[Excerpt from feature article by Sasha Allen, September 25, 2026]

In Connecticut, the number of people enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, fell by 15% from June 2025 to June 2026 — including nearly 18,000 fewer residents under 18 receiving benefits.

In total, 55,000 fewer people in Connecticut were on SNAP this June compared to last June, according to a report from DataHaven. Enrollment in the program decreased quickly under eligibility changes implemented through H.R. 1, which cut nearly $187 billion in federal program funding.

These findings follow a recent report from Connecticut Voices for Children, which found similar changes from July 2025 to July 2026.

All age groups, except for those 65 and older, saw enrollment fall. While residents 65 and older are not required to meet updated work requirements, the new rules require parents with dependents aged 14 to 17 to comply.

“People with dependents 14 to 17 are now subject to these work requirements,” Andrew Carr, a data analyst with DataHaven and co-author of the report said. “Increasing the population of those subject to work requirements, it creates new administrative burdens for people that may cause families to lose SNAP, which has consequences for children.”

The report used an adapted Program Access Index, which is the ratio of SNAP recipients to those who meet the federal income and age eligibility standards. While not a true participation rate, it is a good measure of program coverage, Carr said.

Based on this index, every town has seen a decrease. However, losses are slightly higher in urban areas like the Hartford and Waterbury areas.

“Losses spread across the state, but also that they’re a little more concentrated in cities,” Carr said. “The adapted program access index shows that some of the places where need for SNAP [is highest], at least according to the federal income and age criteria, are the areas where losses were greatest.”

Economic loss was also measured in the report. DataHaven found that some parts of the state lose more than $1 million in benefits each month, with Hartford losing an estimated $1.3 million monthly.

In total, the state loses an estimated $11 million each month in benefits.

While the impacts of eligibility changes are already seen in the state and the nation, not all changes have gone into effect. Penalties for states that exceed the error rate, or the percentage of SNAP benefits paid above or below what recipients should have received, have not gone into effect.

“We’re in this period right now between these two sets of effects from H.R. 1 on SNAP,” Carr said. “We’ve already seen the effects of H.R. 1 on just increasing eligibility requirements for people, and that’s led to losses in SNAP … what’s important to to realize is that many of the effects that are relevant for SNAP haven’t even taken hold yet.”

Connecticut is currently over the error-rate threshold, sitting at around 9%, and may have to pay more $85 million to $89 million, according to the CT Voices for Children report. Penalties are effective October 2027.

While Connecticut has put some money aside to support those impacted by the eligibility requirements, this may not be enough with the implementation of additional changes.

“Government has taken measures to to help people that have lost coverage, but there are changes coming up the pike that are going to require a more like lasting response from government,” Carr said.

[Excerpt from TV news report by Jayne Chacko, September 22, 2026]

As food prices remain high, affording groceries is even more challenging for the thousands of Connecticut families who lost help they’ve relied on.

They were kicked off SNAP benefits after federal eligibility changed last year, following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

According to state social services data provided to non-profit DataHaven, there was a 15% drop in SNAP enrollment from June 2025 to June 2026.

About 55,000 people no longer had benefits, and DataHaven reports the change in SNAP’s work requirements contributed to that.

Now, adults without dependents have to prove they work or volunteer at least 80 hours a month, or 20 hours a week to be eligible for SNAP.

“From childcare to medical issues, mental health issues, homelessness, there’s a lot of different things that I think wasn’t taken into consideration when this federal work mandate was put into place,” Jendayi Scott, founder of non-profit Angel of Edgewood, said.

Scott has been dropping off food and collecting donations to help feed those in need in Hartford, one of the areas that has seen a big drop in SNAP enrollment, according to DataHaven.

[….]

[Excerpt from news article by Sean Krofssik, June 11, 2026]

A new regional equity profile report shows persistent racial and geographic disparities in the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation’s 29-town service area.

The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation service area 2026 Equity Report is compiled by New Haven-based DataHaven. It was completed last month and shows persistent inequities and challenges related to housing affordability, food access, transportation, income and education.

The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation area includes more than 750,000 people in 29 towns. People of color make up 41 percent of the foundation’s area compared to 37 percent statewide, according to the report.

“We hired them [DataHaven] to do this kind of deep dive into the 29 towns that we serve where possible,” said Chris Senecal, Greater Hartford Gives Foundation’s senior public policy and media relations officer said. “These are individual people who take the time to answer quite a few questions, and it really gives you a kind of a snapshot of where people are at now.”

