This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
Advocates for unhoused Vermonters pleaded with Gov. Phil Scott Tuesday to prevent the evictions of over 300 highly vulnerable households from the state’s motel voucher program on July 1.
At a press conference on the Statehouse steps, a small group of advocates called on the Republican governor to extend an executive order he signed earlier this spring — which allowed families with children and people with acute medical needs to remain in motel rooms. The order is set to expire June 30, and a spokesperson for Scott has indicated that he does not plan to continue it.
“Every one of the people being exited is in a category that the governor himself has deemed would struggle to survive outside,” said Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont. “These are people who are homebound, who require assistance from a wheelchair or walker to leave the house.”
Scott signed the executive order in late March, days before the motel program’s loosened winter rules were set to expire for the season. At the time, lawmakers had sought a three-month extension for everyone sheltered in motels to head off a mass-eviction. Scott, a frequent critic of the motel program’s cost and effectiveness, opposed their effort, twice vetoing a midyear spending bill over the disagreement.
But he then took executive action to extend stays for a narrow group of people, writing at the time that “we have an obligation to protect children and Vermonters who are most vulnerable.” The order granted three-month extensions for families with children, pregnant people in their third trimester, and people who met specific medical criteria, like requiring home-based nursing services or receiving active cancer treatment.
The order also stated that an 80-day cap on motel stays during the warmer months “shall be waived” between April and June for people sheltered in these priority groups “to allow time for DCF to ensure” they have access to services and supports needed to transition to a long-term housing, shelter or health care placement.
Many service providers interpreted that language to mean people sheltered under the executive order would not accrue days toward their 80-day limits, affording them more time in emergency housing after the order’s expiration. But the Department for Children and Families issued notices earlier this month saying the opposite.
Advocates on Tuesday said the department’s move amounted to an abrupt change of course that has not allowed clients and service providers to adequately prepare.
“We are in the midst of a housing crisis. There’s nowhere for people to go,” said Maryellen Griffin, a staff attorney with Vermont Legal Aid. “People will be camping in sidewalks, parks, river banks, empty lots.”
DCF officials said last week that 348 households currently housed under the order will reach the end of their eligibility period if they don’t transition out of the motel program beforehand. A spokesperson said officials had “intensified efforts” to support clients who were willing to accept the help, but declined to provide data on how many households they had helped ensure alternative accommodations for past June 30.
“The state has not made good on its promise to make sure that these months were used to make sure people could find long-term housing — in part because there is no long-term housing out there for many people,” Griffin said.
Advocates declined to answer a question about whether they planned to take legal action against the state. Instead, Griffin encouraged individuals facing an impending eviction from the program to appeal to the state’s Human Services Board. Multiple people have done so, Griffin said, though none of the cases have been decided yet.
The emergency housing program has been defined in the last several years by tightening eligibility requirements and waves of mass evictions, as Scott and Democratic leaders in the Legislature have battled over how best to wind down its pandemic-era expansion. All the while, Vermont’s homeless population has ballooned, more than tripling from pre-COVID levels.
The coming exodus in July comes days after Scott vetoed lawmakers’ most comprehensive attempt at reform, a bill that would have devolved the motel voucher program next year and given funding and decision-making power over emergency shelter to regional, private nonprofits. Scott contended the legislation would “not adequately reduce the size or cost” of the motel voucher program.
“The governor has presented no plan to end homelessness in Vermont,” Griffin said. “Abruptly turning people out of emergency housing without a short-term or a long-term plan for where people should go is cruel and fiscally irresponsible.”
