CCAG and Partners Expose Harms Caused by Private Equity at Legislative Forum
“Connecticut has seen firsthand the damage private equity will do to hospitals and housing in the name of maximizing profit”
Lawmakers, workers, tenants, researchers, and advocates gathered Thursday at the Legislative Office Building for a Connecticut legislative forum on private equity, organized by Connecticut Citizen Action Group and allies
.The forum focused on how private equity is reshaping essential parts of life in Connecticut, especially healthcare and housing. Private equity is an investment model built around large, short-term profits, often using debt to acquire companies and then extracting fees and returns from their operations. Unlike venture capital, which more often makes minority investments in earlier-stage startups, private equity generally targets more established companies and can take controlling stakes.
The forum featured Megan Greenwell, author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, impacted residents and nurses, and Yale researcher Dr. Aashka Shah, Connecticut Fair Housing Center attorney Sarah White, Several lawmakers also took part, including host Rep. Jane Garibay, Rep. Kara Rochelle of the Blue Collar Caucus, Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, Rep. Maryam Kahn and Senator Matt Lesser.
Greenwell and Shah underscored that Connecticut’s hospital crisis - in which three hospitals declared bankruptcy after being acquired by private equity, after years of cutting staffing and services - is part of a broader pattern unfolding across the country. Shah pointed to the toll private equity ownership can take on care, including longer waits, reduced staffing, worsening quality and even the loss of access in some communities.
Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey spoke about the fallout from the Prospect hospital bankruptcies, and nurses Rena Berube of Manchester Hospital and Marilyn Anthony of WaterburyHospital brought that harm into sharp focus with firsthand accounts of stripped services, chronic understaffing and, as Anthony put it, “patient neglect.”
Connecticut Fair Housing Center attorney Sarah White put private equity’s housing playbook into simple terms: raise rents, pile on fees, and cut corners on maintenance to boost profits fast. At Concierge Apartments in Rocky Hill, that neglect helped create a crisis when burst pipes displaced more than 2,000 residents. She also highlighted the growing strain on manufactured home communities.
Dave Delohery, of the Connecticut Manufactured Home Owners Alliance, said corporate interests now control an estimated 40% of manufactured home park sites in the state, leaving many residents trapped with few realistic alternatives.
The conversation also widened beyond hospitals and housing. Rep. Maryam Khan warned that private equity is beginning to encroach on special education providers, a sobering concern in a state where many districts already rely on outside providers for mandated services.
McCarthy Vahey, Lesser and Rochelle all pointed out that when private equity damages hospitals, healthcare and housing, it is taxpayers that wind up paying the price.
Organizers stressed that the forum was meant as a starting point, not an endpoint, and tied the discussion to bills now moving through the Children’s, Public Health, Housing and Aging committees.
“We need to do a far better job of creating a regulatory environment where working people can survive and thrive without billionaires squeezing them absolutely dry,” Dupont-Diehl said.
“Connecticut has seen firsthand the damage private equity will do to hospitals and housing in the name of maximizing profit,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in a statement. Murphy has issued reports and proposed legislation on private equity. “Protecting our communities from this corporate greed will require all levels of government and I’m grateful to the organizers of today’s forum for their commitment to finding solutions that put Connecticut families first.”
The forum was organized by CCAG along with CT for All, AFT Connecticut, CHCA District 1199, CT Voices for Children, CT AFL-CIO, the Blue Collar Caucus, CT Early Childhood Alliance, Universal Health Care Foundation and Health Equity Solutions.