AN ACT PROHIBITING THE DISCLOSURE OF IDENTIFYING INFORMATION OF DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) For the purposes of this section, "person" means (1) any employee of a public agency, as defined in section 1-200 of the general statutes, or (2) any contractor that has entered into a state contract with any such public agency.

(b) Except as provided in subsections (c) and (d) of this section, no person shall solicit, disclose, receive or make use of, or authorize, knowingly permit, participate in or acquiesce in the use of, any list of the names of, or any information concerning, individuals applying for or receiving assistance from the Department of Housing or individuals participating in a program administered by said department, and (1) directly or indirectly derived from the records, papers, files or communications of the state or any political subdivision or agency of the state, or (2) acquired in the course of the performance of official duties of any such agency or political subdivision.

(c) The prohibition set forth in subsection (b) of this section shall not apply to (1) any solicitation, disclosure, receipt or use of, or authorization for use of, such list or information made for purposes directly connected with the administration of programs of the Department of Housing and in accordance with any regulations adopted by the Commissioner of Housing, or (2) data that does not directly or indirectly identify individual program applicants or participants, provided that such data is used for research purposes authorized by the Commissioner of Housing.

(d) The Commissioner of Housing may, pursuant to a court order, disclose information concerning individuals applying for or receiving assistance from the Department of Housing to a federal, state or local law enforcement officer who is requesting the information in the performance of the law enforcement officer's official duties.

Statement of Purpose:

To prohibit the disclosure of identifying information of Department of Housing program applicants and participants other than for research or law enforcement purposes.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]