Correction: An earlier version of this story and its headline overstated the increase in the number of families with kids who were unhoused in Vermont on one day in 2022 compared to 2021.
For the second straight year, more Vermonters were found living in shelters or on the streets than a year earlier — including a one-third increase in the number of unhoused families with children — according to an annual one-day count of unhoused people statewide.
The number of Vermonters living in shelters or on the streets on the night of Jan. 26, 2022, increased 7% from the year prior — from 2,591 people to 2,780 — according to a report Thursday from the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness.
That included 857 individuals in households with at least one adult and one child, up from 629.
From 2016 through 2020, the total number of people who were identified living in shelters or on the streets during the single-night count ranged from about 1,000 to 1,300 people, according to the report.
“The pandemic, in some ways, allowed us to see with greater clarity the impact of homelessness,” said Martin Hahn, executive director of the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness, the organization that produced the report.
The report comes as low-income Vermonters continue to struggle with skyrocketing rents, inflation and a tight housing market, especially in high-density areas such as Burlington.
At the same time, there has been greater support during the pandemic for low-income Vermonters facing evictions and for the chronically unhoused. Significant chunks of federal and state funding have gone to programs offering rent assistance and long-term stays in hotels and motels across the state, connecting people in need with essential resources.
Point-in-time counts offer a limited snapshot of homelessness in Vermont. It’s easy to miss people who are living in their cars or deep in the woods, for example. The report numbers do not capture those who are on the verge of eviction or people who live with family and friends, nor do they offer insight into the number of people entering or leaving homelessness in a given year.
Despite these limitations, the state and federal governments use the data to guide policy decisions, direct funding and support programs in regions with higher needs.
As attention shifts from the pandemic to other issues, Hahn stressed that there’s more work to do when it comes to supporting unhoused people in Vermont. The state’s hotel and motel program, for example, is slated to end next year. Without concrete transition plans, people in motels may have no choice but to return to congregate shelters or the streets.
At the same time, the social services sector lacks enough staff to deal with the increased need for support, Hahn said. And plans to build permanent housing have been slowed down by the high cost of raw materials and a lack of construction workers.
“We need to plan for the cliff,” Hahn said. “We have a little bit of time, but there remains a cliff.”
