New Haveners struggling to balance their budgets and access federal relief funds during the Covid-19 crisis can now turn for online and telephonic help to the New Haven Financial Empowerment Center, which has started providing its support services remotely as its Dixwell Avenue offices remain closed.
That update came Saturday afternoon during Mayor Justin Elicker’s daily coronavirus-related virtual press briefing held via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on YouTube Live.
The city now has 992 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 27 related fatalities.
City Community Services Administrator (CSA) Mehul Dalal said that the center, which provides financial education and information to city residents, has been trying for a while to set up an online suite of services.
New Haven Financial Empowerment Center
“This is a service that we have been working on over the last couple of years,” he said, “and when Covid hit, we retrenched and kind of redesigned our program so that it could be offered virtually.”
He said that four professionally trained financial counselors have gone through additional training and are now available for video or phone appointments to guide residents through the financial challenges of the coronavirus era.
These include services that the center already provided, like help with basic budgeting, banking, debt management, and housing.
The importance of “housing affordability will only be amplified as a result of this crisis, and we want to make sure our residents, especially those who are struggling financially, understand what their housing costs, both in the short term and long term, actually are,” said Dalal.
Residents will also be able to get help understanding and accessing the myriad pots of public and private financial assistance available in response to the virus.
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As Dalal (pictured) noted, there is now a constant stream of new initiatives and new pockets of money that can be difficult to keep track of.
For instance, for Americans who filed taxes in the last few years and are set up for direct deposit with the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS), getting their $1,200 federal stimulus checks, or “economic impact payments,” is relatively straightforward.
Those who have not filed taxes are still eligible, said Dalal, but receiving the payments is not as simple, and residents can use the Financial Empowerment Center counselors to help them figure out how to get the payments that they deserve based on the latest relief package passed by Congress and signed by the president.
The local financial empowerment center program is grant-funded through the Connecticut Association for Human Services (CAHS). Dalal said there are four counselors in total. Some are city employees, and others employed by CAHS.
Residents should call 203 – 946-8523 for information or to schedule an appointment.
Saturday’s press conference.
Other updates on Saturday included:
• New Haven’s nursing homes continue to see a rise in infected residents: 58 residents of Yale New Haven Hospital’s Grimes Center have tested positive for the virus. Of those, 39 are currently in the facility, and 8 are hospitalized; 18 staff members have also tested positive.
Mary Wade Home has had 28 residents test positive across its two New Haven facilities: 12 residents of the Boardman Residence have tested positive, and all have been hospitalized. No staff there have tested positive. At the Kimberly Skilled Nursing Facility, four residents have been hospitalized, and 9 who have tested positive are still at the facility; 12 staff members at that facility have tested positive.
RegalCare at New Haven has had 13 residents and six staff members test positive. Seven residents have been hospitalized. Click here to read more about RegalCare’s struggle with the virus.
Advanced Nursing has had one staff member test positive, but no residents.
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• Sixteen city firefighters have now tested positive for the virus, as have six police officers. “I think it’s a really good sign that our numbers have not significantly risen,” said Elicker of those statistics.
He also reported that 19 firefighters are off of work due to the virus, either because they are sick themselves, they have a family member who is sick, they’ve been exposed, or for some other virus-related reason; 22 are staying in dorms at the University of New Haven; and 11 police officers are off duty, and three staying in the UNH dorms.
• On Friday, 612 people were tested at the new rapid testing site run by CVS on Long Wharf, according to a press release from Gov. Ned Lamont. Elicker said he visited the site earlier Saturday afternoon with the governor. “The fact that that site was put up in just a matter of days is incredible,” he said. He said people are coming from all over the state to get tested there.