The Connecticut Elder Law Blog

Section 8 Housing and Rental Assistance Program Announcement

This post is a summary of a Public Notice from the State of Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS).

DSS will make the waiting lists for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program and State Rental Assistance Program (RAP) available statewide on Monday, June 18, 2007.

Pre-applications for the programs are accepted from elderly, disabled, single-member households and families. Applicants must be eighteen (18) years of age or older to apply, or an emancipated minor. The programs offer rent subsidies to eligible families.

The same pre-application form is used to apply for both programs.  A computer lottery system will be used to select seven thousand (7,000) pre-applications for the Section 8 and five thousand (5,000)
pre-applications for the RAP waiting lists from pre-applications received during the application period.

Pre-applications for the waiting list must be mailed to: Section 8/RAP, P.O. Box 1039, Southington, CT 06489.

Only pre-applications postmarked between Monday, June 18, and Monday, June 25, 2007 will be accepted. One pre-application form per family is accepted. Make sure your pre-application is complete and legible or it will not be accepted.  Applicants will be notified only if they are selected to be on a waiting list.

Pre-applications will be available June 18 through June 25 at the DSS web site and all DSS offices.  The Section 8 Voucher page of the Department of Administrative Services web site.

Applicants with disabilities who require assistance may call 211, which is the United Way Info-Line. Deaf and hearing impaired individuals may contact the department via TDD/TTY at 1-800-842-4524.

Forget Power Lunches...Try a "Power Walk" Through Glastonbury!

For anyone who works in town and is interested, the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce recently launched a wellness initiative with several health & fitness businesses and organizations (and one law firm) to establish the Glastonbury Chamber as the healthiest chamber in Connecticut. 

This wellness initiaive has resulted in the Glastonbury Chamber Walking Group which organizes daily walks, Monday through Friday (possibly less often during the summer months) at 12:30pm.  These half-hour walks start and finish at the fountain near the intersection of Main Street and Hebron Avenue.  The route is half on sidewalks, half on trails that have been created as part of the new Riverfront Park.  Participants get free pedometers from Connecticare and the Chamber Insurance Trust.

I've jumped into a couple walks so far and it has been a great way to meet and "network" with other Chamber members, but you don't need to be a Chamber member to participate.

If you're interested, make sure you join us on Monday the 11th because Channel 8 News will be there to do a story on the walking group.  The Hartford Courant will also show up to do a photo shoot and story.  Hope to see you there!

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and that you enjoy the great weather!

Kudos to Glastonbury Senior Center for Accreditation

The Glastonbury Senior Center has certainly come a long way.  The seniors in our town had to deal with a relatively disjointed program which had lunch, computer classes, exercise classes and crafts all in completely different locations. 

But that was a couple of years ago.  Then Glastonbury's beautiful Riverfront Community Center opened in the fall of 2005 and the senior center was finally able to keep all of its activities and operations under one roof.  Since the big move, the senior center's programming has increased by 31%, lunch attendance has gone up 61% and the average daily number of seniors participating in programs jumed from 160 to 225. 

And now, to cap off all of the improvements, the Glastonbury Senior Center has earned the much sought-after accreditation of the National Institute of Senior Centers.  The honor has been given to only seven senior centers in Connecticut and only 126 centers nationwide.

Congratulations to the center's coordinator, Maryleah Skronski and her crew.  Well done...you've made the town proud!

A Plug for "The Glastonbury Connection"

This post is more geared toward my local readers, but I would just like to put in a plug for a fellow blogger, Zilru Jones, and her blog, "The Glastonbury Connection" which is an effort to keep Glastonbury residents informed of what's going on in our community. 

Zilru covers a wide spectrum of topics including local politics, sports, businesses, etc.  While my running blog is highly focused on one patricular aspect of life in Glastonbury, I think it's fantastic that there is a blog that is casting a wider net for the town.  So please bookmark it or add it to your reader and please submit comments to Zilru's posts in order to generate a nice blog-forum for the town.