“I’m optimistic that providing these reports are a really an important part of the process to help our region and people who live here,” he said.

The report shows racial disparities that include lower median incomes for Black and Latino households.

“This report from DataHaven provides a concise overview of resident wellbeing, while still reflecting a wide range of indicators that matter for our neighbors and communities,” said Kate Szczerbacki, the Greater Hartford Gives director of learning, evaluation and capacity building.

“It brings together publicly available data alongside insights from the DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey, which captures residents’ lived experiences through in-depth phone interviews. Those perspectives are not available anywhere else, and they enhance our understanding of community strengths and where more attention is needed. This report is an important resource for grounding our decisions in the experience of the people who live in Greater Hartford.”

Basic needs also are a part of the report. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program provides food assistance to those in very-low-income households which are those earning less than 130 percent of the poverty guideline.

The 2026 Equity Report shows that the need for SNAP use is higher among Black and Latino households, and households in Hartford.

Usage of SNAP statewide and in the foundation area is at 12%; for Black households it stands at 25%; for Latino households at 35%; and for white households at 5%. For Hartford residents the rate is 37%.

“If people lose access to SNAP, that’s going to be a real challenge,” Senecal said. “We’re fortunate to live in a state where our state government is financially in a better position than most states in the Rainy-Day Fund and in policy on how we answer needs in the community.”

“We heard last week the governor announced they were going to hand out $300 grocery cards for (about 25,000) folks losing their access to SNAP. It’s extremely helpful in the short term but in the long term, the government will need to look at long-term remedies to make people more stable,” Senecal said. “It’s really the onus is on these agencies to develop a plan to respond to this and develop the infrastructure necessary to respond to the increased demands and needs of folks who are in danger of losing access to the federal services and federal support.”

Senecal said this data is invaluable in those discussions.

As far as access to a personal vehicle for reliable transportation, 29% of households in Hartford have no vehicle, compared to 9% statewide, the report says. Also, statewide 19 percent of Black households lack access to a vehicle. The number is 16% for Latino households and 6% for white households.

As far as housing, the report said that home values in the state have increased 32% from December 2019 to December 2025.

Thirty-five percent of Latino households, 44% of Black households and 77% of white households own their own homes in the Greater Hartford Gives service area.

Twenty-six percent of all residents in Hartford own their home. In the Capitol Region Council of Governments service area, which represents 38 Metro Hartford municipalities, 35 percent of adults ages 18 to 34 own their homes, including 46 percent of white households, 21 percent of Black households and 21 percent of Latino households, the report says.

As far as housing cost burdens, 53% of Hartford residents are housing cost-burdened, which compares to 32%, when factoring in the entire Greater Hartford Gives service area. Housing-cost burden is measured by households spending 30% or more of their income on housing, while severe cost burden refers to spending 50% or more.

“Once the child credits and things like that went away post COVID, we saw numbers picking up as far as food insecurity, housing insecurity and many struggling to pay their rent or mortgage. None of that is new, but what sticks out to me is that it’s continuing,” Senecal said. “We haven’t turned that around and with some of the federal changes the concern is that these things are going to get worse.”

The report shows 26% of Hartford households lack a high school diploma. Statewide, the number is 9%, and for the Greater Hartford Gives service area, that number is 8%, for Black households is 12%, Latino households is 25% and white and Asian Households is 8%.

Median annual income for Capitol Region Council of Government Service Area for men overall is $78,000, and $65,000 for women; Asian men ($100,000), Asian women ($79,000); Black men ($52,000), Black women ($50,000); Latino men ($51,000), Latino women ($41,000); white men ($85,000) and white women ($73,000).

About 119,000 residents, which is 16% of the foundations’ area residents, are foreign born, the report says. The largest numbers born outside of the United States were born in Jamaica, India and China.

As far as health, the highest rates for diabetes in the Capitol Region COG service area among those 65-and-over include Black residents (41%) and Latino residents (38%), the report says.

The report shows asthma is most prevalent among 18- to 34-year-olds in the Capitol Region COG service area with 17%. White residents have a rate of 14%, Black residents 16% and Latino residents 21%.

In the Capitol Region COG service area, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety affect 19% of adults 18 to 34. In Hartford alone, that number jumps to 23%.

In a part of the report called Civic Life, residents were asked whether they trust their neighbors. In the Capitol Region COG service area, 84% of residents say they trust their neighbors. Seventy-four percent of residents say their community is a good place to raise children. That number in Hartford is 37%.

