Everyone needs and deserves a safe place to sleep at night. A place to keep their belongings, to spend time with their loved ones, to rest—a place they can call home.
But for over 4,000 of our neighbors, including over 1,000 children, who are experiencing homelessness, the stability, safety, and dignity that comes with having a secure place to live is out of reach—not for lack of trying, but because of the sheer lack of affordable housing in our state. Until our leaders accept our responsibility to keep everyone sheltered, and start treating homelessness like the housing problem that it is, our communities will continue to struggle.
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Lawmakers are considering cutting shelter capacity even further below our current level of need and passing a new law that would undercut legal protections for tenants. It's not too late to take action. Tell your legislators to fund emergency housing and protect tenants' rights.
Another mass unsheltering by the Scott administration
With shelters at capacity, skyrocketing rents, and a vacancy rate below 3%, the 4,000 Vermonters facing homelessness have few options when it comes to finding a place to live. And yet, the Scott administration and state leaders have once again pushed hundreds of people out of the General Assistance (GA) emergency housing program as of April 1, with hundreds more set to lose access in the coming months.
At the governor’s direction, over the last several years lawmakers have gutted funding for the “motel/hotel program”— expansion of emergency housing that utilizes motels and hotels to house Vermonters who are experiencing homelessness—and established arbitrary usage limitations and eligibility requirements. Today, the program is capped at 1,100 beds and each household is limited to 80-days per year outside of the winter months. In terms of eligibility, this emergency housing program is only open to people who the state has deemed “vulnerable” in some way (e.g. families with children, people with disabilities, people fleeing domestic violence). And now, with shelters at capacity and no other solutions on the table, these are the people who our state leaders are pushing onto the street.
State policy failures become our communities’ problems to solve
The GA emergency housing program has become a feature of the state’s budget debate each year, in part because of its structure. Instead of focusing on reducing resources for people experiencing homelessness, the state should prioritize implementing strategic approaches to effectively and efficiently meeting the needs of our community.
Governor Scott vetoed H.91 last year, which would have transitioned Vermont away from its current model and implemented evidence-based, accountable reforms to the state’s emergency housing system.
Having failed to develop sufficient affordable housing or extend emergency housing provisions for people who need it, the administration has pushed the legal liability, financial costs, and logistical considerations onto our towns, health care facilities, and local service providers. Lacking either the expertise, the authority, or the resources to develop solutions at scale, our communities are left to grapple with what feels like an intractable problem: everyone needs a place to live, but there is nowhere for people to go.
Unique challenges facing Vermonters with disabilities experiencing homelessness and their downstream effects
For some, living outside is not an option due to their medical needs. For people who need assistance with tasks of daily living, even if they were lucky enough to find an open spot in a community-based shelter, their medical needs would likely make them ineligible for services.
Often, these individuals will end up in hospital facilities, which absorb the costs of care when a patient lacks adequate housing and can’t be discharged. Aside from amounting to unnecessary segregation and institutionalization that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and reducing access to an already stretched-thin hospital system, this becomes an additional driver of private health care costs—and Vermont’s insurance premiums are already the most expensive in the country. Rising insurance costs for employers means depressed wages and a higher cost of living for workers, leaving fewer dollars circulating in our economy and stressing household budgets. And, those insurance increases are now considered a “primary driver” of increasing education costs and their subsequent property tax increases.
Even for people without the kinds of medical needs that require support with daily living, cycling between unsheltered homelessness, hospital departments, and temporary stays in the motel/hotel program or with friends and family is a stressful process that can be destabilizing for anyone and has massive costs for everyone in our communities.
It doesn’t have to be this way
Prioritizing solving homelessness should be an easy “yes” for state leaders, whether it is motivated by respecting the humanity and dignity of all of our neighbors, an interest in fostering public health and safety, or wanting to implement smart economic policies.
Above all else, the simple truth is that statewide problems require statewide solutions, not blame games and scapegoating vulnerable members of our community. Vermonters are right to demand better.
We know that a future where all of our neighbors have a place to live that is safe, dignified, meets their needs, and respects their rights is the only way our community can thrive is possible. We will continue advocating for short- and long-term solutions to deliver just that.