State Rental Relief Keeps Hamden Renter Housed

A Hamden renter was spared eviction on the last day of August, thanks to a flood of federally-funded financial assistance for tenants — and a state requirement that landlords tap into that program before they can kick someone out for nonpayment of rent.

That was the outcome of a recent state housing court case, which took place five days after the federal Center for Disease Control’s eviction moratorium was overturned by the Supreme Court.

In the local case, the tenant will remain in their Putnam Avenue apartment after over a year of legal wrangling.

That’s because the landlord withdrew its eviction lawsuit immediately upon getting the news that the tenant’s UniteCT application had finally been processed. UniteCT is the federally funded, state-administered rental relief program that landlords — per Gov. Lamont’s June 30 executive order—have to apply to before moving forward with an eviction.

State court records in this Putnam Avenue tenant case show that the landlord first filed for eviction in Feb. 2020 for the tenant’s alleged nonpayment of two months worth of his $600 monthly rent.

In April 2020, the tenant replied in a separate court filing that he was ​“gainfully employed then laid off, started a new job in 2020 then Covid struck and was laid off from that job, was called back to work a short time later and shortly after that through no fault of my own was laid off again from the same restaurant and they closed permanently and went out of business in Hamden.”

New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) attorney Elizabeth Rosenthal, who represented the Hamden tenant in this case, said during the virtual court hearing that she believed payment would be provided to the landlord in less than one week.

This UniteCT-sparked eviction deferral has become increasingly common throughout Connecticut in recent weeks as tenants and landlords receive financial support from a program that legal experts say is becoming more effective and efficient through constant revision.

Aaron Turner, the director of communications for the Connecticut Department of Housing, said that more than half of the original $225 million allocated to Connecticut during the first round of emergency rental assistance has either been distributed or promised to eligible residents across the state.

More specifically, the CT Mirror reported that UniteCT has given out $72.8 million to cover unpaid rent and utility bills, and that an additional $38.9 million is currently being processed.

So far, 223 UniteCT applications from Hamden residents have been processed. The state has approved a total of $1,951,635 in rent and utilities to be dispersed throughout town.

UniteCT covers up to $15,000 in rental arrears and $1,500 in back electricity payments per eligible tenant. The program funds the amount that individuals owe their landlords due to missed monthly payments. Some tenants owe arrears over $15,000. But if one’s debt is under that number, they can receive up to three months of prospective rent as well.

Last week, the CT Mirror published an article highlighting the evolution of Connecticut’s rent distribution system from a highly critiqued series of bureaucratic tests to a model of success hailed by the Biden administration.

At the end of July, the state instituted several changes to the application process in order to make it simpler, smoother and speedier.

NHLAA Director of Litigation Shelley White said that the most useful alteration for lawyers filling out tenants’ paperwork has been the automatic qualification of individuals from census tracts where the income is 60 percent of the median. (Anyone whose household income is at or below 80 percent of the HUD area median income and matches the other eligibility criteria is also welcome to apply.)

Procedural revisions like that have decreased the wait time for tenants and landlords hoping for financial support. White said most tenants she’s worked with this summer have heard back from the state within about two months. The process has been much longer for those who applied as early as March. For instance, one of White’s clients who filed their application in March only heard back from the state in late August.

While some extra steps have been removed from the process, others have been added. Since July, landlords planning to file eviction notices are now required to apply for UniteCT funding along with their tenant before the possibility of a legal execution. That virtually bars any individual who is deemed deserving by the state and who has not been able to pay their rent from being evicted.

White said that the requirement has cut down on the overall number of evictions, though it can also increase the total amount of time an individual application takes to put together. White recalled filling out and submitting her clients’ paperwork for them and seeing ​“in progress, in progress, in progress” on the portal because the landlords were not completing their part.

Since the entire process must also be completed online, White has experienced and heard stories of countless technical glitches. One time, she said, a landlord accidentally put in the wrong email address while filing their application. It took an additional week for UniteCT to work with the landlord and correct the email.

However, White pointed out that there are several UniteCT resource centers, which she said are always helpful in solving whatever technical problem she or others stumble upon. And, overall, she reported that landlords are highly cooperative with tenants. The faster both parties complete their applications, the sooner landlords can get paid, often over $10,000, she said.

The CT Mirror article stated that UniteCT is unique because the state has actively responded to feedback to make the process better. There are still elements of the process that White would like to see improved.

The primary issue White noted is that a landlord’s name is always required on the application.

Frequently, White said, ​“the parties’ relationship is broken,” and the tenant has to move due to broader issues with their landlord that are not strictly related to issues of consistent payment.

White said she and other legal aid agencies across the state have ​“struggled” to facilitate future payments of rent to yet to be determined landlords when tenants are between homes. ​“If tenants could show there’s a pot of money following them, that could go a long way in helping the tenant find a new place to live,” she said.

Overall, no matter how quick the process is, it will always be inherently stressful when individuals have ​“a threat of execution” hanging over their heads, as White put it. ​“We should just assume everyone’s working at their best capacity,” she asserted. ​“We shouldn’t have to scare the bejesus out of people.”