CT social-service agencies ask Lamont for $22 million

With Congress stalled out on aid, state’s nonprofits need quick cash infusion

Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday said that he believes the $ 125 million in federal coronavirus relief funding that he set aside for the state’s nonprofit social service providers is enough to get them through the calendar year.

But a coalition of the service agencies on Monday sent the governor a request for $ 22 million to carry them into 2021, when presumably a new Congress would vote on another round of COVID-19 relief funding that could top $460 million over the next five years.

Speaking during a morning news conference in the Goodwill Bridgeport Store and Donation Station in the city’s Black Rock neighborhood, Lamont praised the nonprofit’s job-training programs, which received federal CARES Act money earlier this year.

“When it comes to a lot of folks who really took a body blow during COVID, really lost a lot of hope, Goodwill gives them that hope,” said Lamont after a tour of the facility, recalling that while Goodwill also received Payroll Protection Program money to keep people employed, the state helped with the CARES Act money.

Lamont said that statewide, $ 125 million was earmarked for nonprofit service agencies, from shelters and residential facilities, to day programs. In all the state got $ 1.4 billion in CARES fundins.

By the end of the year, after the elections for president and Congress, it will likely become clearer on the extent of new federal relief, Lamont said, adding that most of the initial $ 125 million has been distributed. “A lot of that goes to residential services,” Lamont said.

“We provided a lot of combat pay for folks on the front lines, taking care of people in need,” he said, stressing that most of the $ 125 million was distributed through the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services along with the Department of Social Services.

“I’d like to think that not only did we hold our notfor-profits steady out of our operating budget, but we got another $ 120 million including the grant right here for Goodwill,” Lamont said. “The complicating thing about the CARES Act money is that it should be expended by the end of this year. My instinct is Congress, flip-flopping around, will probably give us a little more time to spend that prudently, but right now we are getting all that money out the door by the end of next month. It’s the Senate that can’t make up their minds. They can’t do anything before the election.”

Lamont said that the state will not be cutting services. “That’s why, thank God, Connecticut has a rainy day fund,” he said.

Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of The Alliance Voice for Community Nonprofits, an umbrella organization for dozens of nonprofit providers, said that the $ 22 million is needed right now.

“The feds aren’t going to do anything until the new Congress,” Casa said in a phone interview prior to Lamont’s news conference.

Casa warned that nonprofit services may be facing a crisis before the end of the year. The letter also requests the phased-in $461 million to assure services for the next five years. Casa called a recent $ 230 million in state Medicaid savings, which is a potential windfall to be shared with nonprofit agencies.

“The not-for-profit community stepped up big time, especially during the peak of the crisis,” Lamont said. “They were doing home health care, sending people onto the front lines. That’s why we made them a big priority out of our CARES Act funding. That’s what made them a big priority in applying for the PPP loans.”

Lamont, in response to a reporter’s question, said he wants to take a wait- andsee strategy to see what Congress eventually agrees to in the way of another round of aid.

“Let’s see what happens on Nov. 3. Let’s see the what the timing is on how they can support our not-forprofits,” Lamont said.

Casa said that a July survey by The Alliance indicates that 14 percent of larger nonprofits and 29 percent of smaller ones believed they could not meet payroll by fall. “The financial situation has only grown more difficult since then.” Casa wrote.

Later in the day, the Lamont administration released a list of expenditures totaling about $ 105 million for social-service providers under the federal coronavirus relief package. It includes $48 million for residential support; $ 5.6 million for Priority School districts; $ 5 million for home health providers; nearly $ 11 million for homeless shelters and residential facilities; $3.8 for community services including diversions from incarceration; and nearly $4 million for substance abuse and young adult programs.