Editor’s note: This commentary is by Maryellen Griffin, a housing attorney and manager of the housing task force at Vermont Legal Aid, Mairead O’Reilly, a medical legal partnership attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, and Anne Sosin, the program director for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth.
Vermont’s performance in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic has attracted widespread praise, including from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who described the state as a “model for the U.S.” A key — and overlooked — component of Vermont’s model has been housing for the state’s most vulnerable Vermonters. Vermont has enacted and maintained one of the country’s best ranked eviction moratoriums, provided rent relief for landlords, offered hotel rooms to people without homes, and stopped utility shutoffs. The life-saving effect of these interventions, as well as the longstanding housing and public health challenges they illuminate, are now coming into focus.
Illness has always thrived among people residing in crowded and insecure housing conditions. Sharp disparities in Covid-19 infections and deaths among people for whom “stay at home” is not possible has made the connection between housing and health impossible to ignore. And it is not just nursing homes and prisons that have seen the worst Covid-19 outcomes. Couch surfing, crowded conditions, poor sanitation, and congregate living situations all contribute to consistently higher rates of Covid-19 infection and mortality in both urban and rural settings. This is why safe, stable housing has been and is so critical in stopping the spread of Covid-19.
Growing evidence from Vermont and other parts of the U.S. now suggests that Vermont’s short-term housing policies have protected people in difficult housing situations and have contributed to the country’s lowest rates of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Vermont has had fewer than six cases of Covid-19 and no deaths in its homeless population compared to prevalence of up to 66% documented in congregate shelters in other settings. States that maintained eviction moratoriums, including Vermont, saw lower rates of Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Although these short-term interventions have not addressed the underlying housing challenges in Vermont, they have provided a glimpse of the health and economic benefits that would be possible if everyone had a home. When a homeless family has a stable place to stay, even if just a motel room, they gain a space — and the consistent access to services — that they need to move forward in their lives, Jenna O’Farrell, executive director at Northeast Kingdom Community Action, put it this way: “When you know where you’re going to be each night, you can start to make plans. And for service providers, we can provide consistent support, where the person has a consistent place to stay. It’s much easier to make sure a child has the technology to remote learn or a person using a wheelchair has access to a shower or a person can get needed medication — it’s much easier to support that, when we know where that person is going to be. This kind of support is foundational for ending homelessness, but people who are homeless also really need a permanent place to live. People need homes.”
Like most states in the U.S., Vermont does not have enough safe and affordable housing for everyone who needs it. Over half of the renters in Vermont, about 36,000 households, spend more than 30% of their income on housing, and 18,000 spend more than 50%. It is not surprising then, that the length of stay in Vermont’s homeless shelters was at an all-time high in 2019, even before the pandemic hit.
In the last 10 months we have seen dramatic evidence of the link between housing and health. That link has been there all along, of course. Study after study has proven that housing plays a critical role in preventing and managing a wide range of health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, substance use disorders, and mental illness. And it is not just health. For children growing up in poverty, secure housing improves academic performance and odds of long-term health and success. For adults, stable housing is linked to stable employment.
Vermont can — and should — leverage our housing successes during the pandemic and lead the nation in the effort to deliver housing for all. To do this, our task is threefold: now, next, and future. To manage the current crisis, Vermont must maintain the eviction moratorium and continue sheltering all homeless Vermonters in motel rooms or single-room occupancy apartments.
At the same time, the Vermont Legislature needs to prepare for the transition out of the state of emergency. We risk a surge of evictions when the governor declares an end to the state of emergency. To avoid this, we must grow the supply of affordable rental housing and expand services for people at risk of homelessness. Now is the time to adopt all the recommendations of the Roadmap to End Homelessness so that everyone now in motels can move into permanent homes.
Finally, the Vermont Legislature can and should begin to address the structural challenges to safe, stable, fair housing for all. In addition to increasing the supply of safe, affordable rental housing, the Legislature should find ways to reduce the rate of eviction, particularly evictions that lead to homelessness.
We can and should guarantee safe, stable, fair housing for everyone in Vermont. We can be a leader for the nation in showing how this is done, and we can support our community, strengthen our economy, and build a healthier Vermont in the process. We don’t need to wait for another pandemic to end homelessness.
The time is now.