(a) The Commissioner of Housing shall establish and administer a rent bank program of grants to ensure housing for families whose income does not exceed sixty per cent of the median income in the state, including those receiving temporary family assistance, who are either at risk of becoming homeless or in imminent danger of eviction or foreclosure.

(b) To be eligible for assistance under this section, a family shall (1) document, as appropriate, loss of income or increase in expenses including, but not limited to, loss of employment, medical disability or emergency, loss or delay in receipt of other benefits, natural or man-made disaster, substantial and permanent change in household composition and any other condition which the commissioner determines constitutes a severe hardship and is not likely to recur and (2) participate in the assessment and mediation program established under section 8-347a.

(c) No family shall receive financial assistance under this section in excess of one thousand two hundred dollars during any eighteen consecutive months.

(d) The commissioner may adopt regulations in accordance with chapter 54 to determine eligibility standards for grants under this section and to carry out the purposes of this section.

(P.A. 90-257, S. 4, 17; P.A. 93-262, S. 1, 87; June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2, S. 84, 165; P.A. 03-25, S. 1; P.A. 13-234, S. 2.)

History: P.A. 93-262 authorized substitution of commissioner and department of social services for commissioner and department of human resources, effective July 1, 1993; Sec. 17-619 transferred to Sec. 17b-804 in 1995; June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2 replaced references to aid to families with dependent children with temporary family assistance and made technical changes, effective July 1, 1997; P.A. 03-25 eliminated references to “loans” and “repayment”, deleted former Subsec. (c) re repayment terms for financial assistance under program and redesignated existing Subsecs. (d) and (e) as Subsecs. (c) and (d); pursuant to P.A. 13-234, reference to Commissioner of Social Services was changed editorially by the Revisors to reference to Commissioner of Housing in Subsec. (a), effective June 19, 2013; Sec. 17b-804 transferred to Sec. 8-347 in 2015.