Bill would let homeless shelters be run by religious organizations

“We have a moral obligation as a legislature providing for the people who desperately need a place to live.” Sen. MD Rahman, D-Manchester

Religious organizations in communities with populations of 25,000 or more would be allowed to set up temporary homeless shelters on their properties under legislation that was the target of opposition Friday by Republicans in the legislative Planning and Development Committee.

The bill, which next heads to the floor of the House, was pushed through by majority Democrats who control the panel with a 13-8 edge. While a GOP amendment succeeded in raising the size of eligible towns from 15,000 to 25,000, Republicans still voted against the bill after warning it could change the character of communities.

State Rep. Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin, first offered an amendment to raise the minimum population size of eligible towns to 75,000, which was rejected by Democrats, who accepted a second amendment for communities with 25,000 residents or more.

“I'm very concerned about small towns in this state if this bill were to pass,” Dubitsky said. “Many, if not most of the historic churches in this state are on town greens, main streets, historic districts, et cetera, and to have homeless shelters plopped down in these areas without any input from the towns' representatives and elected officials, without any input from the people who live in these areas, I think would do grave violence to the way of life in this state. Perhaps this is appropriate in bigger cities, but in small towns we have an established process for determining where certain land uses take place. The parade of horribles that could result are endless.”

Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich, a ranking Republican on the panel, said the legislation would created a “quality-of-life” problem for towns and cities, as there would be nothing to prevent homeless shelters from suddenly popping up. “There is no restriction to say that these temporary homeless shelters couldn't end up in residential neighborhoods, just 10-foot setback from yards where kids are playing.”

State Rep. Joe Zullo of East Haven, the other ranking Republican on the committee, noted that religious structures are often in the most prominent sections of towns. “That being said, we need to be doing something — right? — to eradicate homelessness. I don't know if this gets to the heart of it. I think it asks too much of municipalities.”

Democrats said that whatever can be done to help the needs of the homeless is good for the state, overall.

“This bill will create more housing,” said Sen. MD Rahman, D-Manchester, co-chairman of the committee. “We have a moral obligation as a legislature providing for the people who desperately need a place to live. People cannot afford to pay for health care, food or shelter. We have a moral obligation to find a place for those people to live.”

Rep. Eleni Kavros Degraw, D-Avon, committee co-chairwoman, said there are 1,000 state residents who sleep outside every night, and in Fairfield County, there are about 30 who are children. “We have 4,000 people living in shelters. We can't get them transitioning out of the shelters. We have a significant amount of people who are over the age of 55,” she said. “That is something that apparently has never been seen in Connecticut before and that is certainly weighing on my mind, because that's a really difficult time of your life.”

Another bill advanced by the Democratic majority on the committee to the House floor would cut the current interest rate of 18 percent on delinquent property taxes, to 12 percent. A similar piece of legislation recently won approval in the legislative Banks Committee

“I'm a big proponent of personal responsibility,” Zullo said. “People should be paying their bills. We have a plethora of programs in the state of Connecticut intended to help people to create a safety net when they do fall on hard times. With interest rates where they are right now, around 7 or 8 percent, that's not really much more of a penalty compared to where interest rates are. The whole point of the interest rate being as high as it is right now, is that it's supposed to act as a deterrent to keep people from playing games with their bills and to pay them roughly on time. Towns rely on these numbers, particularly small towns.”