Lamont plans to extend halt on evictions
With the moratorium on evictions set to expire on Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday promised to issue a new executive order to extend the benefit for renters who are stuck in a cash crunch.
Speaking to reporters in a virtual news conference from the state Capitol, Lamont said he would make the new order before Oct. 1 and it would likely continue through the end of the year.
“I want to extend that as part of our process to make sure we have rent relief that allows landlords and tenants to create a path so people can start paying and making due on their rent payments,” Lamont said. “So I think we’re going to be able to roll out both the extension on the noneviction as well as our rent relief strategy over the next two days. We’re working with all the rent counselors out there. They know the amount of money.”
Lamont said that tenants and landlords need to work together to ensure they remain in their apartments.
“Connecticut lost tens of thousands of jobs at the start of the pandemic, and many of those jobs haven’t come back,” says Sean Ghio, policy director for the Partnership for Strong Communities, a housing policy and advocacy organization that on Tuesday wrote a letter to the governor requesting the extension.
“People who don’t have a stable job aren’t going to be able to pay rent longterm, so there needs to be a solution to keep them housed while the economy recovers,” Ghio said in a statement requesting that he commit $ 100 million to a rent stabilization fund.
Housing advocates warn that the application process for those seeking to join in the moratorium is problematic because it requires cooperation from landlords. Now that state housing courts are back open, eviction processes that were paused during the pandemic’s first few months are back on court dockets.
Last week the CT Mirror reported that six months into the pandemic, only two families had received rental assistance, to which Lamont responded that the infrastructure for the program needed to be completed.