Josh Elliott

GOVERNOR LAMONT PROVIDES UPDATE ON CONNECTICUT’S CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE EFFORTS (Latest Data as of 6:00PM on Monday, June 29, 2020)

For several additional graphs and tables containing more data, including a list of cases in every municipality, click here.

Governor Lamont signs 57^th executive order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19

Governor Lamont today signed another executive order – the 57^th since he enacted the emergency declarations – that builds upon his efforts to encourage mitigation strategies that slow down transmission of the virus. Executive Order No. 7DDD enacts the following provisions:

• Extended protections for residential renters affected by COVID-19: Extends the moratorium on residential evictions to August 22, and extends opportunities for residential renters to apply money from their security deposits to payment of rent.
• Authority to extend statutory and regulatory administrative deadlines by an additional 90 days: Expands by an additional 90 days the ability for state agencies to extend any statutory or regulatory deadlines for filings, decisions, and notice in the many permitting and other applications and administrative hearings under their purview, and requires agencies to post any changes on their respective web sites. This is an extension of the order originally issued in Executive Order No. 7M.

State Department of Education releases comprehensive plan for returning to in-school, full-time instruction for the 2020-21 academic year

The Connecticut State Department of Education today released “Adapt, Advance, Achieve: Connecticut’s Plan to Learn and Grow Together,” a comprehensive plan that will serve as a roadmap for districts as they plan to reopen schools at the beginning of the 2020-21 academic year. The release of the document follows the announcement last week of a framework to allow all students – in all districts statewide – the opportunity to have access to in-school, full-time instruction in the fall as long as public health data continues to support this model.

To read the full plan, click here.

For more information, read the press release issued today by the State Department of Education.

Elements of this plan include:

• $10 million rental assistance program for Connecticut residents impacted by COVID-19, administered through the Department of Housing, which will provide payments to landlords on behalf of approved tenant applicants, with a priority on lower-income households who have been denied unemployment insurance;
• $5 million for eviction prevention to help renters who were in the process of eviction before the declaration of the COVID-19 public health emergency;
• $10 million to provide mortgage relief to homeowners who have suffered impacts from COVID-19 and whose mortgages are not federally insured, administered by the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA);
• $4 million in rapid rehousing funds to help people pay costs like security deposits and initial rent to exit homelessness to housing, administered by the Department of Housing;
• $2.5 million rental assistance program for those who are ineligible for emergency assistance through the federal CARES Act, including those who are undocumented, administered by the Department of Housing;
• $1.8 million in funding for reentry and rehousing assistance for people exiting incarceration, administered by the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness;
• Extending the residential eviction moratorium to August 25, bringing Connecticut’s measures in line with federal measures (the CARES Act prevents evictions from most properties until late summer); and
• Extending the opportunity to apply a portion of any security deposit worth more than one month’s rent toward rental payments.

All housing assistance programs administered through the state and through CHFA will include housing counseling to help renters and homeowners problem solve and develop plans to pay housing costs going forward.

 

For more information, click here.