Thomas Breen photo
Lopez with her son on front porch of their Cassius St. apartment (pictured below).
Unemployed and undocumented, Sandra Lopez keeps falling further behind on rent as the state assistance she received last fall has long since run out.
Her hopes — and those of many others in the state who have fallen in dire financial straits over the past year — rest now on a soon-to-launch $235 million state rental support program designed to help keep low-income tenants afloat as the Covid-19 pandemic drags on.
Lopez, 35, lives with her two teenage sons and two pet cats in one half of a two-family house on Cassius Street in the Hill.
In an interview with the Independent, Lopez spoke of just how much of a physical, emotional, and financial toll Covid has had on her family’s life over the past year.
The challenges presented by Covid have made a monthly set of bills that were difficult to meet pre-pandemic, nearly impossible today.
She’s now three months-and-counting behind on rent for her four-bedroom, $1,300 per month apartment, and in an even greater hole on utilities.
Her landlord, Mandy Management, regularly asks when she’ll be able to pay rent, when she’ll be able to catch up on back debt.
With no source of income but child support and alimony coming in, she said, her financial future isn’t looking bright. Even with a supportive ex-husband nearby in East Haven, and her mom living a few houses down the block in the Hill, she said the past year has been uniquely challenging, isolating, and stressful.
“2020 was the worst,” she said, masked at her kitchen table as her 15-year-old son sat nearby, attending classes at Sound School online. “I went through a lot. My kids went through a lot. It was very, very hard. And it’s still there.”
No Job, 3 Surgeries
A former licensed insurance agent, Lopez said she left her job as an Uber driver last spring out of a concern that shuttling strangers around in a confined space every day during a pandemic would increase her risk of catching Covid.
An undocumented immigrant protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who came to the United States with her family from Mexico when she was 5, Lopez hasn’t been able to work in nearly a year. Her work permit expired in January 2020. She doesn’t have the spare funds to renew it.
She said she has struggled with depression and anxiety since the death of her brother four years ago, made only worse by her favorite uncle’s death from Covid-19 in mid-February.
She had to go to the hospital three times last year — once for a broken wrist after falling down the stairs, once for a diagnostic surgery related to her endometriosis and fibromyalgia, and once to the intensive care unit (ICU) after that earlier surgery led to internal bleeding.
“It’s a gnawing fear,” she said about the prospect of catching Covid-19 and the hurt felt at losing her uncle.
“I’m trying to be extra cautious. I don’t want anything to happen to my kids.”
A Lifeline
Cassius Street.
One of the few high points of last year was landing $4,000 in rental assistance in September through the state’s now-closed Temporary Rental Housing Assistance Program (TRHAP).
After she called 211 for help, the state Department of Housing (DOH) connected her with Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS). NHS’s Robin Ladouceur reached out directly to Lopez and helped her fill out and submit the application, which resulted in the rental aid going directly to Lopez’s landlord.
That help from the state and from NHS was a lifesaver, Lopez said.
“I was able to pay three months worth of rent,” she said. “I’m so happy that was something. It alleviated so much.”
“But now we’re back into the same thing,” she continued.
That TRHAP rental help covered enough only for September, October, and November rent.
“Since November, I haven’t been able to pay rent.”
Or utilities. “I haven’t paid gas or light [in months] because of not having the money,” she said. Since the state still has a no-shut-off rule for delinquent utilities during the pandemic, Lopez said, she’s hoping she can get caught up on her gas and electricity debt with her tax return.
As for how to catch up on rent during the ongoing eviction moratorium, she said she has applied to the city’s Coronavirus Assistance and Security Tenant Landlord Emergency (CASTLE) program. After going back and forth with a few rounds of necessary paperwork, she said, she hasn’t heard anything in over a month about whether or not her application is complete and has been accepted.
She said her best hope for getting an additional round of rental and utility payment assistance is through the state’s soon-to-launch new $235 million UniteCT program, which is slated to start accepting applications in early March.
If she’s able to get one more round of help from the state, she said, hopefully she’ll be able to save enough money to re-apply for a work permit, and then finally get a new job.
“I’m very proud when it comes to work,” she said. “I put my all into work.” Being home for months on end has thrown her sense of self off balance. “As soon as I get my work permit, I just want to start work again.”
$235M More, Coming Soon
Bridgette Russel, NHS’s managing director of the New Haven Home Ownership Center, told the Independent that her organization is gearing up for another local rental assistance push as soon as UniteCT launches on March 15.
(Watch the video above for a pre-pandemic interview with Russell by WNHH host Mubarakah Ibrahim.)
As one of the housing counselling agencies tapped by the state Department of Housing (DOH) to help low-income renters apply for assistance, Russell said NHS successfully secured over $1.4 million in TRHAP grants for 448 Connecticut tenants, including Lopez.
NHS support staff helped with the application process, performed intake assessments, prepared and reviewed paperwork, and then help scan or otherwise submit applications to the state.
They plan on providing the same level of support for UniteCT — which will be offering a much larger sum of money, overall and per tenant, than TRHAP.
DOH spokesperson Aaron Turner told the Independent by email that the state department ultimately administered roughly $26 million to approximately 4,100 landlords on behalf of 6,757 renter households through TRAP. The total applications processed for that program was 12,418.
With UniteCT, Russell said, tenants will be eligible for up to $10,000 in rental assistance — more than double the $4,000 cap under TRHAP. They’ll also be eligible for up to $1,500 in utility assistance.
She said the program should be able to assist roughly 26,000 renter households statewide.
Russell said that tenants and landlords will also be able to apply for UniteCT through an online platform, which should be easier to navigate than the scan-and-fax system required by TRHAP.
Russell said that, unfortunately, Lopez’s story is not unique among renters that NHS has worked with over the past several months of the pandemic.
“Some of the people who received help towards the beginning of the [TRHAP] program called two or three months in saying, ‘Wow. I’m still underemployed. I’m still furloughed. I’m still working part time.’” And I’m still falling behind on rent.
“The fear of course is an eviction tsunami, something similar to what we saw back in 2008” during the Great Recession, she said. “We knew that additional help needed to be put in place.”
Ladoceaur, NHS’s Homeownership Center coordinator, agreed.
“Helping tenants and landlords submit applications for the Temporary Rental Housing Assistance Program was deeply meaningful and often very moving work,” Ladouceur told the Independent by email. “The range of applicants with whom I worked was broad – from the older man who lost his job and could not find a new one in a job market that privileges youth to the single mom of two who received a cancer diagnosis in the midst of the pandemic to a young new mother faced with raising her daughter alone to all the countless families touched by COVID-19.”
“At least 3 – 5 times per week,” Ladouceur continued, “I receive inquiries from individuals who passed through the TRHAP program asking if there are other ways to receive assistance.”
UniteCT appears to be just that.
When asked for what words of advice she would offer low-income New Haven renters in need of help as UniteCT prepares to launch, Russell said, “Take advantage of the program. If you have a question, or if you’re unsure, know that there are nonprofit counseling agencies out there that can assist you” with the application and associated technologies.
“We’ve heard a lot of heart-wrenching stories,” she said. “We’re just happy this assistance will soon be here.”