Hundreds of Homeless Residents in Vermont Soon Face Eviction From Shelter in Hotels

There are about 2,800 people living in hotels and motels scattered around Vermont as part of a program the state ramped up significantly—with federal funding—to reduce Covid-19 transmission hazards to homeless people early in the pandemic. Three years later, officials in the Green Mountain State are trying to wind this down, marking a highly visible version of an issue that worries homeless advocates around the nation: the effect of dialing back pandemic-era safety nets, from hotel-room shelters to eviction moratoriums.

A major step for Vermont is looming Thursday, when roughly 800 people will lose eligibility for housing in hotel rooms. State officials say they want to get people into more stable housing with better connections to social services, from job training to addiction treatment. But advocates for the homeless, and local officials bracing for people spilling out of hotel rooms, are concerned many people will wind up on the streets for lack of options.

“We are gearing up, sadly, with camping supplies,” said Rick DeAngelis, co-executive director at Good Samaritan Haven, a shelter operator already at capacity in the Barre area.

The issue has been contentious as the deadline nears. Vermont Legal Aid filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of homeless people staying in hotels seeking an injunction to block the state from halting the emergency-shelter benefits. A judge scheduled a hearing for early Thursday, a Legal Aid spokeswoman said. Last week, the state announced changes that it says will delay the exits for the vast majority of people in another group, one that includes disabled people and families with children, who were previously slated to lose hotel rooms on July 1. 

The state estimates its expanded hotel shelter program has cost more than $190 million through May 1, after leaning on federal funding that has since run out. The state plans to revert to tighter eligibility rules for the hotel program, which before the pandemic served fewer people.

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There is widespread acknowledgment that Vermont has a serious housing shortage that squeezes out vulnerable people. 

“The root cause for many continues to be the affordability crisis we face across the state,” Republican Gov. Phil Scott

Rebecca Duprey, 40, who has been living at a hotel with her 12- and 14-year-old boys since late February, has been struggling to find an apartment. She said she is on disability due to a traumatic brain injury caused by domestic abuse. 

She has a voucher for subsidized housing and said she fills out 10 to 15 rental applications weekly, but said she believes being homeless creates a stigma among property owners and landlords. 

“It’s very limited, and it has been difficult and it’s very discouraging,” she said. Duprey, among the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, believes she would face the loss of her hotel room on July 28 under recently changed rules unless she finds a place to rent beforehand. 

Vermont’s homeless numbers have surged, in part because using hotel rooms has made some homeless people who might not have been found in traditional point-in-time counts more visible, according to advocates.

The governor said hotel residents haven’t been well connected to social services and that these facilities have become public safety concerns requiring a lot of police attention. “After three years it’s clear that it’s not working as well as it needs to,” he said, regarding the pandemic-era program.

Democratic House Speaker Jill Krowinski has faulted the Scott administration for not coming up with a comprehensive transition plan sooner. Because the governor vetoed budget legislation on Saturday, citing unrelated concerns, some Democrats and Progressives—its own party in Vermont—plan in an upcoming veto session to again push for hotel-room funding that the Democratic-led legislature hasn’t added thus far.

The governor defended the state’s approach, which he and other officials said included early outreach to hotel residents and efforts to speed up housing development. The state recently reached out to local officials and aid groups seeking emergency shelter ideas during the transition away from the expanded hotel program.

Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, plans this week to propose opening a shelter if the state can provide staffing help, said Mayor Miro Weinberger, a Democrat. Burlington is also rallying support to propose using the surrounding county’s coordinated entry system, which matches homeless people and available housing, as a priority tool for vulnerable people slated to leave hotels while also seeking to extend hotel stays during the search, the mayor said. 

Brenda Siegel, an advocate for the homeless and a Democrat who lost to Scott in the last election, said she has spoken with many hotel owners who said they would take less money to continue housing people. On a recent day, she introduced several people staying in hotels and motels to a Wall Street Journal reporter. There isn’t adequate housing capacity to absorb people leaving hotels, and the state is heading for a preventable humanitarian crisis, she said.

The city of Barre offered up a cavernous ice rink to serve as a congregate homeless shelter until Sept. 1, when it will be needed again for schoolchildren. But Barre also needs the state to provide staffing, including security, City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro said. 

Colby Lynch, 48, a recent bowling alley employee who has been staying at a nearby motel, said she plans to stay with relatives in New Hampshire when she loses her hotel room. 

Corwin Chase, a 22-year-old who has been living at a hotel to the south in Rutland, said he had no firm plans. He has what he described as Asperger’s syndrome and said he lacks family support.

“There’s someone that I know in the inn that said that they know another person where we can both sleep in their vehicle,” he said. “I can’t take care of myself and I don’t know how I’m going to support myself.”

Write to Jon Kamp at [email protected]