File photo

Gov. Ned Lamont said he plans to extend the state’s emergency eviction moratorium into October.

Landlords would have been able to file notices to quit starting Saturday, Aug. 22.

No formal announcement has been issued with further details, but Lamont acknowledged the plans in response to a question from a reporter at a press conference Thursday.

“Yeah, we are. We’re going to extend that until Oct. 1. We still have an incredibly high unemployment rate in this state and this country,” he said.

He also promised a $10 million boost to the state’s rent relief program, doubling it from $10 million to $20 million. The effect, he suggested, would be to help landlords strike deals with tenants who had temporarily lost their jobs.

“This can’t go on forever but it can go on a little bit longer,” he said, referring to landlords saddled with non-paying tenants.

Lamont said his decision was being made for public health and economic reasons. The state has only recovered about 45 percent of the jobs it lost when it went into lockdown.

“What you can’t have in the middle of this unemployment crisis is a lot of people being evicted and a lot of people losing their homes,” he said.

However, the Connecticut Mirror reports. Lamont will need to either declare a new public health emergency or receive legislative support for his actions and a slate of other executive orders he has issued in recent weeks.