The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
With Election Day weeks away, candidates talk homelessness, housing in Middlesex County
MIDDLETOWN » With election day now less than three weeks away, legislative candidates from around the county met at a city church Friday to debate homelessness and housing.
The Middlesex County Coalition on Housing and Homelessness convened a legislative breakfast at the Cross Street AME Zion Church Fridaymorning. Ten candidates, incumbents and challengers, joined county residents to mull over the coalition’s proposed legislative priorities.
The Coalition proposed that the general assembly focus on supportive housing, shelter diversion and rapid rehousing, a coordinated access system, expanding the state’s Rental Assistance Program, job programs and streamlining access to affordable housing.
Dawn Parker, a program manager for The Connection Inc. and a member of the coalition’s steering committee, moderated the panel and laid out the proposed priorities for the candidates.
Joe Serra, a representative for Middletown and a Democrat and House co-chair of the Aging Committee, said he was also fielding regular calls from seniors anxious about rental rebates, but that there was also a need for transportation funding “to get low-income people to work.”
Matt Lesser, the city’s other Democratic representative, said that in lean times, “we’re going to have a lot of very tough
“Everybody deserves a roof over their head and shelter fromthe cold at night. — Len Suzio, Republican candidate
fiscal decisions” in the next legislative term, but that “one of the critical things that we’ve identified in this county is that diversion.”
Sen. Dante Bartolomeo, D-Meriden, said the state should consider more medical respite programs such as the Middletown Community Care Team, which caters to patients who make frequent emergency room visits.
Len Suzio, a Republican and former state senator challenging Bartolomeo, said that issues of “housing and shelter is most acutely felt by women with small children.”
“Everybody deserves a roof over their head and shelter from the cold at night,” said Suzio. With the next incarnation of the state government facing a likely budget deficit, “we’re going to be looking at trying to preserver every program that we can,” he added.
Suzio said that affordable housing should take priority, adding that one-third of city housing “is unaffordable for the people living in Middletown.” He said that rather than relying on government programs, groups like the coalition should invite more banks to become partners.
State Sen. Paul Doyle, a Wethersfield Democrat running unopposed for reelection, said supportive housing was crucial. “I don’t want to minimize the other options, because they’re all very important,” he said.
Linda Szynkowicz, a Republican looking to unseat Serra, proposed internship programs to train needy residents in job skills to prepare them for regular employment.