Another category was named as “Neighborhood Assets.” The report showed that, of adults in the Capitol Region COG, 59% of respondents have stores, banks and other places they need to access within walking distance. The statewide number is 57%. In Hartford, 76% of residents are within walking distance of stores and banks.

Seventy-seven percent of households in the Capitol Region COG have several free or low-cost recreation facilities such as parks, playgrounds and public swimming pools. The number is 76% in Hartford and 72% statewide.

DataHaven Executive Director Mark Abraham said the report “gives policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and residents a shared set of facts about how people are experiencing life across the Greater Hartford region.”

“It combines multiple sources of public data with results from DataHaven’s survey of thousands of randomly selected adults in the region, using innovative statistical methods to provide insights by population group that are not available from any other local data source,” Abraham said. “This level of detail allows communities to make better decisions, target resources more effectively, and track whether progress is reaching everyone.”

[Excerpt from news article by Nellie Kenney, 2/3/26]

As state legislators prepare to descend on Hartford for the 2026 legislative session, which begins on Wednesday, federal funding cuts are top of mind.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont submitted a plan to the Connecticut General Assembly to offset funding cuts by dipping into the state’s new Emergency State Response Reserve, the governor announced in a press release on Thursday. Legislators will discuss extending the emergency response fund, which was originally intended to expire this month, at the first meeting of this year’s legislative session, according to New Haven Rep. Roland Lemar. [….]

Cuts will hit low income New Haveners particularly hard. A recent study by DataHaven projected that the cuts in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and other federal programs will result in the bottom 25 percent of New Haven income earners spending $1,100 more a year on average.

That makes it the town in Connecticut with the fourth highest projected uptick in costs for that demographic. The middle 50 percent of households will receive $500 and the top 25 percent of households will receive $6,200 in tax relief on average, according to the study.

Lamont’s plan would allocate $18.7 million of the $332 million remaining in the reserve to “support items necessary for food and nutrition assistance, Medicaid assistance, youth mental health services in schools, and children’s wraparound services,” according to his press release. [….]

[Excerpt from news coverage by Leanna Wells, 1/29/26]

Food insecurity is on the rise. To fight it, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation has launched an emergency food security fund.

Mendi Blue Paca, the president and CEO of the nonprofit, said the fund was created because of the federal policy changes they’ve seen in the past year. The emergency fund will give support to other organizations that help people, like food banks, churches, schools or even hospitals.

According to DataHaven, more than 11,000 families in Fairfield County stand to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits due to new federal policy changes.

“It enables them to do anything from staffing to sourcing food and frankly, anything that will allow them to get food in the hands of people who need it,” Paca said. [….]

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 22, 2026 — DataHaven, a New Haven-based nonprofit that has led community data collection in Connecticut for over 30 years, has launched a newly redesigned website and released updated Town Equity Reports for all 169 Connecticut towns, at a time when its recent analyses of federal tax changes continue to receive widespread media and policymaker attention across the state.

The new website features a streamlined design and improved search capabilities, including expanded “Key Facts” sections within the Community Profile pages. The updates are intended to make essential town- and region-level data easy to access with just one or two clicks, on both desktop and mobile devices.

At the same time, DataHaven announced the release of a new edition of its Town Equity Reports, which are used by residents, educators, advocates and policymakers statewide. The reports provide local-level data that are not available from other public sources, and include dozens of new indicators focused on health, housing and quality of life. These indicators were developed in partnership with DataHaven’s Advisory Council.

The Town Equity Reports are available for all 169 Connecticut towns.

DataHaven is presenting the updated reports and website through classroom visits, briefings, webinars and public events around the state, and is seeking opportunities to partner with organizations interested in using the data for research, planning or community engagement.

In late December, DataHaven released a separate report analyzing the town-by-town impacts of federal tax changes under the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (H. R. 1). Titled “$15,000 for Darien families, $700 for Hartford: Mapping the Unequal Effects of H.R.1 Tax Relief in Connecticut,” the report includes interactive maps and downloadable data showing projected effects across Connecticut communities.

The tax policy analysis follows DataHaven’s widely used 2025 publications on the town- and legislative district-level impacts of H. R. 1 on Medicaid and SNAP. The new findings were extensively cited by local and state elected officials, and generated tens of thousands of views on social media. The analysis was featured in front-page coverage by The Day, CT Mirror, and all Hearst Connecticut newspapers.

According to the tax report, households in the top 25 percent by income in Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan and Westport are projected to receive more than $30,000 per family per year in tax relief, on average. By contrast, households in the bottom 25 percent of Greenwich’s income distribution are projected to lose an average of $30 annually.

