Wednesday’s all-day filibuster of an omnibus housing bill, which once held the promise of zoning reform and incentives for towns to address Connecticut’s shortage of affordable housing, did not make the General Assembly look good.

Every constituent has an interest in housing — in adequate or better shelter, in affordability at their income level, and in living a reasonable distance from work. But in spite of passing some needed reforms for renters and upgrading the state Office of Responsible Growth, the 2023 session kicked the can down the road again.

If this session is to be known for its marquee successes — a middle class income tax cut, setting up of expansion of voting access, and closing loopholes in the purchase and possession of firearms -- it will have to own up to failing to address the shortfall of 89,000 units of affordable, available housing, a looming human need.

That was no oversight. The list of housing-related bills introduced early in the session by various members of both Houses reached the dozens, and an omnibus bill incorporating the intent of many of those proposals was before the Senate on the final day of the session. By adjournment, it had shrunk.

Most of what passed responds to the rights of tenants for safe housing and increases the responsibilities of landlords to deal fairly with renters or pay higher fines. Evictions that were not upheld would come off online records, removing an obstacle to getting a new rental. As important as those measures are, however, they serve only households that can even find an apartment. Many cannot.

The General Assembly also approved legislation that tasks the state Department of Public Health with developing standards for indoor mold quality in residential housing, a serious health issue in places like Branford Manor in Groton.

But, as The Day has been documenting in our Housing Solutions Lab series, there is a housing shortage that most deeply hurts low-income renters but also pushes past socioeconomic boundaries. An influx of well-paid submarine industry employees, for example, affects the supply of market-rate housing. People who could afford more take a lesser option, just to find a place to live. The demand pushes up rents and asking prices, hurting the young, elderly and households with less to spend.

Scarcity of homes in the higher-end market is resulting in selling prices that can be greater than mortgage lenders will appraise the value of the property to be, meaning many sales now go to lucky buyers with full cash offers. The shortage also means that would-be sellers who ordinarily would have been delighted at quick and high offers are hanging on to their homes for fear of having nowhere to move to.

One answer in these scenarios would have been creative incentives for building more housing in places near commuter rail or bus. The Senate avoided entirely dropping transit-oriented development by passing the Office of Responsible Growth, which has existed by executive order of former Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, into law.

But by bowing to the dogged insistence of wealthier towns on not modifying their exclusionary zoning rules, the session surrendered the immediate chance to create meaningful incentives for people to accept jobs farther from where they live. The welcomed tax cut will help only those who have or can find a home.

Inclusiveness, job and income potential and the stark differences between Connecticut’s cities and its towns are all subject to enlightened state housing policies or, in this case, the near-stagnation of them.

On the federal level, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy carried on Thursday with a series of in-person town hall meetings at which people are invited to tell him about their problems with rising rent, shortages of housing stock and affordable housing, gentrification, blight and poor conditions and barriers to home ownership. The senator may hear some shockers but he won’t get many surprises.

State lawmakers, as well, know the urgency of these conditions.

If this were a final exam, it would be hard to give the 2023 session even a “C” on housing. C means average. It means measurable improvement. That is hard to find at the closing gavel.

The Day editorial board meets regularly with political, business and community leaders and convenes weekly to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larrañeta retired executive editor Tim Cotter and retired deputy managing editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and editorial page editor are responsible for developing the editorial opinions. The board operates independently from the Day newsroom.