by Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT–By many measures, Westport is a wealthy town. For instance, Zillow estimates that the average Westport home is worth $1.89 million, up 2.4% in the last year.

So it may come as a surprise that there are some Westporters who, on a daily basis, worry about making ends meet. These can be young families with children, senior citizens and many others types of households.

Huge dichotomy

Elaine Daignault, director of the Westport Human Services Department
Elaine Daignault, director of the Westport Human Services Department

“There is a huge dichotomy in town. Many people are doing very well, but there are many others who are struggling,” Elaine Daignault, director of the Westport Human Services Department said in an interview on Tuesday. According to Daignault, in fiscal year 2024-2025, her department served 431 households. Daignault also said that Connecticut Department of Social Services programs served 2,666 individual Westport residents in 2024.

To put that into context, more than four percent of Westport households–and almost 10 percent of residents–use town or state human services.

She said that her department has been seeing two to three new families a week needing aid from the various programs her department administers. And there are others in the community who need help but are not aware of the services offered, or are concerned about the stigma of asking for help, Daignault said.

“There are a lot of reasons people come in. It could be one moment in time,” such as a family member falling ill and facing mounting medical bills, “or long-standing financial insecurity.”  With the lapse of pandemic-era moratoria on evictions, more Westporters are losing their housing. The majority of those looking for help from her department “are residents of Westport, and the bulk are working families, working at low-income jobs,” Daignault said.

Mental health

In addition to a growing number of families needing financial help, there is also “a significant uptick in mental health issues across the board.” 

Not knowing for sure if federal and state programs will be cut is a source of anxiety that has Daignault and her colleagues concerned about mental health issues among the people they serve. “I don’t think anyone really knows what the outcome will be yet,” for funding of the programs her department administers every day, she said. “People are overwhelmed … There’s a lot of talk and fear. The amount of anxiety and fear is very real.” 

Her department stands ready, however, to help with state, federal and local programs, including programs funded at least in part by generous Westporters.  Many of those programs are free for those who use them, she said. 

Elaine Daignault, director of the Westport Human Services Department, holds a bag of food items distributed to children in the summer through the “Filling in the Blanks” program.
Elaine Daignault, director of the Westport Human Services Department, holds a bag of food items distributed to children in the summer through the “Filling in the Blanks” program.

One of the free programs she is particularly excited about provides urgent mental health assessments at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan for Westport residents of all ages.  The Assessment Program was approved by the Board of Selectwomen in January, it includes a full assessment by a psychiatrist, and a proposed treatment plan, she said.

Programs for Children

Other free programs offered by the Westport Human Services Department include several programs for children. For instance, “Filling in the Blanks” supplies weekend meals during the summer for kids who are on the free school lunch program during the school year.  They get bags with canned goods and other food, often with a short message from the volunteers who prepare them. 

And Connecticut’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once called food stamps, “is very important for people trying to feed families,” she said. There is also a locked box on Town Hall grounds where people can come to collect food in an emergency.  Another free program – the Westport Warm Up Fund, a community funded service, helps with heating costs in cold weather.

Westporters are generous

“Westporters are very generous. We are extraordinarily grateful for donations,” Daignault said. As a town department, they can’t hold galas or large fundraisers, she said, which makes it harder to promote fundraising campaigns for some town programs.

One annual service which many Wesporters support is the Back to School program, which supplies families in need with gift cards, usually from large stores like Walmart or Kohls, she said, so parents can outfit their children for school, whether it is buying them shoes or notebooks. That program will begin shortly, she said. 

Some of the other programs administered by the Westport Human Services Department include:

For additional information on these programs, contact the Human Services Department at 203-341-1050, or visit the department website. 

Gretchen Webster

Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.

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