Statewide, the top 25 percent of Connecticut households by income are projected to gain a combined $3.4 billion per year, or about $10,000 per family on average, while the bottom 25 percent are projected to lose $148 million annually, or $417 per family.

The estimates do not account for higher household costs resulting from tariffs enacted last year. The Yale Budget Lab estimates those tariffs will increase costs by about $2,000 to $8,000 per year for the average U.S. household.

The full tax report is available at ctdatahaven.org/taxrelief2025.

DataHaven is a nonprofit organization with a 30-year history of public service to Connecticut. Its mission is to empower people to create thriving communities by collecting and ensuring access to data on well-being, equity and quality of life. DataHaven is a formal partner of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership.

[Excerpt from news article by Theo Peck-Suzuki, 1/19/26]

Food insecurity is rising in Connecticut, and the problem is likely to keep getting worse amid major cuts to federal food programs, according to a report released Friday by the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity & Opportunity. [….]

The report also includes three new recommendations to specifically improve food and nutrition knowledge, the lack of which contributes significantly to food insecurity.

“These are things that we think would cost little or no money but would help promote access to information for these families who currently have barriers to that,” said CWCSEO’s Christian Duborg.

One of these includes establishing an official methodology for collecting food insecurity data at the state level. The data in the report comes from a mix of sources including Feeding America, DataHaven and the USDA, not from the state government.

“There’s a lot of data at the federal level that is either not measured at all, has been stopped — they’re stopping measuring, or is rarely updated,” Duborg said.

[Excerpt from news coverage by Sasha Allen, 1/16/26]

Wealth and income inequality are projected to increase in Connecticut under President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” with high-income residents seeing average tax breaks of nearly $10,000 and low-income residents paying an average of $417 more annually.

According to a new study released by DataHaven, the legislation will exacerbate wealth and income inequality primarily through rollbacks on some Medicaid and SNAP qualifications and tax cuts favoring high-income Americans.

Some towns, including Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan, could see average annual tax breaks of more than $30,000 for high-income residents, according to the study.

The returns from the bill are heavily skewed toward high-income households. Greenwich will see an estimated $262 million in tax relief, Stamford will see $239 million and Fairfield will see $158 million. Greenwich has some of the highest levels of income inequality in the state, according to U.S. Census data.

Bridgeport, the most populous town in the state, will receive an estimated net change of $60 million, with $61 million in tax relief going towards high-income households. The bottom 25% in Bridgeport will lose — primarily through cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and other social service programs — more than $14 million, and low-income households are projected to pay an average of over $1,000 more annually.

This distribution is the case nationally. Baseline projections from the Congressional Budget Office found that, under the bill, “changes in resources will not be evenly distributed among households.”

Households falling in the top and middle income distributions will see an increase in resources, while households in the bottom income distribution will see a decrease. This is due in part to changes to Medicaid and SNAP but also to federal tax provisions, including changes to student loan programs and to health insurance subsidy eligibility, according to a report from Phillip Swagel, the director of CBO.

DataHaven used the CBO report data, which did not consider the impact of tariffs or indirect effects of the bill.

Connecticut already has some of the highest income inequality in the nation, the fourth-highest Gini Index out of all U.S. states and territories, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 five-year American Community Survey. The index measures income inequality, with one representing perfect inequality and zero representing perfect equality. Puerto Rico, D.C., and New York rank above Connecticut.

Norma Martinez HoSang is the director of Connecticut for All, a statewide coalition of labor, community, and faith organizations. She said the state already has a “upside down tax system” that H.R. 1 will make worse.

“In Connecticut and across the country, over the last many decades, what we’ve seen is the very wealthy continue to get like tax breaks, definitely at the state level,” HoSang said.

But now, things are worse, she said. Families are already starting to feel the impacts of federal changes.

“These are families that were already living paycheck to paycheck, [with] really no margin to be able to figure out how to pay for stuff,” HoSang said. “We’ve seen some families go without eating. It is here now, and if we don’t do something as a state, those effects are going to quadruple in the next four years.”

[Excerpt from news article by Alison Cross, The Day, December 29, 2025]

Income inequality in the state is expected to compound under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” according to a new report that found that the legislation could cost the bottom 25% of Connecticut families more than $148 million next year.

According to the report, released this month by the nonprofit DataHaven, New London, Norwich, Putnam and Killingly are among 20 towns where low-income families are expected to be hit the hardest by reductions in Medicaid, SNAP and other benefits in the new legislation.

