ADDRESSING CLIENTS’ NEEDS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

May 15, 2020

Call to Action: Connecticut just received $11,439,547 in CARES Act funding. Call Governor Lamont at 860-566-4840 or tweet @govnedlamont and ask that this money be used for the Rental Market Stabilization Fund to help tenants stay in their homes. To get more information about the Rental Market Stabilization Fund, click here.

Call to Action:  Tenants in Connecticut are calling on Governor Lamont to stop all evictions indefinitely and cancel the obligation to pay rent. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown, over 50% of renters across the state were cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Connecticut leads the nation in income inequality, and this burden is disproportionately shouldered by Black and brown communities: nearly 60% of Black renters and 55% of Hispanic renters are cost-burdened compared to 43% of white renters. For more information on the tenants’ demands and to sign the petition, click here. To participate in the daily actions on Mondays and Wednesday, click here.

Important Deadlines:  Tenants who did not pay May rent were supposed to notify their landlords in writing by May 10, 2020 that they could not pay rent due to full or partial unemployment, or significant loss in revenue or increase in expenses due to the pandemic to get a 60-day extension to pay the rent.

If you did not send a letter by May 10, you should still use the letter and text templates to request rental payment extension from your landlord, click here.

There is no extension for June rent. If you did not pay April rent, that is due in June also.

Resources for tenants and homeowners:

  • Click here to understand current tenant rent relief options in Spanish and English.
  • Click here to find more details in our tenant FAQ.
  • Click here to understand current rights for homeowners in Spanish and English.
  • Click here to understand how fair housing can protect you during the COVID-19 crisis. (Recently added Tagalog and Khmer translations to our guidance now available in 11 languages.)
  • Need to have your subsidized rent recalculated due to income loss? The Rent Recalculation Request tool can be accessed here in Spanish and English.
  • To sign up for our daily update fill out the form

What happened on May 14, 2020:

  • Mortgages in forbearance continue to grow: The mortgage industry company Black Knight reported that, as of the week ended May 5, 8% of all mortgages and 12.4% of FHA/VA mortgages are in forbearance. These totals plus recent projections by Black Knight make it likely that seriously delinquent mortgages (90+ days delinquent) will be worse than at the peak of the Great Recession by Labor Day. For more information on this story, click here.
  • House to vote Friday on new COVID-19 aid package: The House is set to vote on a $3 trillion package that would bring approximately $7 billion into Connecticut including additional payments to households and several billion dollars for rental assistance. To reach more, click
  • Outreach: On Monday, May 18, Finn Darby Hudgens will be participating in a workshop with Cesar Aleman of the Center for Leadership and Justice on Addressing Racial Dispairties in Homelessness During COVID-10. This webinar is free. Register here.
  • Outreach: Staff attorney Pamela Heller will join the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence on Wednesday, May 20th from 1:45-2:45 for a Facebook Live discussion on current housing issues facing survivors of domestic violence. Login to Facebook to access their live event.
  • Outreach: The Center is hosting a remote training on the design and construction requirements of the federal Fair Housing Act on Wednesday, May 27 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. This program is registered with the American Institute of Architects. Architects will receive up to 6 continuing education HSW credits. For more information, click here. To register, click here.
  • Outreach: Staff continue to hold fair housing trainings and COVID-19 housing resource workshops via Zoom with social service agencies, direct service providers, and invested stakeholders. If your agency would find a short resource webinar or fair housing training helpful during this crisis please contact Shaznene Hussain, the Center’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, at Shussain@ctfairhousing.org

 

More external COVID-19 resources can be found on our website here.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FAIR HOUSING RIGHTS IN ENGLISH, SPANISH, MANDARIN, VIETNAMESE, FARSI, RUSSIAN, ITALIAN, KREYOL, ARABIC, KHMER, AND TAGALOG, CLICK HERE.

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