Faiva Jones-Kelley spends about $1,000 a month to rent her three-bedroom apartment in a Stamford public housing complex.
The single mother of two now faces a monthly rent increase of approximately $200 because the budget approved by the state legislature and Gov. M. Jodi Rell does not include $2.2 million in state funding for public housing authority properties in 22 towns. The new two-year budget also did not finance a $1.7 million grant for public housing run by nonprofit agencies.
Families renting nearly 10,500 units across Connecticut are affected by the funding changes.
Jones-Kelly, a residential commissioner in her housing complex, said she knows many people won’t be able to afford such a large rent increase.
“I guarantee it. You are looking at a lot of homeless people,” she said.
Public Outcry
Public housing officials held a news conference last week at the Legislative Office Building to call on Rell and state lawmakers to restore the funds for these long-standing programs, possibly when legislators are expected to return to the Capitol later this month to vote on bonding bills.
If the money is not found, officials said they will have to increase the base rents set for people with the lowest incomes. The timing of the rent increases would vary from town to town.
“This is a grave concern to us,” said William Vasiliou, executive director of the Middletown Housing Authority. “You can imagine the impact on this payment that now has to be borne by the residents.”
In Middletown, the $255 base rent is set to increase by $386, for a total of $641 a month.
Residents typically pay either the base rent or 30 percent of their incomes, whichever is greater, to live in the public housing properties.
Chris Cooper, Rell’s communications director, said the Republican governor is considering the possibility of covering the funding gap by shifting money from elsewhere. But he said the lack of funding shouldn’t be a surprise because the money wasn’t included in either the governor’s budget or the spending plan offered by the majority Democrats earlier this year.
While the housing money wasn’t part of the new two-year budget, which took effect July 1, the package did include historic amounts of additional aid to cities and towns. Much of that extra funding is earmarked for public education.