DataHaven projected that statewide, these cuts will cause families in the bottom 25% to lose an average of $417 per household per year. The projected losses were even higher in New London ($889), Norwich ($841), Putnam ($702), Killingly ($688) [….]

At the same time that families in the bottom quartile are expected to see their income diminish, the report estimated that the highest-earning households in the state’s top 25% will gain more than $3.38 billion in tax relief from the legislation. The middle 50% of households are expected to receive more than $1.28 billion annually.

DataHaven Executive Director Mark Abraham said the top 2% of earners will receive most of the tax benefits, with a disproportionate share flowing to the wealthiest households in lower Fairfield County.

For example, the report estimated that the top 25% of earners in Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan and Westport are expected to receive more than $30,000 next year from tax benefits. In comparison, the top 25% of households in New London and Windham Counties are projected to receive $6,400 and $5,200, respectively. The middle 50% of households in eastern Connecticut will receive just over $1,200, according to the report.

Abraham explained that the DataHaven report takes into account the provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” also known as H.R. 1. It does not weigh the impact of other Trump-era policies, including tariffs. Abraham pointed out that other studies from the Yale Budget Lab estimate that price increases from tariffs have cost the average American household $1,700 in disposable income.

“Like DataHaven’s widely-used reports that have mapped the communities where over 150,000 Connecticut adults are projected to lose healthcare coverage and food assistance due to H.R. 1, this new report again reminds us that policy changes can have dramatic impacts at the local level,” Abraham said.

According to the report, “H.R. 1 will considerably exacerbate the problem of rising income inequality in Connecticut, … and even if H.R. 1 is eventually repealed, the impact on wealth inequality is likely to be permanent,” worsening existing resource gaps related to housing affordability, homelessness, public infrastructure and even life expectancy.

A new DataHaven report has town-by-town interactive maps showing how tax policy changes in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” will impact families in Connecticut:

-Statewide, the top 25% of households by income will receive nearly $10K each in tax relief (a total gain of $3.4 billion every year), with much of that going to the top 2%.

-The middle 50% of households receive $1,800 each on average.

-Households in the bottom 25% lose an average of $417 each (a total loss of $148 million), due to changes in programs such as SNAP and Medicaid. For families currently receiving those benefits, the negative impacts could be even greater.

-The estimates in our new report do not account for cost increases from tariffs, which the Yale Budget Lab projects will cause a $1,900 to $7,600 loss in disposable income for an average household each year.

What does this look like for your area?

-In Greenwich (as well as in Darien, New Canaan, and Westport), the top 25 percent of households by income receive annual tax relief of more than $30,000 each, on average. Meanwhile, households at the bottom 25% of Greenwich’s income distribution lose an average of $30 each.

-Households in West Hartford collectively see $121 million per year in tax relief – a gain of $4,600 per household on average. Meanwhile, in the neighboring city of Hartford, households collectively see only $36 million in tax relief, or just $700 per household on average. The bottom 25 percent of households within Hartford collectively lose $14.4 million per year, a loss of $1,200 each.

-In the City of New Haven, the top 25% of households get $6,200 each, middle-income households get $500 each, and the bottom 25% of households in the city each lose $1,100 per year, on average. In neighboring Woodbridge, the average household sees $7,700 in tax relief.

-In the Greater New London (SECOG) region, households in the top 25 percent of that region’s income distribution collectively gain $184 million in annual tax relief. At the same time, households in the bottom 25 percent collectively lose $14.1 million per year – with about $6 million of that loss impacting families in Norwich and New London.

“Like DataHaven’s widely-used reports that have mapped the communities where over 150,000 Connecticut adults are projected to lose healthcare coverage and food assistance due to H.R. 1, this new report again reminds us that policy changes can have dramatic impacts at the local level,” said Mark Abraham, Executive Director at DataHaven. “Overall, Greenwich sees around $262 million in tax relief, while Bridgeport (a city more than twice the size) gets $60 million total — but with low-income households within Bridgeport losing over $14 million collectively, each year.”

The new report notes that even if H.R. 1 were repealed, these impacts on wealth inequality would remain. In Connecticut, growing wealth inequality is linked to wide gaps in the quality of public spaces, life expectancy differences, and the worsening of housing affordability and homelessness in the state.

The new report has interactive maps and downloadable data for every Connecticut town and county equivalent area. Please help us share it with your colleagues and neighbors who care about economic and fiscal issues in Connecticut (https://ctdatahaven.org/taxrelief2025).