Housing advocates and officials seek to get word out about rental assistance program
May 29—NEW LONDON — Cathy Zall, executive director of the New London Homeless Hospitality Center, thought that when the UniteCT program opened, people would be lined up at the door to apply. It was, after all, providing up to $10,000 in rental assistance.
But "we do not yet have enough people applying," she said.
Zall and other advocates, landlords and elected officials are still trying to get the word out about the Connecticut Department of Housing program, which helps households financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by paying landlords. Connecticut has an eviction moratorium in place through June 30.
"There was a public health need not to have evictions. I think that's just common sense," said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District. "Having said that, who pays?"
The federal COVID-19 relief bill passed in December allocated $235 million in rental assistance for Connecticut, and Courtney's office said the Department of Housing is expected to receive another $186 million from the American Rescue Plan, which passed in March.
Courtney met with Zall, DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno and others at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Friday to promote the program and discuss its status.
According to the UniteCT dashboard, 949 cases — including 92 in New London County — have been approved as of Friday, totaling nearly $6 million. The average household approved for assistance is 3.98 months behind in rent, totaling $4,574.28. The dashboard shows 7,147 applications pending, including 674 in New London County.
The program supports households making up to 80% of the area median income, which can be found on a map at portal.ct.gov/DOH/DOH/Programs/UniteCT.
Dawn Parker, director of UniteCT, said DOH has continually reduced what documentation it needs from applicants, while remaining in compliance. She said more than 200 people are working on underwriting for the case review team, and there are 16 UniteCT Community Resource Centers in the state, including the New London Homeless Hospitality Center.
Parker said people working at UniteCT are committed to translating everything into Spanish and have teams of case reviewers who speak Spanish.
Landlord and tenant share their story about UniteCT
The amount of rental assistance provided on behalf of a given household is capped at $10,000, though local landlord Charlie Snyder noted he has one tenant who is more than $16,000 in arrears. He said even people who are working are not paying their rent.
"We're not the bad guys," Snyder said of landlords. He said the mom-and-pop landlords, such as people who live on the first floor and rent out the second to pay for the building, have taken most of the hit.
He said UniteCT "has been a big help" but once the moratorium is over, "there's got to be some way for the landlords to recoup other than what's going on right now, because this just doesn't cover it."
On Friday, he sat next to one of his tenants, who participated in the program. New London resident Nicholas Daddario, 31, was working for construction companies but found that work dried up during the coronavirus pandemic, as homeowners didn't want other people in their house.
So, he decided to go to school for welding, fabrication and design, entering a program at Lincoln Tech that began last July and ended May 15.
Daddario credited Snyder with doing him a favor and said if it wasn't for UniteCT, he'd be both in debt for student loans and under eviction. Snyder has even been driving him to classes when his truck broke down.
