State gets $1.5M to help keep kids out of foster care

The state has received $1.5 million in housing vouchers to help families struggling to stay together.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded 75 vouchers to the Connecticut Department of Housing, 36 to the Waterbury Housing Authority and 23 to the West Haven Housing Authority.

The vouchers are administered through the Family Unification Program, which helps families whose struggle to pay rent forces children into foster care or prevents them from returning home.

“One of the goals is to make sure families can stay together,” said Steve DiLella, Connecticut Department of Housing manager for individual and family support programs. “We don’t want housing instability and people struggling to pay rent to keep people away from their families, so we’ll provide the rental assistance to be able to secure housing.”

DiLella said the state got the maximum number of vouchers for which it could apply in the competitive grant application.

The state housing department collaborates with the state Department of Children and Families, which makes referrals of families in need, to distribute the vouchers.

“We realize housing is often key in our sister agencies’ work,” DiLella said. “We love working with sister state agencies because stable housing is a key factor in overall positive social service outcomes.”

The agencies will identify former foster children at risk of facing homelessness and families whose lack of adequate housing is the primary reason their children are in foster care.

These vouchers will allow families to rent housing from a private landlord and generally pay 30 percent of their monthly adjusted gross income toward rent and utilities.

The state’s department of housing will begin by helping 75 families, with each state voucher affording families about $1,000 a month, DiLella said.

Of the total funding, the state housing authority received $921,888; Waterbury received $321,041; and West Haven received $244,611.

West Haven and Waterbury

are separate catchment areas because the fair market rent average varies significantly from the rest of the state, DiLella said.

“Housing is an important factor contributing toward children being placed into foster care, so this resource is a welcome addition to the resources we’re already able to bring to this issue,” DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblat said.

Families at risk of having children enter foster care often struggle with a number of issues including mental health, substance abuse, unemployment and low income, and securing housing can be made more difficult under those circumstances.

“This funding plays a critical role in keeping Connecticut families together by providing access to the housing they need to successfully thrive,” said David Tille, HUD New England regional administrator.

Kleeblat said DCF already distributes about 900 vouchers to help children and families it serves with their housing, but the HUD grant is a “welcome addition, especially under the circumstances of the pandemic.”

DiLella said it’s too early to see whether the coronavirus pandemic will translate to an increased demand for housing assistance, because evictions temporarily have been frozen by Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive order.

The grant also can help former foster children who have aged out of foster care, up to 24 years old, to get their own housing.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com

kkrasselt @hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt