This commentary is by Paul Dragon, executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.
The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity is calling for the immediate reinstatement of the emergency shelter program. These past few days, our staff have been purchasing tents, sleeping bags and supplies for families with children being exited from the hotels. Some of the children have disabilities, including autism. Think about that.
We have become accustomed to adults being unsheltered. For example, we now provide services for up to 200 people per day at our Community Resource Center in Burlington. Unsheltered children are not new in our work, but the scale of the situation is. We have not, until now, experienced children losing housing by the dozens. We are not equipped to support all the people in need.
Everyone deserves shelter. The need is especially critical for people with disabilities, seniors and children. We know from well-established research that children who experience even short-term periods of homelessness are more likely to become homeless as adults and will suffer serious educational setbacks. We know what COVID did to educational delays. Imagine the impact of homelessness on Vermont’s youth.
If reinstating the hotel program is no longer possible due to a room shortage, then the state, including the Agency of Human Services and the Agency of Education, should establish temporary shelters and deploy state employees as we do during public emergencies. Alternatively, the state should hire temporary employees or contracted staff, including child development specialists, to operate the shelters. Nonprofit organizations serving these community members are already stretched to the limit. They can play an important role in supporting these shelters, but cannot respond to this crisis alone.
CVOEO operates the statewide HOME Program, which provides rapid rehousing vouchers to unhoused families. We, along with our partners statewide, have housed close to 140 families over the past 18 months. That is good, but we have many more families waiting because there is simply not enough affordable housing. How can we fault people when there is not enough housing?
Read the story on VTDigger here: Paul Dragon: Reinstate the emergency shelter program.