A new report released by Public Policy Polling out of North Carolina reveals that 52% of Connecticut residents believe that Connecticut’s racial and socio-economic divide is contributing to Connecticut’s economic challenges. The signs of the economic challenges caused by Connecticut’s racial and socio-economic segregation are everywhere. Homeowners and wealth among people who are Black are at a historic 50-year lows with just over 40% of Blacks owning their homes compared to 76% of whites. In addition, only 7,500 tenants who are white report being behind on the rent compared to 43,000 tenants of color.
Connecticut residents are not the only ones recognizing the negative impact of racial and economic segregation. In 2020, the American Medical Association officially recognized the connection between segregation and health when it committed to opposing policies that enable racial housing segregation and to advocating for continued federal funding of publicly-accessible data on community racial, economic, and health disparities to help communities understand and address this issue.
The Connecticut Fair Housing Center and our partners will be presenting information on the extent of segregation in Connecticut as well as ways to combat the economic drain it is causing. Please join us at the Connecticut Affordable Housing Conference when we will present: “Does the Road to Integration Run Through Your Town?” on November 15 at 11:30 – 12:30; “Tenants’ Right to Legal Counsel in Eviction” on November 15 at 2:00 – 3:00; and, “Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap Through a More Equitable Homebuying System” on November 17 at 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
The Center’s next bi-weekly update will be published on Friday, November 12, 2021.
Eviction and foreclosure by the numbers
2021 eviction filings exceed number filed in 2020—From January 1 to December 31, 2020, landlords filed a total of 6,430 summary process eviction cases. Through October 27, 2021, landlords have filed 6,894. In addition, Connecticut courts have already issued more executions in 2021 (2,744) than in all of 2020 (2,193). Once an execution is issued, a marshal can serve the tenant with a notice that they must move out within 24 hours.
Racial and ethnic disparities continue: According to the latest data from the Household Pulse Survey, 57% of Latinx tenants and 41% of Black tenants have little or no confidence in their ability to pay November’s rent compared to 15% of white tenants. More than 50,591 tenants report being behind on the rent.
For homeowners, 61,685 are not caught up on their mortgage payments. Of those, 8.6% are Black, 11.7% are mixed race, and 4.2% are Latinx compared to 5.4% of white homeowners.
Evictions
Executive Order 12D, which will expire on February 15, 2022, requires landlords to give tenants a 30-day notice before filing an eviction case in court. In addition, the Executive Order includes the following provisions:
- Landlords must complete an application for the State’s UniteCT rental assistance program prior to delivering a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent. The UniteCT case number must be included on the Notice to Quit;
- Landlords must give tenants a 30-day Notice to Quit if they intend to evict for nonpayment of rent, for lapse of time, or because the right to occupy a unit has terminated;
- All Notices to Quit given for any reason must be delivered with a flyer about the State’s UniteCT program in both English and Spanish;
- Tenants have an opportunity to continue all terms of their rental agreement by paying outstanding rent within the 30-day Notice to Quit period;
- If during any summary process (eviction) case, a UniteCT application is made, all proceedings in the summary process case must be stopped for 30 days or until a decision is made on the UniteCT application, whichever is earlier. If the UniteCT application is approved, the summary process case must be stopped until the UniteCT payment is made, and the summary process action is withdrawn or dismissed.
Visit www.CTFairHousing.org/eviction for more information on what steps tenants can take to respond to eviction papers and access EO 12D’s protections.
Update on UniteCT
- UniteCT has been working with Eversource and United Illuminating to pay the electric arrearages for tenants who have been approved for assistance. UniteCT is in negotiations with some of the smaller electric companies to make similar payments. These are one-time payments and cannot be used for future electrical bills. UniteCT does not pay for gas utilities.
- Once an application is fully completed by a landlord and a tenant, it takes about 30 days for the landlord to be paid.
- There is a program on the UniteCT website that allows people to get information on the status of their application or to get additional help if the tenant is now facing eviction or has made an error on their application. The link is: https://unitectprescreen.formstack.com/forms/unitect_referral_system
- The call center reached at 1-844-864-8328 is only for password resets and finding a tenant resource center. It cannot assist with any problems a landlord or tenant is having filling out an application or uploading documents.
UniteCT Tech bus schedule
The UniteCT bus will not be functioning after November 22, 2021. It will be up and running again when the weather gets better in the spring of 2022.
Hamden
Date: October 31, 1pm – 4pm
Address: Mt. Calvary Revival Center, 450 West Todd Street, Hamden, CT
Contact: Nicqueva, Nicqueva7@gmail.com, 203-785-1253
Hartford
Date: November 1, 10am – 3pm
Address: The Artists Collective, 1200 Albany Avenue, Hartford
Contact: Janice Castle, Janice.Castle@hartford.gov, 860-757-9525
Westbrook
Date: November 4, 10am – 3pm
Address: Westbrook Town Hall, 866 Boston Post Road, Westbrook
Contact: Elizabeth Carpenter, ecarpenter@westbrookct.us, 860- 399-3090
Greenwich
Date: November 5, 10am – 3pm
Address: 101 Field Point Road, Greenwich, CT
Contact: Demetria Nelson, Demetria.Nelson@greenwichct.org, 203-622-7782
Wallingford
Date: November 9, 10am – 3pm
Address: Wallingford Public Library, 200 North Main Street, Wallingford, CT
Contact: Leah Farrell, lfarrell@wallingfordlibrary.org, 203-284-6425
Waterbury
Date: November 17, 10am – 3pm
Address: Grace Baptist Church, 65 Kingsbury St., Waterbury, CT
Contact: Fernando Cerdena, fcerdena@nhswaterbury.org, 475-441-0490
Foreclosures
Ability to request a forbearance extended indefinitely for some homeowners—Homeowners with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed mortgage can request a forbearance at any time. Homeowners with FHA and VA mortgages may request a forbearance at least until the end of the COVID-19 national emergency. The ability to request a COVID forbearance of a USDA mortgage ended on September 30, 2021, but other options may be available.
A recent report shows that as many as 400,000 homeowners around the country will reach the end of their forbearance eligibility which will allow lenders and loan servicers to request that homeowners begin to pay their mortgage once again. Currently an estimated 1.71 million borrowers are in forbearance with unpaid balances of approximately $331 billion.
