The state is revamping a controversial proposal to limit emergency housing in motels for homeless Vermonters.
Commissioner David Yacovone says he is “guardedly optimistic” that the Department of Children and Families will be able to relax the rules that determine who among the state’s homeless can stay in motels when shelters are full.
The standards will still be more stringent than they’ve been in previous years — the Legislature lopped off a large amount from the motel budget — but DCF is revisiting its initial proposal for paring back the program.
DCF was poised to put a temporary fix in place. It had devised a point system, based on 11 categories of eligibility, that would have drastically cut back the number of people who would be eligible for motel vouchers.
Advocates protested, arguing that the department’s approach would make it nearly impossible for anyone to qualify, and DCF has since backtracked. It pushed the deadline back for implementing new rules and scheduled several meetings for advocates to weigh in.
Whatever solution they settle on will be valid for 120 days; DCF then must propose permanent rules.
The state spent $4 million putting homeless people up in motels during Fiscal Year 2013. DCF officials and advocates are trying to figure out how to comply with the Legislature’s seemingly contradictory mandate to cap expenditures at $1.5 million and provide housing for Vermonters when shelters are full.
In FY 2013, DCF gave vouchers out to 2,851 families and individuals and paid for 71,770 nights in motels. The average cost per night was $57 and the average length of stay was 25 days. The year before, the department paid for 38,350 nights and served just shy of 2,000 households.
The belt-tightening mandate handed down by the Legislature is especially demanding because it also stipulated that two policies — allowing people, regardless of eligibility, into motels during extreme cold weather or in the event of a fire, flood, or other catastrophe — stay in place. Those two exemptions account for roughly $1.3 million alone, leaving DCF with only $200,000 to dole out to others.
Under that financial constraint, “It is very, very hard to fit in all the vulnerable folks,” Yacovone said at a meeting between advocates for the homeless and Department of Children and Families (DCF) officials.
But, the commissioner also said that after looking at a number of “efficiencies” and “structural improvements” that are also coming down the pike, “I’m optimistic that there’s more money on the table than we originally thought.”
One of those “efficiencies” that the department didn’t take into account during its earlier attempt at making emergency rules is another mandate from the Legislature: Families will only be able to stay in a motel for 28 days at a time, whereas previously they could remain for up to 83 days.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Yacovone gauged the advocate crowd’s appetite for several other changes that could give him more leeway in allowing people into motels. He proposed tinkering with the cold weather policy, by making the trigger temperature lower, and he suggested not letting anyone apply for a voucher after 6:30 p.m. Both ideas met with lukewarm reception.
Advocates asked Yacovone to consider adopting the four broad categories that the Legislature laid out in its definition of a “vulnerable household.” Under that approach, households with a child under six, someone 65 years of age or older, a person who is receiving or has applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), or someone in the third trimester of pregnancy would automatically qualify for a motel when shelters aren’t an option
That might make it hard for DCF to stay within its budget, but Barbara Prine, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid, told the department officials, “You’d rather have the problem of overspending than underspending and ending up with people in wheelchairs sleeping in the park.”
DCF will meet with advocates again next Tuesday, and then next Thursday, they’ll present the new rules to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules.
