CT Senate Passes ‘Golden Girls’ Housing Bill with Backing From Martha Marx

HARTFORD, CT – Was it nostalgia for 1980s television that resulted in a housing bill passing the Senate with bipartisan support? Maybe.

In a 29-7 vote Thursday, the state Senate passed Senate Bill 339, An Act Allowing Long-Term Rental of Bedrooms in a Single-Family Home As Of Right. The bill, nicknamed the Golden Girls bill after the television program featuring four women living as roommates in Miami, would remove a requirement for an owner-occupant of a single-family dwelling to receive approval to rent up to three bedrooms.

“We’re facing a housing shortage, high rental costs and high levels of financial pressure among the public,” said Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London. “We need solutions that create new opportunities for affordable, reasonable housing, and that’s what this bill represents.”

Marx also represents Old Lyme, Bozrah, East Lyme, Montville, Old Saybrook, Salem and Waterford.

The state senator in a statement cited the classic sitcom, saying the show had demonstrated the advantages of renting bedrooms.

“It can offer connections to older renters and owners alike to make connections and come together, cohabitating instead of just coexisting,” she said. “Its changes are simple, but the changes it promises will make a real difference. I can’t wait until it becomes law.”

Republican Rob Sampson of Wolcott, the Senate’s ranking member of the Housing Committee, also backed the bill. It had previously passed out of that committee by a 17-1 vote.

Sampson, who described himself as a near 100% supporter of local control in planning and zoning issues, said in this case the state would be increasing individual property rights.

“Though it’s a state statute we would be creating, what we would be doing is we would be empowering the property owner, versus the planning and zoning department,” he said. “This bill is about a very specific thing, which is how someone is going to be able to use the interior of their single-family residential property.”

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