Julie Whitney follows her husband Chuck Rouille to their room at the Travelodge motel on Shelburne Road in South Burlington on Sunday, Sept. 15. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
Nearly 100 Vermont legislators and Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman are now calling for Gov. Phil Scott to intervene on a mass wave of evictions currently underway from the state’s motel voucher program for people experiencing homelessness.
“These are the most vulnerable people, and there’s nowhere for them to go unless we do something,” said Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden Central, in an interview Tuesday.
Vyhovsky was one of 91 lawmakers who signed onto a letter Tuesday demanding action from the Republican governor. Specifically, the group of Democratic, Progressive and independent legislators have called on Scott to immediately stand up emergency shelters and ensure the hundreds of people exiting motels and hotels know of their existence and have transportation to get to them. They also called on Scott to declare a state of emergency to unlock additional spending power, echoing an earlier call from advocates and service providers.
Vyhovsky stressed that emergency shelters should be “non-congregate,” giving those exiting the motels – including families with kids and people with complex disabilities – ample space and privacy. That would be a stark change from the last time the state set up temporary shelters, during a prior round of evictions from the motel program in March, with cots lined up in large open rooms. But, like that time, Vyhovsky suggested state buildings should be looked at as options, and added that municipalities should be consulted on possible vacant or unused structures.
Vyhovsky voted against the legislation that has resulted in the current round of motel program evictions, anticipating it would cause many people to lose their shelter, she said. But many of her fellow signatories voted for it, and some were even architects of the policy at hand.
The current mass exodus is the result of new limitations passed by lawmakers in this year’s budget, which Scott signed, though earlier in the session his administration advocated for narrower rules. A new 1,100 cap on the number of rooms available through the program took effect in mid-September, as did a new 80-day limit on motel stays. The Legislature budgeted $44 million for the program this fiscal year; the new limits were intended to rein in costs.
Since those limits took effect last month, over 550 households have already left the program, and more will hit their 80th night in the coming weeks. By definition, each of those households meet vulnerability criteria previously set by the state: They include families with children, elderly people, people with extreme disabilities, people fleeing domestic violence, and others.
Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, chairs the House Appropriations Committee and was a lead negotiator on the budget. She signed the letter to Scott.
“We’re not held harmless. We did the best we could with what we had, and with an expectation that more could be shifted,” Lanpher said, of the Legislature’s role in the current situation. “But we have to recognize where it is…where the problem is right now, and its magnitude.”
Lanpher said she had hoped funding allocated by the Legislature for shelter would have materialized in more shelter beds to ease the current crisis. But, as with other shelter funding, doling out money approved this spring has taken time, and new beds are not yet online.
Traditional shelters are generally full and waitlists for affordable housing are lengthy, leaving many exiting the motels with few options but to pitch a tent or sleep in their vehicle.
Lanpher hopes to see bills supporting large, long-term investments in affordable housing move forward; this past session, one such bill died in the Senate. But to address the immediate emergency, she wants to see funding fast-tracked, as has been done after bouts of flooding.
The state should “put as much effort into treating the crisis as it is, as if it was a flood,” she said.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, Zuckerman expressed his support for lawmakers’ demands.
“The Governor has regularly stated we should care for our most vulnerable, and I agree,” he wrote. “We have a moral obligation to help the most vulnerable among us, and we are failing to do so under this administration.”
Scott’s administration has suggested it will continue to monitor shelter needs as the motel exits continue. Last week, Amanda Wheeler, the governor’s press secretary, said “emergency shelters are always a tool we can deploy as circumstances dictate.”
Wheeler did not respond to a question Tuesday about what conditions the administration would need to observe before deciding to deploy emergency shelters.
In a statement, she wrote, “We are implementing the ongoing transition back to the pre-pandemic temporary, emergency housing program in the manner the Legislature agreed to, and the majority voted for, during the legislative session.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: As many lose motel housing, 91 lawmakers demand more shelters, state of emergency.