Amid revelations about Connecticut's dispersal of Superstorm Sandy disaster relief funds to wealthy homeowners a decade ago and concerns about what some advocates see as a misuse of federal aid, the state's former housing commissioner says the state simply adhered to federal guidelines for administering the program.

"Connecticut followed all of the federal regulations," said Evonne Klein, who left Connecticut's housing department in 2019 and now leads the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. "The program that Connecticut developed was based on federal guidelines, and we did not veer off."

On Tuesday, Politico revealed in a lengthy report that a portion of the federal funds intended for low-income Connecticut homeowners affected by Hurricane Sandy were distributed instead to wealthy residents, such as a Greenwich family whose house was valued at $2.6 million. Altogether, Politico reported, owners of houses worth more than $1 million received a total of $6.4 million, about 15 percent of the $44 million in total aid from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

- Casey

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I searched the subreddit before posting but couldn’t find it. My bad on that - Casey

https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/zyahh1/this_makes_my_brain_hurt_connecticut_used/

Here you go! Disregard the flak for reposting.

Ah, okay! The link I shared is a follow-up with a response from the former CT housing commissioner responsible for the relief program. This was included in our story:

In a phone interview Tuesday, Evonne Klein countered that the state prioritized low-income residents, offering aid to wealthier households only when there was money left over. She added that not everyone who lives in an expensive house is necessarily wealthy.

"Folks on the upper end of the income scale were the last to receive any kind of funding," she said. "The majority of the funding went to people in lower income brackets."

Klein said HUD audited Connecticut's dispersal of funds at the time and did not raise any concerns. She also noted that Bridgeport, which saw relatively little funding from the relief program, received more than $40 million in disaster resilience funding as part of a separate grant."

Edit: In the Politico story, Klein appears shocked about some higher income folks getting aid:

“Wow. Wow,” said Evonne Klein, who oversaw the disaster aid program as Connecticut’s housing commissioner, after E&E News told her that some of the money had gone to the owner of a $5.5 million home.

-Casey

Thanks for clarifying, my response was under-informed

My guess is most poor people don’t have beachfront properties.

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There should an exclusion area around coastlines that automatically disqualifies buildings for disaster aid.

Primary place of residence should be the determining factoring when allocating funds.

No. Income is a bigger factor. Higher incomes qualify for low interest SBA disaster relief loans and they got those too. As the experts quoted in this and the longer Politico story, those particular HUD funds are the only disaster funds available to the lowest income property owners. The others had more than one stream. They also tend to be savvier about flood insurance to ensure it covers what they want it to and is supposed to.

I can't believe Evonne Klein, who ran the program, did not think there was anything wrong with skipping Bridgeport when they opened several intake centers for applying for the disaster funds. She put the closest one in Fairfield. Who does that?

And now she is in charge of the Coalition to End Homelessness.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/27/connecticut-hurricane-sandy-recovery-00074134

No public funds should go towards rebuilding storm damaged homes. Moral hazard.

Well I mean, me and my dad have always said it’s our dream to be homeless in Hawaii.