Yash Roy Photo
Gov. Lamont with LULAC families at Monday's announcement.
Meghan Gonzalez, her husband, and three kids had been homeless for 5 years before earlier this year they got “the miracle call”: they would finally have a roof over their heads.
Gonzalez’s family is one of 20 in Connecticut that have benefited from a first-in-the-nation “Head Start on Housing” program tying the federal Head Start pre-school program with the state’s Department of Housing to offer rent vouchers to vulnerable families with young kids.
On Monday Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno and Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye attended a press conference at LULAC to commemorate the success of the pilot program as well as announce an expansion, by 35 vouchers, beginning July 1.
“Connecticut is a national leader by combining housing and Head Start,” said Lamont. “It’s no coincidence that the president and vice-president both came to Connecticut to look at early childhood centers and programs. It’s the most important investment we can make as a state and I’m going to make sure we maintain that commitment everyday to these kids.”
Meghan Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s story began with LULAC Head Start, a 0 – 5 childcare and educational center located at 295 Cedar St. in the Hill.
After one of Gonzalez’s family members, who had previously worked at LULAC, told her about the center and the help it could provide, Gonzalez sent her three kids to LULAC. She was also set up with LULAC Family Services Coordinator Janic Maysonet.
Working with Maysonet, Gonzalez entered into the pilot of Head Start on Humanity in January and was finally able to get into an apartment with her kids.
“I dropped to the floor and started crying,” said Gonzalez. “I never thought that would happen. I’ve gone through so many programs and never heard back so to get help from headstart which isn’t even a housing program is just amazing. It’s amazing to tell my kids that this is home and be able to tell them that we’re not going to another place tomorrow. I hope I can share my story so that even more families can get the help they need.”
State Head Start coordinator Elena Trueworthy at Monday's event.
Head Start on Humanity is a joint venture among the state’s offices of Early Childhood, Housing, Head Start State Collaboration, the CT Head Start Association, and the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare.
Head Start originated in New Haven in the 1960s under President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” anti-poverty initiative, to provide early educational services to families with incomes up to 100 percent of the federal poverty line. It became a celebrated nationwide program that continues to this day.
“The one missing piece of Head Start was housing,” Ruth White, executive director of the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare. “Head Start staff are required to go out and recruit families that are experiencing housing instability or homelessness but couldn’t attach vouchers which must have been infuriating for them. 1.5 million children in the American public schools system are experiencing homelessness right now so hopefully this program can become a model for state’s across the nation.”
Betsy Cronin, the woman on the left, originally thought of tying housing and Head Start.
Betsy Cronin (pictured above at left), program director of a statewide nonprofit housing group called the Connection, originally thought of tying housing and rent vouchers to Head Start programs in the state and took the idea to the state commissioner of housing and found support.
“I’ve experienced near homelessness before and received government subsidized housing, so when they came to speak to me, thinking it would be one of the hardest meetings of their life, I said yes immediately,” said Mosquera-Bruno.
According to LULAC Head Start Executive Director Mikyle Byrd-Vaughn, Gonzalez is one of five families at LULAC who have received housing vouchers in the last six months. The center has eight families lined up for the current set of 35 vouchers which are being shared across the state.
Steve DiLella, the head of Head Start on Housing, said the department plans on revising the state’s Section 8 rental subsidy policies so that one in three of the vouchers is applied to this program. He predicted that change will allow for an additional 75 – 100 vouchers this year as well as annually.
