The state’s program to help residents of the North End with chronic flooding issues will be shut down at the end of the year because the federal funding to support it will dry up and the number of applications has waned.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon announced Tuesday that the deadline to submit an application to the Hartford Flood Relief & Compensation Program, or HFCP, is Dec. 2, to give the administrator time to review and process them before the end of the year.
The state legislature has used more than $6 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for the program and that money needs to be used by Dec. 31.
Scanlon said in an interview with The Connecticut Mirror Tuesday that applications have significantly declined, even after the program was expanded to assist out-of-town business owners.
“We have helped hundreds of people. We’ve put millions of dollars in the community, and I’m just not sure how much more there is out there,” Scanlon said of the need.
He added that if a spike of applications arrive at the deadline that would require the state to provide more funding “state officials would figure out how to do that.”
But some community activists who have been fighting to solve the flooding problem in the North End were surprised the state is ending the program.
Bridgitte Prince, who has fought for relief for North End residents with city, state and federal officials, said Tuesday she was stunned.
Prince said the state and federal government have found funding for flooding victims in the Oxford/Southbury area after a recent storm and the victims of crumbling foundation in eastern Connecticut so they should be able to “find funding for the Black people in Hartford.”
“Why is it, when it comes to the North End of Hartford, with a predominantly Black community, all of a sudden there’s a hard stop with funds,” Prince said.
But Scanlon said comparing the recent flooding in the Oxford area that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding or the crumbling foundations to flooding in Hartford isn’t analogous.
“This is a unique solution to solve a unique problem,” Scanlon said. “I’m really proud of the fact that we have helped more than 600 people through millions of dollars of funding. And I guarantee you, if you asked each of those 600 whether they ever thought they’d see any money for this, the answer to that would be no.”
Scanlon said if there’s not a massive spike in applications at the deadline that “will tell us that we pretty much helped all their people that really had serious damage or really needed help with this problem.”
HFCP has approved more than 446 applications, awarding more than $6 million to Hartford residents and business owners impacted by flooding, with an average claim payout of $13,000, according to the comptroller’s data.
The program has received 650 applications to date and has disbursed more than $6.6 million in available funds, including administrative expenses.
The program was launched with great fanfare in September 2023 after Gov. Ned Lamont and several others held a press conference in the North End announcing a $170 million project to deal with systemic flooding issues in the neighborhood.
At the press conference Lamont apologized to residents for the state taking so long to address the chronic issue, acknowledging “if there were sewage bubbling up in a basement in Guilford or Greenwich, they’d be getting that fixed overnight, and now we’re gonna get it fixed right here.”
The legislature initially put $5 million into the fund but a year later Scanlon and Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, announced an expansion of the program to non-resident property and business owners, as well as an additional $4 million in funding. Scanlon said very few businesses have taken advantage of the program.
The majority of the $170 million will be applied to 12 projects proposed by the Metropolitan District Commission to increase protections from sewer and stormwater-related flooding and backups in north Hartford. Those projects are on-going and are not expected to be finished for several years.
Ritter said part of the $85 million that the state is contributing is also being used for another first-of-its-kind program where residents can schedule MDC inspections and receive recommendations, such as sump pumps.
Ritter added it’s the only program in the country where the state, using Clean Water Fund dollars, pays for contractors to go on private property, do inspections and then make the repairs with no cost to the homeowner.
“The Hartford Flood Relief and Compensation Program provides funding to families and businesses who felt like their problems were being pushed to the side,” Ritter said. “We listened, and the program committed millions of dollars to ensure their homes could be repaired and remediated, and their possessions replaced.”
This story was first published Nov. 12, 2024 in the Connecticut Mirror.
