Yesterday, state officials announced the launch of Connecticut’s First Responders Time to Own initiative, a mortgage assistance program for first responders looking to buy homes in the communities in which they work.
“Community is what this program is all about,” said Gov. Ned Lamont. “Being able to live in the town you work, being part of that community.”
The program was one of several initiatives included in last session’s HB 5003, an omnibus workforce development and employment bill, signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont on May 11. The bill stipulated that the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) create a mortgage assistance program for first responders looking to buy a home in the community where they work by January 1, 2027. Nandini Natarajan, CHFA Executive Director, said the program would be launching ahead of schedule, on Nov. 16.
“A major barrier facing prospective home buyers is achieving the savings necessary to cover down payment and closing costs,” said Natarajan. “Increasing home prices have made this challenge even more pronounced. The first responders’ time to own program, which is set to launch on November 16th, a full 45 days before the deadline that was in the act, helps to overcome these challenges by providing mortgage assistance to those who serve and protect our communities.”
Natarajan explained that the program was modeled after CHFA’s Time to Own program, allowing eligible first responders to receive up to $25,000 in forgivable down payment and closing cost assistance, offering mortgages at an interest rate 1.125% lower than the other first-time homebuyer mortgages CHFA offers. First responders must have at least two years of service and be purchasing a primary residence in the municipality they serve in order to qualify.
While the original Time to Own program requires participants to have lived in the state for three continuous years, this requirement is waived for first responders, who will also benefit from “more flexible income eligibility” than the original program, said Natarajan. Furthermore, while the standard Time to Own program requires participants to show that their housing costs would represent at least 30% of their expenses, the first responders program does not have such a requirement.
“We’re making this flexible so that first responders who would like to live in the community that they work in can take advantage of this,” said Natarajan.
Officials said HB 5003, which also includes community college tuition waivers for first responders, was an important effort to incentivize recruitment and retention of first responders at a time when Connecticut is currently facing shortages.
“When it comes to public safety, we are short hundreds of police officers and troopers across the state of Connecticut,” said Ronnell Higgins, Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. “That is staggering. Today sends a loud message, and that message is, ‘We believe in our first responders.'”
Higgins said the initiative is only one of many that the state has implemented in recent years to incentivize recruitment and retention, listing pay raises, improved health coverage, and the Fallen Hero Fund as other such examples. He encouraged both municipal and state leaders to continue to find new ways to ensure first responders find it worthwhile to work in Connecticut.
“We want firefighters and we want police officers in our communities,” said Higgins. “We want them as our neighbors. So to my colleagues, I say congratulations; We’ve done a lot together, but we have more to do.”
Both Higgins and Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon referenced a 2025 report completed by Scanlon’s office, the Office of Policy and Management, which found that, since 2018, the total number of Connecticut’s firefighters had decreased by 50%, and the state’s volunteer firefighters had decreased by almost 63%.
“That is leading to a serious public safety crisis in our state that we don’t talk enough about,” said Scanlon. “But this bill, this law, and this program, is directly aimed at solving that.”
In the conversations he’s had with volunteer firefighters, Scanlon said he’s heard persistent complaints that they can’t afford to live in the communities in which they volunteer. Scanlon said this program would make it so “that is not going to be the reality anymore.”
“We should have people who serve communities that can afford to live in those communities,” said Scanlon.
Rep. Dave Yaccarino (R-North Haven) said the bipartisan push to get the bill across the finish line is an example of “what good government is.”
“This bill started out, really, dead on arrival, and then bipartisanly, both Democrats [and] Republicans, House and Senate, along with the Governor’s Office, worked on this for our firefighters and our first responders,” said Yaccarino. “I think Washington could look at Connecticut as an example; that we work together for people every day, especially our first responders, who have our backs day in and day out.”
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