Vermont Legal Aid has filed a petition asking the state to reintroduce a moratorium on utility shutoffs during the pandemic.
The moratorium, originally introduced in March, was lifted in October in hopes of getting more Vermonters to apply for an aid program meant to help people who are behind on their bills because of the pandemic.
But with the Vermont Covid Arrearage Assistance Program set to end on Dec. 15, Vermont Legal Aid and other organizations say the state needs to act now to reinstate the moratorium on shutoffs.
The moratorium applied to water, electric, gas and telecommunications providers.
Of the original $8 million in CARES act funding set aside, $7.47 million has been committed, and state officials are processing between $200,000 and $250,000 per day in awards. They expect to exhaust available funding in the two business days that remain before the program ends.
“We continue to argue that there should be a moratorium in place,” said David Koeninger, deputy director of Vermont Legal Aid. The organization had originally filed a petition to the state in March that led to the initial moratorium. On Friday, the organization sent another petition to the state.
“In the interest of public safety and protecting Vermonters’ lives, they shouldn’t have to worry about their utilities getting disconnected, or having to shut down the heat,” said Koeninger. He pointed out that the pandemic has worsened since October when the moratorium was lifted.
“The governor is urging people to not mix households, to stay separated, to hunker down and to avoid spreading the virus. About the worst thing is for people to be unsuitably housed or unhoused, homeless,” he added. “The conditions are now right to reinstall the utility disconnection moratorium.”
“It’s also an education issue,” Koeninger said.
A moratorium on the shutoff of services like broadband would ensure students who must attend classes online aren’t falling behind.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, or VPIRG, is one of the organizations joining Vermont Legal Aid in calling on the state to update the policy on shutoffs.
Ben Edgerly Walsh, the climate and energy program director for VPIRG, said the nonprofit will file comments to the state on Monday, along with half a dozen other organizations that are signing on.
“No Vermonter should have to worry that their utilities could be disconnected during this pandemic because they are unable to make bill payments,” VPIRG wrote in draft comments to the state.
So far, organizations in support of the moratorium include 350 Vermont, AARP, Community Action Works, Rights and Democracy, Seventh Generation, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Vermont Conservation Voters and the Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council.
Edgerly Walsh said he is concerned about the state allowing shutoffs heading into the cold winter months. “It simply doesn’t make sense to allow the possibility of Vermonters having their utilities shut off, functionally becoming homeless in the middle of the pandemic, in the middle of the winter,” he said.
Vermont Legal Aid and VPIRG are calling for the moratorium to be extended through the state of emergency and the pandemic.
