[T]he Department for Children and Families is planning to exceed one part of its current year budget to pay for an emergency housing program for families.
The department, in conjunction with leadership of the Agency of Human Services, made the decision in July after about three weeks of pushback from anti-poverty advocates who said the emergency housing program is badly needed.
Human Services Secretary Al Gobeille said departments generally are not allowed to spend more than the Legislature has budgeted, but that Gov. Phil Scott’s administration is allowing it in this situation.
Gobeille said the agency has other areas of its $2.5 billion budget that it can control to make up for the potential overage on the General Assistance Emergency Housing program.
Community action poverty, or CAP, agencies throughout the state facilitate the program for homeless families who need both housing and relevant social services to get back on their feet.
The Legislature appropriated about $3.3 million for the program in the 2017 fiscal year, which ended June 30, but the program spent closer to $4.3 million, according to Sean Brown, a deputy commissioner at the Department for Children and Families.
For the current fiscal year, the department requested $3.3 million, according to Brown. The Legislature cut that by $150,000 and instead appropriated a one-time sum of $600,000 to help DCF set up homeless shelters in Rutland and Barre.
On June 28, Ken Schatz, the commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, sent a letter to the local CAP agencies telling them the Legislature had cut the department’s requested emergency housing budget.
Schatz said the state could guarantee General Assistance Emergency Housing money for only three months and that the department was considering changing program eligibility as a way to cut costs.
Three weeks later, on July 18, Schatz sent another letter to CAP agencies reversing what he said in the previous letter. “We will be able to fully fund all the community based investments who received notice last month that DCF could initially only commit three months of funding,” he wrote.
“Furthermore, we will be able to offer the full financial support to these programs without changing any of the (eligibility) rules in this fiscal year,” Schatz wrote. “However, with the continued and increased reliance on (the state’s housing and shelter programs) Vermont is faced with significant challenges for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.”
The Agency of Human Services had already allowed the program to go over budget by nearly $1 million in fiscal year 2017. Gobeille said he decided to allow the overspending in 2017 because otherwise the state would have kicked about 70 families out of housing on a day when “it was snowing outside to beat the band.”
Because demand is up for the service, Gobeille said, the Department for Children and Families would rather go over budget again than make cuts to the program.
“Through our analysis we determined that that would be not in the best interest of folks, and so we’re” making an exception, Gobeille said. Doing otherwise “would have directly impacted … the availability of emergency housing, the availability of housing during cold weather.”
Gobeille said his agency will need to continue to educate the Legislature on why officials decided not to keep the program to the budgeted amount.
Dan Hoxworth, the executive director of Capstone Community Action in central Vermont, applauded the decision. Hoxworth was one of many advocates who sent letters to the Department for Children and Families when it was considering tightening eligibility rules for the program.
“We have six emergency housing transitional units for families who were at risk in that discussion, so that was a very important issue for us to see that it was resolved,” Hoxworth said. “We really appreciated Commissioner Schatz stepping forward.”
Hoxworth said his agency’s program has served 27 families since starting a transitional and emergency housing program in early 2016. Out of the total, 24 families still have some kind of housing, he said, and 18 of those 24 have found long-term housing.
“It has a very high success rate, and I think we only have one person who lost permanent housing after six months,” Hoxworth said. “That is exactly why we felt it was so important for the state to maintain funding in this program.”
Dawn Butterfield, who runs the housing program at Capstone, said the six units are furnished apartments that help families gain stability and return to a state of normalcy. Capstone helps the families find employment, transportation or mental health treatment, among other things.
“I think we could probably use triple of what we have, at least,” Butterfield said. “At any given time, even in the summer time, we’re full.” That’s because Washington County does not have a homeless shelter for families, she said.
The only other option for families in Washington County is to get a voucher from the Department for Children and Families to stay in a motel, but that’s not the ideal option, Butterfield said. “What happens is they stay in the hotel and kind of get stuck because they’re in survival mode.”
Hoxworth said: “Families are basically using this (general assistance housing) program to re-enter the workforce, to get stabilizing lives, to move away from government assistance and support. … They can focus on their goals. It restores their sense of pride.”
“We’re delighted the funding is restored and really think it’s something to build off of as we address homelessness for families in Vermont,” he said. “We just hope the Legislature and the governor will increase the funding the next time around.”
