The state Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would provide attorneys to low-income tenants facing evictions.
The vote anticipates a wave of evictions that could come as pandemic-inspired state and federal moratoriums are lifted, and as federal funding — provided to the state to help clear the backlog of rent that went unpaid during the pandemic — awaits distribution.
“A good attorney — especially a legal aid attorney — who deals with this all day long can bring resources to that tenant in terms of finances, counseling, various other problems that tenant may be facing that are contributing factors towards the eviction or non payment,” Sen. Rick Lopes, a Democrat from New Britain and the co-chair of the Housing Committee, said on the senate floor Tuesday. “There are things now being put in place to help landlords who have lost rent during that time, and they are a work in progress, but they are moving in the right direction.”