More than 6,000 Connecticut residents who previously experienced homelessness may be forced back outside into the cold in the coming months, due to federal funding cuts.
The federal Continuum of Care (CoC) program provides funding for more than 80% of Connecticut’s permanent supportive housing. It serves as transitional housing for those returning to a permanent home after experiencing homelessness.
Those beds are at risk as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cuts back on CoC funding.
States have become used to extreme and sudden funding cuts under the current presidential administration, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
“Now there’s some threats in terms of housing cuts,” Lamont said. “We do have a $500 million dollar reserve there to take care of the most vulnerable in need and to make sure that nobody’s sitting outside and can’t get a place to stay in January, if it’s due to the fact that the feds have cut back on things.”
Connecticut receives about $90 million per year in CoC funding. Of those funds, $22 million goes to the state Department of Housing (DOH), according to DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno.
The state is determining what needs to be done before the mid-January application deadline for next year, Mosquera-Bruno said.
“Next week we should be able to have a plan. I am meeting with service providers,” Mosquera-Bruno said. “We have a steering committee of 30 service providers and we will come out with a plan of the worst case scenario.”
Under HUD’s new changes to the CoC program, states can only put 30% of their Annual Renewal Demand (ARD) toward supportive and permanent housing. The ARD is the total dollar amount required to continue funding all existing CoC grants eligible for renewal the next year.
Mosquera-Bruno says for now, Connecticut can get by on current funds.
“We do have some flexibility in what we have right now,” Mosquera-Bruno said. “The Department of Housing has contracts until June, so we have the resources. What we are planning is for how we’re going to apply, and what type of impact it will have.”
Nationwide, about 87% of CoC funds are allocated to various permanent housing programs, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). About 170,000 Americans who rely on CoC-funded supportive housing nationwide are facing uncertainty, according to the NLIHC.
In Connecticut, CoC funding provides thousands of previously unhoused residents with Permanent Supportive Housing and Rapid Rehousing units, designed for quick, short term stays while transitioning to their own homes.
State Sen. Matt Lesser, a Democrat representing several towns in Middlesex and Hartford Counties, is among the state lawmakers who are speaking out against the funding cuts.
“That is mindboggling. Why would you do that?” Lesser said in a social media video. “Why would we dump people out on the streets? We already have a homelessness problem. Why would we want to make it so much worse?”
