RANDOLPH – The new Department for Children and Families commissioner says he wants to scrutinize, and possibly change, the state’s practice of temporarily housing homeless people in motels. Gov. Peter Shumlin defended the same program an hour later.
Ken Schatz, the new commissioner of the department, told a room full of housing advocates Tuesday that he has heard nothing good about the motel program. Shumlin appointed Schatz as commissioner on Sept. 8 after former commissioner Dave Yacovone resigned to take another job.
“It is clearly not a good program, as far as I can tell, to be putting people in motels,” said Schatz.
“When you’re in crisis and you don’t have the permanent housing, you’ve got two choices: Freeze in the streets or open up the motel rooms. I vote open up the motel rooms,” Shumlin said.
Despite their different opinions, Schatz and Shumlin agreed that people need both short-term places to stay as well as more access to permanent housing.
VTDigger last month published an investigation of motels in Barre that DCF uses to house the homeless. The report uncovered unsanitary and unsafe conditions at the motels as well as the struggle of families to find permanent places to live.
DCF’s $11 million General Assistance program provides a variety of emergency services including vouchers for up to 84 days in local motels, depending on the circumstances, to homeless Vermonters. The state from January to June this year paid for 14,752 nights in motels at an average of $60 per night.
Plans for long-term housing was a primary focus of a meeting on Tuesday of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition and the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness.
Schatz, formerly Burlington’s city attorney and most recently the lawyer for the Agency of Human Services, commended the governor for implementing the cold weather exception, a mechanism that makes it easier for people to access motel rooms in winter. At the same time, he said he wants to explore other options for temporarily housing homeless Vermonters.
Schatz said reducing homelessness will be a focus under his leadership. He said he will consider the overall goal of the General Assistance program and how it should ideally function.
“I’m putting homelessness out there as one of the issues that I feel needs to be addressed by our department,” he said.
Emergency housing is important, he said, but the state needs a better program.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne also spoke. He said he is not a housing expert but wants to learn more. Milne said he believes poverty and homelessness starts with strife within families and a lack of education.
Asked what he would do to shrink the gap between wages and housing and other living costs, Milne said the state needs a “smart reorganization of Vermont government.”
Also at the meeting, housing advocates thanked Shumlin for supporting existing programs and voiced a need for others, such as employment assistance and other social services that could be connected to housing. About 60 people attended the gathering, which was held in the Baptist Fellowship Church in Randolph.
Other topics ranged from increasing the use of so-called inclusionary zoning, which encourages developers to include affordable housing units in new development, to whether DCF should split into two entities, one that focuses on economic services and another for child abuse. The Agency of Human Services is considering that idea and plans to issue a report this fall.
Also at the meeting, Kate Ash, an aide from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s office, gave an update from Washington, D.C., about federal funding for housing, and state Sen. Tim Ashe, D-Chittenden, explained the state budget, including the spending for housing programs.
