Only eight of 37 homeless Vermonters who have applied to extend their stay at motels due to a disability have been approved by the state Agency of Human Services.
Eligibility for motel vouchers under Vermont’s General Assistance Housing Program was supposed to come to an end on July 1. However, individuals experiencing homelessness who had a disability would be given an additional 90 days before having to move out.
As Vermont moves toward an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, the state is rapidly scaling back its emergency housing effort, which sheltered more than 6,000 Vermonters since the program began last year.
The tapering started on July 1, when around 700 people lost their eligibility to remain in the motel voucher program. The other two-thirds — people with children, disabilities and those escaping a dangerous or life-threatening situation — could remain until Sept. 23.
Just ahead of the July 1 move-out day, Vermont Legal Aid filed a class-action lawsuit against the Agency of Human Services in an effort to halt the move, alleging that the state did not comply with an established process to change eligibility requirements.
The lawsuit also focuses on Human Services’ definition of disabled, which Legal Aid calls “overly restrictive” and a failure by the state to provide adequate notice to residents losing eligibility.
Vermont Legal Aid claims that Human Services told residents they were ineligible to remain in the program without giving them a chance to reapply.
“Those individuals never received notice of the basis for the denial, or how to appeal,” Legal Aid said in a press release.
Two days after Legal Aid filed the lawsuit, Vermont Superior Court Judge Christina Reiss granted a temporary order giving disabled Vermonters in the motel voucher program until July 14 to verify their disability by providing documentation from any health care professional.
But as of July 14, only eight out of 37 people who attested they have a disability had worked things out with Human Services and confirmed they would have a roof over their heads and a bed to sleep in for 90 more days.
The fate of the other 29 people remains up in the air. Human Services granted them an additional extension, until July 26, to pull together paperwork and prove their eligibility, according to Deputy Commissioner Tricia Tyo of the Economic Services Division for the Department for Children and Families, part of the Agency of Human Services.
But what will happen to them if they can’t get the documentation they need is still unclear.
The results of ongoing settlement discussions between Legal Aid and Human Services may provide the answers. But representatives from Vermont Legal Aid and Human Services would not comment on the details of the case, including exactly why the state did not verify the 29 people as disabled and, if they are verified by July 26, how long they would be able to remain.
The state is providing some cushion for those no longer eligible to remain in hotels. During Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly press conference on July 13, Human Services Secretary Mike Smith announced that the Department of Children and Families had already delivered 536 “essential payment checks” of $2,500 to people leaving the program.
He also said the agency was using navigators to help people find housing, and is providing up to $8,000 to Vermonters to subsidize housing costs as part of the state’s Rapid Resolution Housing Initiative. Smith also said that Vermont is expanding the motel program from what it was pre-pandemic, while noting that he does not think the program is a long-term solution to homelessness.
“I want to be clear on this. This program was never designed to end homelessness,” said Smith. “It was designed to respond to a public health emergency, namely ‘stay home, stay safe,’ and the hotel rooms are just not an appropriate place for many of the population.”
Scott, whose administration has faced criticism over the phasing out of the motel program, echoed the statements of Smith, asserting that the program is not sustainable in a post-pandemic world.
The governor said that providing wrap-around services — including mental health support, addiction services and assistance to children — was more difficult in the motel program than in shelters.
“We believe that going back to more traditional means of helping the homeless would be more beneficial to the individual,” Scott said.
Advocates for those experiencing homelessness said that the motel program, although necessary and positive, had its own set of challenges, largely due to many of the motels’ distance from public transportation and other services.
“Ultimately the answer is not shelters and it’s not motels, it’s permanent, deeply affordable housing,” said Rita Markley, executive director of the Committee on Temporary Shelter.
Although the motel voucher program may not be the ultimate solution to homelessness, officials and advocates have struggled to provide an answer to the immediate question of where the more 2,000 Vermonters who were living in hotels during the pandemic are supposed to sleep now.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how many Vermonters the state has housed since the beginning of the pandemic.