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Apartment for rent
Photo: Dreamstime / TNSApartment for rent
Apartment for rent
Apartment for rent
NEW HAVEN — Thousands of calls were made to the state Department of Housing this week from residents looking to tap into the rental assistance program being underwritten by federal CARES funds, with fewer than 400 completing the first step in the process.
The state has put aside $10 million, which advocates say is too little to meet the needs of residents who are having problems paying their rent after losing their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new program went live Wednesday, but a coalition of legal aid groups, as well as the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, said residents continue to have difficulty getting through.
The assistance through the Department of Housing and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority aims to address rental housing stability and to prevent evictions.
Aaron Turner of the Department of Housing on Thursday said there had been more than 2,200 callers to the phone number Wednesday and Thursday.
He said the state has been made aware that “many people were calling in simultaneously from more than one phone, so that when they connected, they hung the other lines up. Also, there were also a fairly large number of calls that did not reach a call center operator and were voluntarily disconnected after learning of their ineligibility through the automated portion of the call or that did not have their 2019 income information when they first called, and subsequently called back.”
On Friday, Turner released statistics on participation:
On Wednesday they received 688 calls, of which 269 were homeowners and 419 renters. Of this, 203 threshold applications were completed — 180 for renters and 23 for homeowners.
On Thursday, 490 called in, 255 of them homeowners and 235 from renters. Of those, 157 renters completed the threshold application as did 21 homeowners.
There are four more steps after passing the threshold level before an application is complete. Applicants are reminded to have their 2019 income tax information when calling.
The number to call is 860-785-3111.
Attorney Amy Eppler-Epstein, who works at New Haven Legal Assistance, said the call center appears to be overwhelmed.
“Despite having 12 people answering lines and a system with a 50-person hold/call wait capacity, everyone we have heard from seems to be encountering a busy signal. Over the past 3 days since it opened, I tried a dozen times myself at random times, and only once got beyond the busy signal to muzak,” she said.
Eppler-Epstein said the opening message is only in English, “so even though apparently they have Spanish language speakers for callers to talk to, all the instructions on what to press are just in English.”
She said it is imperative that the U.S. Senate pass the $3 trillion HEROES Act that would provide $100 billion in emergency rental assistance. It was adopted by the House, but the Senate took no action before it went on recess. It is back in session next week.
“The overwhelming response to the first three days of the rental assistance program in Connecticut makes clear that the $10 million allocated will not be enough, and more federal assistance is desperately needed,” she said.
Lisa McCray was one of the residents who tried to get through.
“You can’t imagine how excited I was to see your announcement for rental help. I have been calling since I saw it two days ago, so far, and everytime I called and finally got to the area I needed, it gives you a busy signal and hangs up on me. ... I got frustrated and gave up. It is very discouraging to see a possibility of some renters’ help, but you can’t get through to the agency,” she wrote in an email to the NHLAA.
Through July 28, first priority for processing is for eligible households denied unemployment benefits and/or denied Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, with at least one minor household member, and income of not more than 60 percent of Average Median Income based on 2019.
From July 29 through Aug. 11, the priority will be eligible households denied unemployment benefits and/or denied Pandemic Unemployment Assistance with income of not more than 80 percent of AMI based on 2019.
From Aug. 12 through the duration of the program, all other eligible households with income of not more than 80 percent of AMI in 2019 are the priority.
Erin Kemple, executive director of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, said she received similar complaints that residents were either put on hold for long periods of time, could not get through or the line would disconnect.
Eligible households may receive up to $4,000 in total assistance over the twelve-month period for rent due beginning March 1, 2020, with a limit of $1,000 per month.
Payments are made directly to the landlord with residents mandated to pay a minimum of 30 percent of their gross income toward the rent based on their lowest consecutive 30-day income during March, April and May. If they don’t pay the 30 percent they are disqualified for assistance.
Gov. Ned Lamont recently extended the moratorium on landlords filing for evictions from July 1 until Aug. 25, a decision the New Haven Legal Assistance Association said it was grateful for.
Kemple was concerned that once the $600 additional weekly federal money coming to the unemployed expires on July 31, it will further disrupt tenants’ ability to pay for rent, food and other necessities.
With 650,000 people seeking unemployment compensation since March, advocates don’t see how $10 million for rental assistance will be enough.
The New Haven Board of Alders has authorized using additional funding from the CARES Act — Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security — for its own tenant assistance program that will be finalized later in the month and overseen by the Livable City Initiative, Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said.
Kemple said large cities and some other states have been much more generous with the amount of CARES funds set aside for rental assistance to forestall evictions and foreclosures for homeowners. She said the city of Houston has a population that is 75 percent of Connecticut’s, but it is setting aside 33 percent more in assistance.
Allocations by other states include: New Jersey, $100 million; Illinois, $396 million; Pennsylvania, $175 million; Montana, $50 million.
Kemple said she finds the prediction by the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston alarming.
“Jeffrey Thompson, an economist and director of the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in May projected that 11% percent of Connecticut homeowners and 36% of the state’s renters are vulnerable to missing at least one rent or mortgage payment,” according to CT Mirror.
While Lamont’s executive orders give extensions on rent payments for several months since March, the catch-up will be cumulative.
mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
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