At the Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Executive Director Jan VanTassel said she recently learned that her agency could face steep reductions in state funding, with an additional $493,000 needed to be operational in the next fiscal year. As a result, the statewide non-profit program that helps people with mental illness and low income may have to reduce its annual caseload.
For 14 years, VanTassel has been running the office with seven other attorneys who help people with mental illness get apartments and jobs, as well as representing them when they are in institutional settings. Now, with less money available, VanTassel said her agency may have to restrict itself to helping only clients who live in large population centers, such as New Haven or Hartford.
