% and Latino residents 21%.

In the Capitol Region COG service area, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety affect 19% of adults 18 to 34. In Hartford alone, that number jumps to 23%.

In a part of the report called Civic Life, residents were asked whether they trust their neighbors. In the Capitol Region COG service area, 84% of residents say they trust their neighbors. Seventy-four percent of residents say their community is a good place to raise children. That number in Hartford is 37%.

Another category was named as “Neighborhood Assets.” The report showed that, of adults in the Capitol Region COG, 59% of respondents have stores, banks and other places they need to access within walking distance. The statewide number is 57%. In Hartford, 76% of residents are within walking distance of stores and banks.

Seventy-seven percent of households in the Capitol Region COG have several free or low-cost recreation facilities such as parks, playgrounds and public swimming pools. The number is 76% in Hartford and 72% statewide.

DataHaven Executive Director Mark Abraham said the report “gives policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and residents a shared set of facts about how people are experiencing life across the Greater Hartford region.”

“It combines multiple sources of public data with results from DataHaven’s survey of thousands of randomly selected adults in the region, using innovative statistical methods to provide insights by population group that are not available from any other local data source,” Abraham said. “This level of detail allows communities to make better decisions, target resources more effectively, and track whether progress is reaching everyone.”