As United Way continues to work towards advancing the common good by creating opportunities for a better life through our focus on income (one of our three identified building blocks for a good life), help for individuals and families in our region to increase financial stability takes on new life with the expansion of Smart About Money (SAM) budget coaching program to SAM 3.0!
Amy Casavina Hall, Senior Director of Income and Health Initiatives, talks about what is happening in Greater New Haven related to housing. She discusses housing affordability and homeless in Connecticut and how widespread the issues are in our region. The conversation includes the origins of individual and family homelessness and the pipeline of challenges and services that people encounter when they need help.
It turns out that my random decisions are not so random, rather highly predictable and easily influenced. And I am not alone. Behavioral economics has unraveled a whole new world of understanding people's actions, and provided compelling evidence to break-down some of the stagnant or ineffective structures/policies/ideologies that have persisted for so long.
SAM uses volunteer Budget Coaches to help educate, guide and encourage households to identify and work through specific financial concerns and goals. The curriculum is based on a budget coaching program developed by Co-Opportunity, Inc. and United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. Together, SAM participants and coaches work to change behaviors toward achieving long-term financial success.
An estimated 19% of Connecticut households (the highest rate in New England) either have no checking and savings account, or use fringe financial services rather than their own banking accounts. While 61% of CT’s unbanked/underbanked individuals are employed full-time in New Haven County 7.2% (the highest rate in Connecticut) of these individuals who can least afford it, pay to cash payroll, government entitlement checks and pay bills. In addition, due to their non-utilization and under utilization of the traditional financial systems these households lack strong credit histories and the safety of secured financial holdings.
