Vermont Legal Aid has filed a class action lawsuit against the Agency of Human Services in an effort to prevent the state from limiting eligibility for its emergency housing program.
The lawsuit comes after Legal Aid, community service providers and other advocates have raised concerns about the state’s plans to restrict access to the program, which has housed homeless Vermonters in hotels and motels throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Legal Aid says that the new eligibility requirements, which will be implemented July 1, are too narrow, and will leave homeless Vermonters with disabilities without housing. In the lawsuit, filed in Vermont Superior Court’s Washington County Civil Division, the organization is seeking an injunction to stop the rules from taking effect.
“On July 1, hundreds of Vermonters with disabilities will be ousted from their motel shelter to live in vans, barns, campsites, and our city streets,” Vermont Legal Aid attorney Mairead O’Reilly said in a statement.
“Our clients are anxious and fearful about what comes next, and our local communities are scrambling to develop the infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of this population,” she added.
While state officials expect more than 700 households will have to leave hotels and motels this week, certain residents including those with children or disabilities and those fleeing dangerous or life-threatening conditions will be able to stay in the program. Many will be able to apply to remain indefinitely.
But Legal Aid says that the Scott administration’s definition of disability is too restrictive.
Those receiving federal disability benefits, or whose health care professional writes a letter stating they can’t work for at least three months, can still qualify for a motel room.
However, according to O’Reilly, there are “at least a couple hundred” Vermonters in the emergency housing program who may have a disability, but wouldn’t qualify to stay beyond July 1.
“This rule excludes a whole group of Vermonters who have disabilities but just either don’t get one of the federal disability benefits, or who can’t get verification from a doctor saying that they’re unable to work,” O’Reilly said in an interview.
O’Reilly added the state has “failed to provide necessary due process protections” for people in the program. The state is supposed to provide residents with adequate notice of the rule changes and information about how they can “demonstrate eligibility,” she said.
“Our plaintiffs have confirmed that this is just not happening,” O’Reilly said.
Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, said that compared to how the emergency housing program worked pre-pandemic, the state has expanded the definition of what qualifies as a disability.
He said that notice about the rule change went out on April 30, and residents are allowed to appeal decisions about their eligibility.
Smith also pointed out that the new rules for the program weren’t created by administration officials alone.
They were drafted by a working group made up of legislators, state officials, community service providers and other groups, including Legal Aid.
“This wasn’t sort of brainstormed in a room with just a few people. We put together a working group that had Legal Aid in it, local housing authorities, state leaders and worked with the legislature and this workgroup to pass this compromise,” Smith said during Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“We’ll defend ourselves in court. We think we’re on solid ground as we move forward,” Smith said.
While Legal Aid was part of the group that helped come up with the new emergency housing program rules, it claims the Scott administration made the disability definition stricter after the panel concluded its work.
Legal Aid also argues that the rule changes for the emergency program should have also been filed with the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office and received legislative approval before taking effect.
But the Scott administration says that a bill the Legislature passed and the governor signed gave the Agency of Human Services more authority to change rules surrounding health care and human services.
In response to the lawsuit, Scott said Tuesday that state officials have taken steps to ensure that the people exiting hotels and motels “are protected” and noted that the program will continue to have a more expanded eligibility than it did pre-pandemic.
“So, we feel we’re in a good spot. Obviously, we’ll know more as time goes on, and we had a number of people at the table during these discussions,” the governor said.
Smith said that after July 1, 950 households, or more than 1,400 people, will remain eligible for the program under the expanded criteria. Before the pandemic, at most, 200 to 300 households experiencing homelessness would be staying in hotels and motels at a given time.
In addition, the state is giving households leaving the program $2,500 to help them transition to new housing, and they will continue to have access to emergency benefits, including food and rental assistance.
While the officials are working to expand shelter capacity and help place those leaving the emergency program into housing, advocates and community service providers have said the transition is too fast. They say there won’t be enough housing options to meet the demands from those leaving hotels and motels.
