[W]hen the Committee on Temporary Shelter opened a new 50-bed emergency shelter in Chittenden County, executive director Rita Markley expected to be working with people who struggle with mental illness and substance abuse.
But she did not expect a staff member to be punched in the face on the second day of the New Year.
“What has surprised us is how much more complicated and severe the mental health issues are,” Markey said.
Markley testified before a joint meeting of the House Human Services and General, Housing and Military Affairs Committees Wednesday, linking the challenges related to homelessness in Vermont to decades-long trends in how the state treats mental illness.
“I think what we’re trying to do with the general assistance housing budget is fill a hole that’s left by a much a larger difficult systemic issue,” Markley told lawmakers Tuesday.
When the state shifted from centralized institutional treatment for mental health to community-based treatment, there was never an adequate replacement for the residential component, she said.
COTS opened the shelter, which has no requirements of sobriety or any other eligibility factors, in Chittenden County in early November. The shelter has been at capacity every night since the third week, she said.
The shelter is one of several opened around Vermont as the state tries to move away from using vouchers for motel rooms to house homeless individuals and families during the coldest nights of the year.
The voucher system has been broadly criticized as too expensive and unsafe for children and families.
Over the past year, the Department for Children and Families, which administers the general housing assistance program, has been reaching out to communities around the state to establish alternatives for emergency housing other than motel vouchers.
DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz told lawmakers that four new emergency shelters will open around the state this winter.
He said communities have worked with the state to address the needs of the homeless, but small and larger communities still have demand for emergency housing.
“Every area of the state has a significant need,” Schatz said.
The new COTS shelter, open nightly from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. through the end of March, is part of an effort to address the need for emergency temporary housing. It is a low-barrier shelter, meaning that people do not need to be sober or meet other requirements in order to stay there.
Three COTS employees staff the shelter through the night. An additional two employees along with a nurse and a security guard are there during the early part of the night.
“We are doing this because it’s a much more humane response than having people go to motels or having them sleep in the stairwells of a parking garage,” Markley said.
The shelter followed on a six-week pilot program run by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity last winter, which offered overnight stays for about two dozen people without requirements for sobriety or other factors, Markley said.
Markley did not anticipate the complexity of the cases.
“It’s not double the challenge,” Markley said. “It’s exponentially greater.”
Markley said the COTS experience raises questions about the residential options available under the state’s community-based mental health system.
“Are warming shelters really the answer?” she asked, or would “more specialized service intensive housing” be appropriate.
The low availability of affordable housing compounds the issue, she said, because there’s less of a margin for people who are in crisis.
“If you lose your housing, it is all the more difficult to get back into it,” she said.
But, Markley said, other approaches to reducing homelessness are working. In 2015, COTS helped 318 households avoid eviction or foreclosure through a program that uses grants aimed at preventing homelessness, she said.
Markley’s testimony to the General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee was part of two days that will focus on homelessness and affordable housing in the state.
Tomorrow, lawmakers will participate in a vigil on the Statehouse steps for homelessness.
Across the state there is “massive need” for both temporary and permanent housing, committee chair Helen Head said Wednesday. Her committee will be looking at housing programs with an eye to making recommendations on the state budget, as well as considering whether there are other needs for legislation.
The committee heard Wednesday from organizations including Pathways Vermont and the Champlain Housing Trust.
“Certainly we’re keyed in right now to looking at and addressing health care needs, but housing is really essential too,” Head said.
Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, chair of the House Human Services Committee said that the issues that impact housing are similar to issues affecting health care and children.
“Alcohol, substance abuse, domestic violence, those are issues that know no economic barrier,” Pugh said. “They are cross-cutting.”
