Emilie Kornheiser, Ian Goodnow, and Mollie Burke represent Brattleboro in the Vermont House of Representatives. Nader Hashim is a state senator representing Windham County.
MONTPELIER-We have an opportunity to transform homelessness in our community through a bill (H.91) being considered in the Legislature.
The number of folks in our community without permanent, reliable housing has grown consistently over the last decade and has become increasingly visible. In addition to the stress and suffering that comes with unstable housing, there are public costs to hospitals, town services, and our ability to care for each other.
We have an extreme shortage of affordable housing in Vermont, and our region is one of the hardest hit by the demand. During the pandemic, as the housing shortage worsened and we wanted to keep people safe, state government expanded the eligibility and length of stay for folks who could stay in motels paid for by the state government.
This measure was tremendously expensive, and the motels are not a particularly stable or welcoming place to build a life from. We know that housing people in motels, without services or plans, doesn't work, but it is better than living in a tent by the river.
Over the last three years, we've worked with the Scott administration to find services, new housing, and new opportunities - this is euphemistically described as "winding down the program," and frankly these efforts have just as often resulted in folks being kicked to the streets to sleep by the train tracks as they have resulted in stable housing or shelter beds.
The most straightforward solution is to build more housing, and we're making it easier to build and finding money to pay for these efforts.
But building takes time, and we have people and communities that are struggling today.
* * *
This session, the Vermont House Committee on Human Services has put forward a bill to work holistically to solve the challenge of housing people in motels and - importantly - housing people generally.
We support the transformative change that H.91 contains with the creation of a new program: Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing (VHEARTH).
Under this model, Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA), in partnership with the state and other community partners in our region such as Groundworks, can create systems and structures that all people can count on in times of crisis while avoiding an endless cycle of crisis and costly crisis response.
* * *
Providing shelter for everyone is simpler, cheaper, and more cost-effective than convoluted, cruel, bureaucratic, and conditional assistance programs.
The expense does not disappear when the state chooses not to serve people - it simply gets shifted onto local communities, hospitals, libraries, churches, and other spaces where people seek help.
Right now, what we have is a collection of uncoordinated and disparate services.
The VHEARTH program envisioned in H.91 envisions collaborative planning and a coordinated system of services that first focus on homelessness prevention services that can stop homelessness before it starts, and house homeless people faster.
Homelessness prevention service providers would establish ongoing personal relationships with people facing homelessness, ensuring they can count on nuanced assistance customized to their specific needs and unique path to economic security.
These services are already helping hundreds of people in Vermont avoid homelessness every year. H.91 would offer the opportunity to bring more resources and focus to expand these services and help more people.
* * *
Our goal should not be to serve fewer people, but to serve more. When we ensure everyone has the shelter and services they need, our communities thrive.
The folks still living in motels are families with young children and disabled Vermonters. Many more unhoused people in our community are parents, children, siblings, friends, neighbors, co-workers. Everyone deserves support and services to ensure their safety and stability. No community provider should be put in the situation of choosing who gets services and who gets turned away.
VHEARTH would put all housing and community homelessness services under one umbrella, ending the state's administration of motel rooms and disparate community grant programs.
It would deliver real dollars, resources, and power to communities to find solutions together.
Importantly, the bill would give the program time to get it right and provide the money to sustain towns in the interim.
H.91 would be a big step forward, and we're glad to support it.
This Voices Legislative Update was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].