Thanks to the successful launch of the UniteCT program, emergency rental assistance funds are helping Connecticut residents maintain housing. The program is administered by the state’s Department of Housing and runs on technology from Yardi called Rent Relief.
UniteCT is funded with $420 million in grants for rent and electricity payments on households impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen state, county, and city government agencies administered more than $1 billion in emergency rental assistance funds. Rent Relief has over 156,000 registered users and has submitted more than 156,000 applications.
Program manager, Marina Marmolejo, said, “The UniteCT bus is an exciting new solution to combat the digital divide in communities who need additional support with technology. We are reimagining the rent relief application process by going to the individual and setting the precedent for other programs to come.”
Yardi launched online application portals and trained case review team members to begin vetting fully submitted applications. Users have created more than 10,000 accounts within the first few days of the application going live.
"Like many others, I had moments of deep concern this past year. Just in time, UniteCT staff stepped in like superheroes to help,” said a grateful participant of UniteCT. “Thank you for all that you've done to help those facing financial hardship during the pandemic.”
Dawn Parker, director of UniteCT, said, “We continue to do a lot of multi-media outreach including radio, newspaper articles, and social media. We have created sixteen UniteCT Resource Centers throughout the state to assist applicants with their application and other housing stability services offered by nonprofit partners. The feedback we are getting is that the Rent Relief platform is stable and relatively simple to use.”
Learn more about this program by visiting RentRelief.com, or for more information on Yardi, visit yardi.com.
