VermontBiz On Tuesday, Brenda Siegel along with Recovery Vermont, Vermont Center For Independent Living (VCIL) and Rebecca Duprey held a press conference today outlining the data collected about the evictions of motel participants scheduled this week and to ask leaders to focus on the needs of the nearly 900 individuals who are experiencing homelessness and about to or already have experienced Vermont’s state sponsored unsheltering.
“Throw away politics. This is the time for strong leaders to own up that we are failing people right now and we need to fund the sheltering needs. What are the lessons learned? We need to be honest about the people we’re throwing out on the street and step in and care,” sSaid Sarah Launderville, Executive Director of VCIL.
All four said that in order to keep people safe, we must create a system that does not discriminate against those with disabilities, responds to the crisis we are in, and appropriately shelter people we must:
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Include all who meet the Vermont definition of disability.
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Include any who are medically vulnerable.
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Include those who become newly homeless
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Open the General Assistance (GA) rules to meet 2023 needs instead of those of 1988.
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Require voluntary data collection, so that we know the harm we are causing when we unshelter people.
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Needs must be met for all who are experiencing homelessness retroactively and continuously until there are non-congregate and permanent housing solutions in their place.
Siegel said, “We must meet the crisis that we are in. I stand here today with another deadline before us. In this one roughly 90 people will be exited or are supposed to be exited from five hotels on Friday, I decided to embark upon this data gathering for several reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to identify the people who were being mis-categorized before they were exited, because catching June 1st issues the day of, was chaotic, stressful, and nearly impossible to address. Secondly, there has been no comprehensive data gathered about the individuals who are being harmed by these exits or people experiencing homelessness at all. So, this is just the start, not the end of the data that I will collect over the next couple of months.”
Although Rebecca Duprey, and advocate and single mom with two children, who is utilizing the program, will be protected if the motel program that recently sheltered 80% of the population experiencing homelessness is continued for those scheduled to exit from July 1st on, she says that it is not enough.
“I don’t care who you are. You do not deserve to be left outside to die. I want to make this clear.
The state needs to be held accountable for the lives they are choosing are not worth fighting for. I’ve been told repeatedly by many respected individuals, that if someone like myself, with my background, My Drive, My Fight, My Will, is struggling greatly to find permanent and stable housing, then what chance do most others experiencing homelessness have? The answer is they don’t. The resources are simply not available,” said Rebecca Duprey, an advocate and single mom who is utilizing the motel program.
Nearly 50% of those being exited on Friday this week, reported having found a path to recovery. Martina Anderson from Recovery Vermont said, “Recovery Vermont, through our peer support outreach program, supports 40 unique individuals in Washington County alone who are experiencing homelessness, many of whom are managing co-occuring conditions, including mental health and substance-use disorder, while also managing complex medical needs. Removing stable, housing for these individuals will jeopardize their recovery, their health, and ultimately their lives.
Siegel and Duprey have visited all of the hotels scheduled to exit people this coming Friday. 77 of the the 90 people scheduled to be exited participated voluntarily and gave Siegel explicit permission to either publicly discuss their stories and/or be included in the data when presented. What Siegel and Duprey found painted a picture of abject neglect of those most marginalized in our state and a pattern of discrimination against those in the most poverty in our state. This data is critical to our understanding of homelessness, supports needed and are housing crisis, in addition to being able to direct the appropriate resources to toward any individual.
Here are some highlights of the data found for these 77 people interviewed:
(A more comprehensive data sheet will follow shortly) Those interviewed were between the ages of 19 and 57, with the majority between the ages of 31 and 49.
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37 have reported entering some form of recovery, 4 reported struggling actively with substance use and wanting to be connected to services and 1 reported struggling actively with substance use and not being able to be connected while their housing was unstable. All reported being concerned about their ability to maintain recovery while on the street.
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10 Reported escaping domestic violence. Some did not know the process for being categorized under domestic violence and others were being told that they could not be so categorized if the designated agency had not worked with them or would not work with them.. Some were waiting for letters and others had not been able to get in touch with a designated agency or complete the process. Others were overwhelmed by the idea that in addition to leaving an abusive partner, they had to immediately engage in services.
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Medical conditions included several people with diabetes, recent surgeries, needed surgeries, at least one who needed a liver transplant, at least 2 with active cancer and 3 who have active seizures and brain injury. Some reported having brain tumors and many more severe conditions.
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Several people reported suffering from severe mental illness that they had now stabilized or were struggling with. This included bi-polar, multiple personality disorder, agoraphobia, major depressive disorder, anti-social tendencies, and anxiety disorder. Many reported getting support while in the motel program. Some were still waiting for a therapist to be taking patients. Some were still waiting for a doctor’s appointment to get back on their medication. Some were waiting for IDs.
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Many reported being employed and many reported actively interviewing. Some were told that due to their looming lack of address they would not be hired and others were concerned about their ability to maintain a job without stable housing. Others were in the process of applying for SSDI.
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At least one person was mis-categorized, who currently has SSDI
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Many were illegally evicted and so they can not prove their eviction status. One of those people was evicted after losing his job, before he ever missed a rental payment, without notice, and he can not read or write so he did not have access to his tenant’s rights.
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100% of the people that we interviewed did not have somewhere to go at the time that we interviewed them and they reported that they will be living outside. 1 has since found permanent housing.
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100% did not know where they are allowed to camp.
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Several said that they will not survive on the street.
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Several women reported being afraid of rape and some reported being raped at other times that they were on the street.
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8 reported their first experience of homelessness being as a child and many of those were exited out of the foster care system into homelessness as well or for the first time. 3 of those experienced it directly following aging out of foster care.
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28 had never been homeless before. This will be their first time sleeping outside.
“We know that the majority of people who have been and are currently still housed through this program have a trauma history and that it is almost inevitable to not be retraumatized when experiencing houslessness. People with a history of trauma are far more likely to be subjected to violence. And female-bodied people and trans-people are far more likely to experience sexual violence, and those situations will clearly contribute to an ongoing trauma experience. We currently hold the power to break through this vicious cycle and offer people a path to true healing and transformation.” said Anderson
In order to move forward in a safe and stable way, we must make sure that we are retroactively and continuously keeping people sheltered. Including people who newly become homeless. Because people WILL become homeless with disabilities and children and it is no less harmful to put them on the street than it is to send those currently in the program to live on the street.
While the negotiations are a good start, if we don’t include all people that meet Vermont’s definition of disability and those who are medically vulnerable and if we don’t re the GA rules to address today’s crisis (not the very different crisis of 1988), we are still causing unspeakable to harm to thousands of Vermonters.
In 2022, more people entered homelessness than exited it. Those people will not be protected under the proposed plan, nor will people who meet Vermont’s definition of disability. Including those 800 people who have or are about to be exited with the first group. And the commitment must be not to exit people to congregate shelter, but only to non-congregate and permanent housing. Over 300 people in an ice rink in Barre is not healthy, safe, or good for those individuals or for our communities.
“We need to stop with the either/or approach. We need shelter AND to build housing. With an AND approach instead of either-/or we are making a bold move in our society to ensure that people continue to be sheltered and basic needs met,” said Launderville. She continued. “We know that shelter support isn’t just about shelter. It’s about human dignity and health equity."