LEGISLATIVE ANNOUNCEMENT

Announcing the CT CAN End Homelessness 2025 Legislative Agenda

On Friday, January 10th, CT CAN End Homelessness held a press event to launch the 2025 Legislative Agenda! We were joined by more than 100 advocates, as well as twenty legislators from both sides of the aisle and from across the state, to speak to the need for annualized, ongoing funding for homeless services in Connecticut.

You can see coverage of the event from CT Mirror, CT Public and CT Insider.

Key takeaways from the event:

Homelessness is increasing:

• Between the January 2023 and January 2024 Point In Time counts, homelessness increased 13% statewide, and of those people, 44% were children or older adults.
• As of right now, there are more than 5000 people on the CTHMIS By Name List (BNL) experiencing homelessness, including 900 people who are unsheltered, and 500 children.

Homelessness is solvable:

• Connecticut’s Coordinated Access Networks, shelter and outreach services, local hubs, and emergency response are consistently ranked among the best in the country.
• The Homeless Response System is there for people who have nowhere else to turn, whether they need light-touch assistance or a shelter bed.
• We are an important part of safety net that more and more Connecticut residents turn to when they can no longer afford their rent or are facing eviction.

We need sustainable solutions:

• The CT CAN End Homelessness 2025 Legislative Agenda is a strategic pathway forward toward solving homelessness, with a continuum of solutions ranging from Prevention to Crisis Response to Housing.
• At each step, we need committed funding in the state’s budget, indexed to inflation, as well as policy solutions to address interagency coordination, alternatives to ticketing, fines, and arrests, and incentives to house people experiencing homelessness.

Looking Ahead to the 2025 Legislative Session:

The success of the event was thanks to the outreach and hard work of advocates and Coordinated Access Networks throughout this fall. Throughout the months leading up to the start of the legislative session you have told your stories, presented data, and brought legislators into the discussion about the needs of your communities.

We look forward to connecting with you as we begin to see bills raised in the Housing and Appropriations Committees. We are on hand to help you draft testimony, make a plan to attend public hearings, and to provide talking points for your conversations with legislators.

Register to attend the monthly CT CAN End Homelessness Policy & Advocacy Committee meetings. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 18th, from 1-2:30PM.