Connecticut has ramped up distribution of federal rental assistance following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that blocks a temporary moratorium on evictions set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Brendan Holt is the head of the homelessness mitigation program at Quinnipiac University Law School. He also works with the state’s emergency rental assistance program called UniteCT. He said the program was slow to get up and running.
“It’s got much more efficient recently. UniteCT in the past couple of weeks has really upped the pace and kind of learned as we went along how to distribute more efficiently — and to those with the most need," Holt said.
At the start of the month, UniteCT had handed out only 27% of the $236 million the federal government gave Connecticut to assist struggling tenants. By the end of last week, almost half of the money had been committed.
The program provides up to $15,000 in rental assistance, and up to $1,500 for electricity payments.
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