Vermont Business Magazine The General Assistance Emergency Housing Task Force (GA Task Force), which was created by the Legislature last year to provide recommendations around emergency housing, submitted its final recommendations to the Vermont Legislature on Wednesday. The GA Task Force included 13 members representing people with lived experience of homelessness, Vermont’s affordable housing, shelter, mental health, and service provider communities, municipalities, and Governor Scott’s administration.
The final recommendations received support from the overwhelming majority of the GA Task Force. In response to the recommendations, today over 55 shelter and service providers, advocates, and municipal leaders from across Vermont submitted a letter to legislators urging legislators to support the GA Task Force’s recommendations.
The providers said that the recommendations “would substantially reduce the unconscionable harms that unhoused Vermonters face every day because of our state’s lack of sufficient emergency shelter and supports.” These recommendations would move Vermont closer to ensuring the basic right to shelter and providing necessary supports and services. Specifically, the recommendations include:
- Ensuring maximum days of eligibility for the General Assistance Emergency Housing program is determined by the actual length of time it takes unhoused Vermonters on average to obtain housing.
- Ensuring that state agencies fully participate in coordinated entry, which serves as Vermont’s homelessness response system.
- Ensuring that eligibility for the General Assistance Emergency Housing program is relaxed during cold weather months to ensure unsheltered Vermonters do not die from exposure.
- Ensuring that there is consistent capital available to fund affordable housing projects, which serve as the true solution to Vermont’s homelessness crisis.
- Ensuring an expedited and consolidated appeal review for development projects that meet a threshold for affordability.
- Removing zoning hurdles that may reduce the number of shelter and/or permanent supportive housing units that could be created through hotel or motel conversions.
The following statements are in support of the General Assistance Emergency Housing Task Force recommendations:
“The folks we serve have fallen through the cracks. Their life is hard, raw, and debilitating,” said Ken Russell, executive director of Another Way. “Regular folks have no chance of competing in this housing market. Folks who are doing everything right are living in the woods at your local park-and-ride. It is past time for our state to show up for its residents, and the GA Task Force’s recommendations offer a solid path for beginning this journey.”
“The un-sheltering of people experiencing homelessness has had extreme consequences for many of our clients, including loss of life, victims of violence and life altering health consequences. Cuts to the General Assistance Emergency Housing program have had catastrophic outcomes as predicted,” said Brenda Siegel, Executive Director of End Homelessness Vermont. “We cannot allow what happened in our state this past fall to ever happen again. Unfortunately, the prediction that sending vulnerable Vermonters to live on the street would result in catastrophic outcomes and that some would not survive did become a reality. The GA Task force recommendations represent a necessary course correction and fiscally responsible path to ending the homelessness crisis in Vermont. Our work on the task force shines a light on the right next steps for our state”.
"We face a humanitarian crisis every day because Vermont lacks a plan and the sustained investments necessary to address our homelessness crisis," said Roxanne Carelli, Executive Director of Operational Development and Shelter Services at the Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless. "The GA Task Force's recommendations would help ensure that our emergency shelter and homelessness response system is more effective and humane. I urge the legislature to support these necessary reforms."
“The increased need for shelter is apparent throughout our community and is undeniable when you step into our drop-in center—bursting at the seams with people coming in to find a place to get out of the cold,” said Libby Bennett, Executive Director of Groundworks Collaborative. “We've added beds for this winter, and our daytime census is way up as compared to the fall when so many more people were able to shelter in motels. There are fewer ESD motel rooms available in Brattleboro at this time, and while we have added staff and wish we could meet a greater portion of the need, we know there are still between 50-90 people sleeping rough in our community on any given night. Our current approach in Vermont is falling short of the tremendous need. Vermonters' lives are at stake. We urge legislators to support the GA Task Force recommendations.”
“Throughout the pandemic, we expanded our services as the need for emergency shelter and services grew and grew,” said Kim Anetsberger, executive director of the Lamoille Community House. “Even before the recent cuts to the General Assistance Emergency Shelter program, we did not have enough shelter beds to meet the growing need. The cuts have magnified the crisis. The GA Task Force’s recommendations are a necessary step for addressing Vermont’s homelessness crisis.”
“The final report from the task force represents a clear need for reform in the ways we support people experiencing households in Vermont,” said Sarah Russell, Special Assistant to End Homelessness for the City of Burlington and co-chair of the GA Task Force. “Additional investments are required to ensure vulnerable members of our community have access to shelter as permanently affordable housing is developed. We implore the legislature to thoroughly examine the current homeless response system and make necessary improvements, aligned with this report.”
“Safe, secure housing is essential for individuals to thrive, but without adequate funding for the services that help people stay housed, that stability is at risk,” said Amy Johnson, Director of Government Affairs & Communications at Vermont Care Partners. “Service providers play a vital role in preventing homelessness, offering the support necessary to navigate barriers and maintain housing. Robust investment in these critical services is not just an option – it is essential to ensuring that individuals and families can remain housed and avoid the destabilizing effects of homelessness.”
“The urgency of these recommendations cannot be overstated,” said Frank Knaack, executive director of the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont. “As the state’s own data makes clear, Vermont’s shelter and service providers are stretched beyond capacity. Without a strong emergency shelter safety net, there is no safe place for thousands of vulnerable Vermonters to go. These recommendations would move Vermont much closer to ending the unconscionable harms that unhoused Vermonters face on a daily basis across our state.”
Here is the letter.
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