Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration is taking a new approach to solving homelessness.
Lamont has formed a panel of agency heads that will work together to prevent and respond to the issue.
The Connecticut Interagency Council on Homelessness will be led by Housing Commissioner Selia Mosquera-Bruno. It will include leaders from the departments of aging, children and families, correction, labor, mental health, veterans affairs and more.
“The council's work will build on DOH’s existing efforts to not only understand and support our service providers, but also to address the needs of our families and individuals in crisis,” Mosquera-Bruno said. “More specifically, the council will strengthen current programs through interagency collaboration using a holistic approach.”
Department of Labor Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo said this initiative is different from what’s been done before.
“Now we're focused on getting together and determining how we can not recreate the wheel but utilize what maybe another agency is funding already for this,” Bartolomeo said.
She gave the example of a family struggling to live in a house that’s too small.
“Bring that one person and ask any of us [in the council], raise your hand if you have services that can accommodate that one family. Pretty much all of us will raise our hand,” Bartolomeo said. “So if we can work together and braid our funding so that we can provide comprehensive support systems, that's what Governor Lamont is asking us to do.”
The council will also create an advisory committee of practitioners and advocates to advise the state agencies.
“I look at California and New York and Oregon, I see places where they did not get ahead of what is a human rights tragedy," Lamont said. "We're trying to stay ahead of it as best we can. And that's what this task force is all about.”
Lamont said he is not sure if additional funding will be allocated to the council.
