Connecticut on Tuesday joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit against the federal government over policy changes that service providers say will leave thousands more people homeless.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced changes to funding for what are called continuums of care, or the regional groups that organize to address homelessness. Those changes prioritize funding for programs that require people to meet preexisting conditions such as sobriety, push people into stays at psychiatric facilities, ask about people’s immigration status before giving them services and recognize only two genders.
Continuums of care offer rental aid to nearly 6,000 households across the state. Many of those formerly homeless people are in permanent supportive housing, which means they have disabilities and get services at their homes.
Attorney General William Tong said the state signed on to the lawsuit to try to stop people from losing their homes under the new policy. The aid could end as soon as January for some households.
“They’re putting a bunch of nonsensical, ridiculous conditions on this funding,” Tong said during a Tuesday press conference. “They’re now saying that if you serve people who are transgender, and you acknowledge that they are not the gender of their birth, or if they won’t go into a program because they struggle with addiction, then they can’t be housed. They can’t have a roof over their heads.
“We are just trying to make sure that people are safe and that they don’t die out in the cold, and that’s why we’re suing.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits Tong’s office has signed on to against the federal government since President Donald Trump came into office in January. It also comes as homelessness is rising in Connecticut and temperatures drop.
HUD formerly allowed service providers to put 90% of their federal funding through the continuums into these housing programs, and some people have been living in apartments with this aid for decades. Now, HUD has said, only 30% of the money can go to these programs starting in 2026.
HUD did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Sarah Fox, chief executive of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, said the funding is critical and she is glad to see Tong step up.
“These are people who have been housed for years, and their housing is just as important as every one of ours,” Fox said. “We need to keep these people housed. We need to ensure that they remain housed, and we appreciate the state for stepping up.”
Service providers have asked Gov. Ned Lamont to commit $70 million of the $500 million flexible fund the legislature approved earlier this month to address federal cuts toward the continuums of care. Lamont last week said he was in conversation with agencies and other officials about the best way to spend the money.
“Now there’s some threats in terms of housing cuts,” Lamont said last week. “We do have a $500 million reserve there to take care of the most vulnerable in need, to make sure that nobody is sitting outside, can’t get a place to stay in January if it’s due to the fact that the feds have cut back on things.”
The Connecticut Mirror requested comment at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday about the $70 million request from the governor’s office, which referred the CT Mirror to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Commissioner Nancy Navarretta, in a statement sent to the CT Mirror around 5:15 p.m., after this story was initially published, said the changes would endanger many of the people the department serves but didn’t address the funding request.
“Further, the policy changes accompanying the funding component would rewind the clock on effective, evidenced-based practices in favor of confinement,” Navarretta said. “We have decades of proof: involuntary treatment and punitive criminal justice approaches drive trauma, not recovery. Connecticut is a national leader on these issues, and we cannot endanger the progress we have made through the decades”.
Lawmakers on Tuesday said in a press release that they were concerned about the cuts. Housing Committee co-chair Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, said that the state needs to “fight these cuts with urgency and be unapologetic.”
Housing Committee co-chair Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, said the action “undoes decades of important work, and we cannot allow that to happen.”
Chair of the End Homelessness Caucus Rep. Kadeem Roberts, D-Norwalk, said the actions amounted to “unwarranted cruelty.”
“These changes by this federal administration and HUD to the Continuum of Care program are not only cruel but will have real consequences for thousands of residents experiencing housing instability,” Roberts said. “This is particularly concerning to me as temperatures begin to drop and housing becomes even more vital.”
