Since 2019, calls and online requests for help to the state’s 211 hotline have increased 300% and staffers are struggling to keep up with the influx in calls. The state is now stepping in to help.
Gov. Ned Lamont recently allocated an additional $2.6 million to increase call response.
The increased need for assistance has led to significant 211 call wait times, according to United Way of Connecticut Chief Executive Officer Lisa Tepper-Bates.
“I'm sorry to say that lately, we've had people waiting sometimes hours for us to be able to help them. That's what this will help us do, is to get to people faster,” Tepper-Bates said. “We know sometimes, someone is calling on their lunch break. They have to go back and man the counter. They can't wait, and if we call them back, we may or may not get them, because they're working, they're trying to earn a living.”
United Way operates the state’s 211 hotline, which connects residents to social services, including housing and food assistance and childcare services. Calls for help with housing alone rose over 30% from 2023 to 2024.
It’s important the center can answer calls as quickly as possible, Tepper-Bates said.
With the additional state funding, United Way will be able to hire 11 additional call center staff, according to Tanya Barrett, senior vice president of the 211 Division. The staff will train for about a month before they can begin responding to calls independently.
The hotline is available 24 hours a day, and calls for assistance come year round, Barrett said.
“There used to be a period where the summers were slower. The call volume would go down. That hasn't happened in almost a decade. Calls and the needs are great,” Barrett said.
Often, the calls progress beyond the caller’s initial requests. Barrett and Tepper-Bates said that’s the virtue of having real-time calls.
“There's child care resources and child development needs that often come up during the course of a call,” Barrett said. “Those are things that typically callers don't even call in asking for, but during the course of the call, we determine that, ‘Wow, what you're describing sounds like you might benefit from Birth to Three and that program can help you to get your child on track.’”
The 211 center currently has 17 staff and fields about 10,000 calls per week, Barrett said. The state Department of Social Services also receives about 200,000 calls for service monthly, according to Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves. She said people who reach out for help are judged, but should instead be shown empathy.
“They don't need help because they're lazy. They don't need help because they don't want to work. They need help because the gap between living with decency and dignity and the amount of money you can make to do that and the resources that are available gets wider and wider and wider, and it's harder and harder to fill,” Barton Reeves said. “That is why the money that we have today that will go to homelessness and our community action agencies and to 211, is so essential.”
