Vermont Governor Phil Scott is defending the state’s work to find shelter for the homeless.
Recent deaths of homeless individuals in Vermont include a person in Berlin found Saturday who was part of an encampment behind a shopping center. That individual was camping following a no-cause eviction. The prior Wednesday, two individuals who had met the limit and left the state’s hotel-motel shelter program were found dead in a tent in Wolcott.
Governor Phil Scott did not directly address the deaths at his weekly briefing Wednesday, noting the investigations are ongoing. He said the state is attempting to shelter those who are no longer eligible for the hotel-motel program.
“We worked with the legislature. We came up with a program we thought would work. It’s much more expansive than we ever did before, previous to the pandemic,” Scott said. “The experience we’re having right now with the emergency family shelters is full. But I think we need to expand on that. I’d like to see more emergency shelters open up. I think that’s better than a hotel-motel program.”
The Republican adds that the state has been struggling with creating new shelters.
“We have to have both family shelters and then individual congregate type shelters. And we’re trying to do that. But they’re hard to site,” Scott noted. “They’re hard to oversee, mostly because of workforce challenges. Our designated agencies don’t have enough people, can’t find people. So, we just have to do the best we can.”
There had been an 80-day limit for those using the hotel-motel vouchers. As of December 1st, the limit is suspended for the winter for those still eligible. Meanwhile, Department for Children and Families Commissioner Chris Winters says the state is working to expand the number of available shelter beds.
“I think we have about 1,100 hotel rooms filled, with capacity for probably another 200 more. But in terms of expanding shelter capacity, we’re now at a statewide capacity of 584 shelter beds. That’s up by about 120 shelter beds over this time last year. And there are another approximately 100 beds in the pipeline due to open this month and next month,” reported Winters. “So we are greatly expanding our shelter capacity to try to make up for the less space that we have in the hotel-motel program this year.”
End Homelessness Vermont Executive Director Brenda Siegel says five people have died in the elements across Vermont over the past week. She says there are numerous shelter options the state could pursue.
“The hotel program is absolutely not the only option that we have out there. We can use tiny homes that are built into transitional or permanent housing. We can utilize PODS more. We can utilize dormitories. We can build up more single room occupancies. We can decide that funding for vouchers can also go to funding for alternative rental subsidy when someone doesn’t have Section 8. We have several opportunities to do many different things, but we have to be willing to look at all those,” Seigel said. “The trade-off for getting these things on line cannot be people’s lives and right now we traded people’s lives for a policy that is frankly not more fiscally responsible.”
Siegel estimates that at least 3,000 shelter beds are needed in Vermont.
