New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Survey to gauge money concerns
BRANFORD — Some residents are reeling financially from economic impacts of the COVID pandemic, according to the Branford Counseling & Community Services. And the town wants to hear from them.
The town posted an online Basic Needs Assessment questionnaire, developed by the counseling center and East Shore Health District. This survey will help the
town identify those who have been affected by job loss, are facing eviction or foreclosure and are struggling with rising costs at the grocery store and gas pump.
The survey is anonymous and confidential. Links are also emailed to residents who are on the town’s mailing list.
Peter Cimino, director of the counseling center, noted that some 34 percent of Branford households fall into or below the category of working poor as set by guidelines of the United Way. Called ALICE, the acronym stands for household that are “asset limited, income constrained, employed.” .
In Connecticut, a family of four with income less than $90,660
per year would be considered among the working poor, according to United Way.
Both Guilford and Madison have 23 percent households that fall in the category of ALICE or poorer, while East Haven has 43 percent of its households below the ALICE threshold, according to United Way.
The counseling center was awarded $100,000 from the town’s $8.2 million allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
“What we’re going to try to do is take a look at that population where they are — we have an idea and see if we can reach out to them and help them,” said Cimino.
Branford residents have “struggled with basic needs” such as utilities, transportation and shelter or housing, according to town
officials.
Early on in the pandemic in 2020, the town saw an uptick in requests for help, according to Cimino. But as residents got their first round of stimulus payments and moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures were enacted, the center saw a general slowdown of requests for aid.
At the beginning of 2020, “There was a consistent request for help with rents and utilities,” Cimino said.
The stimulus checks helped, he said, but, “I think people got somewhat complacent with it and thought, ‘OK, I don’t have to worry about paying my rent yet or staying on top of my utilities.’”
“We thought, OK people are waiting, but we also knew when all of that was going to be over, there was going to be a mad rush to get stuff taken care of and I think that’s what we’re seeing,” Cimino said.
When money was available to help residents with their rent, many did not come forward, he said. Landlords didn’t apply for financial help, either, he added.
“It was almost like a perfect storm. People were getting money that the government was giving them and then they had an opportunity to get more money to pay back their rents and some people didn’t take advantage of it,” he said.
“We encouraged people who called us to apply for that,” Cimino said, noting that the application process for rental assistance was challenging. “We even said we would help some people with the paperwork and that was cumbersome for some people.”
“People didn’t want to do that,” he added. “Landlords definitely didn’t want to do that — even though they were going to get some money.”
“And here we are,” Cimino said, noting that the window has closed for COVID-related rental assistance. “With some people we can’t pay as much back rent as they accumulated over time or even with the utilities. We’re not going to be able to help with that.”
Now that the foreclosure moratorium has ended, Cimino predicted he will see more requests for aid.
Now, as requests are flowing into the counseling center, Cimino said “we’re also limited to how much we can help people – the dollar amounts. In Branford the rents are a little high and we’ve had to cap it at $500. And sometimes we’d go a little higher if it’s going to make this person absolutely homeless.”
People who recently have sought financial assistance for unpaid utility bills have back charges as high as $1,200 to
$1,900, according to Mike Randi, social services coordinator
“There are some people who are probably going to lose their power,” Randi said.
“If it’s a utility issue,” Cimino said, “Mike [Randi] will call the utility company and try to negotiate something with them so people don’t lose either their power or heat.”
“Usually we’re able to work out some kind of deal with them make a payment on the account and work with the client” to make sure they keep up with their monthly payments,” Cimino said.
But there are some ways Branford Counseling Center can help — in the form of gas cards, food cards to supermarkets, and referrals to the Community Dining Room, which serves lunch daily and the food pantry.
Food is one area that Branford is efficient at delivering to those in need, he said.
“There are a lot of resources in town. Nobody should be starving in Branford,” Cimino said. “We get them hooked up with that so they can get some food.”
“What we’ll do sometimes is give them some food cards from Big Y or Stop & Shop and we give them a couple of hundred bucks if necessary to go buy some food,” he added.
The center also gets calls from the elderly about heating concerns in the colder months — but it’s not limited to fuel or electricity.
“We’re getting calls from people who couldn’t afford to fix their furnaces . ... We don’t want anybody to freeze,” he said.
As for the additional $100,000 in ARPA funds coming to the center on top of its $58,000 line item in the town budget, “Were grateful to get whatever were going to get,” Cimino said.