Editor’s note: This letter sent to Gov. Phil Scott, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson and Senate Pro Tem Tim Ashe is by leaders in Vermont’s housing, shelter and service provider network. Signers are listed below.
Dear Gov. Scott, Speaker Johnson, and Pro Tem Ashe:
Homelessness has been stopped in its tracks in Vermont. As we write this, the vast majority of Vermonters experiencing homelessness are sheltered. This is an incredible achievement. What’s more incredible is the speed with which this was accomplished.
We ask for your help in this unique moment in time to make this new reality permanent.
As Covid-19 advanced, shelter providers throughout Vermont worked closely with our State partners to establish and enact a plan that eventually led to over 2,000 Vermonters that were without housing, or who were precariously housed, being able to access local motel rooms. It is quite remarkable that a vision we have held for our state — that everyone has access to “housing” — has become a reality during this crisis. This need not be an anomaly.
Now that Vermont has successfully flattened the curve, we’re in a time when the conversation has shifted from surge and isolation to plateau and reopening. And so we find ourselves at a critical juncture where we can get this right or wrong — dignity for all or inequality for many. As we move to reopen the economy, it will displace people in motels unless we act now — so there is great urgency in our request.
Leaders in Vermont’s housing, shelter and service provider network have crafted a plan that provides a clear path for everyone in Vermont to have housing as a critical response to the public health emergency. This plan is built on the logic that solving homelessness is not rocket science. It is not a complex enigma. We know how to solve homelessness. Homelessness is solved when we have ample housing stock coupled with rental subsidies and supportive services.
Covid is teaching us many lessons. One of these lessons is that we do have the ability to house everyone in Vermont when we couple the needed state funding with a concerted community response.
We call on you, our governor and legislative leaders, to work with Vermont’s housing funding agencies and our network of affordable housing and homeless service providers to make available the necessary resources and bring this plan to fruition.
We have seen light in this dark time and hope that we won’t return to “normal.” Now is the time to make permanent what we have shown to be possible. We have a plan and know what to do.
This is the time of year that seasonal winter shelters typically close. Their closing and the exiting of people onto the streets or unsafe situations highlights the massive gaps in our emergency housing system. Our system is stretched beyond capacity and creates a bottleneck — we have not brought sufficient resources to bear to move from a position of mitigating homelessness to functionally ending it.
During this crisis, getting people experiencing homelessness into housing has been an effective mitigation strategy. Covid has highlighted that our entire community’s vulnerability is directly connected to the vulnerability of any of its parts. This was true before Covid and will be true after. As we rebuild and reopen our communities — with caution and hope — let’s act on the lesson that this unprecedented time has taught us: taking care of each of us is the best way to take care of all of us.
It is not merely enough to survive this. We are given opportunities to recreate and reimagine communities — what was once thought impossible is not only possible, but is actually happening here in Vermont. Just as some plants can only grow where wildfire has passed through, so do the seeds of a community where everyone has housing in the wake of Covid.
Please help us make this a reality!
- Rebeka Lawrence-Gomez, Co-Chair
- Renee Weeks, Co-Chair Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness
- Kevin Pounds, Executive Director ANEW Place Burlington, VT
- Stephannie Peters, Executive Director Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless Bennington, VT
- Sue Minter, Executive Director Capstone Community Action Barre, VT
- Jan F. Demers, Executive Director Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Burlington, VT
- Doug Sinclair, Executive Director Charter House Coalition Middlebury, VT
- Rita Markley, Executive Director Committee on Temporary Shelter Burlington, VT
- Rick DeAngelis, Executive Director Good Samaritan Haven Barre, VT
- Josh Davis, Executive Director Groundworks Collaborative Brattleboro, VT
- Jeanne L. Montross, Executive Director HOPE Middlebury, VT
- Peter Kellerman, Executive Director John Graham Housing & Services Vergennes, VT
- Jenna O’Farrell, Executive Director Northeast Kingdom Community Action St. Johnsbury & Newport, VT
- Hilary Melton, Executive Director Pathways Vermont Burlington, VT
- Hannah Rose, Executive Director Samaritan House, Inc. St. Albans, VT
- Steve Geller, Executive Director Southeastern Vermont Community Action Westminster, VT
- Mark Redmond, Executive Director Spectrum Youth & Family Services Burlington, VT
- Michael Redmond, Executive Director The Upper Valley Haven White River Junction, VT
