RUTLAND CITY — A day before Kiersten Groesbeck and her fiance were slated to lose their state-sponsored motel housing, the couple stopped by the state fairgrounds in Rutland on Wednesday to see if they could find any housing leads.
That day, the fairgrounds’ Royce Mandigo Arena was dotted with tables set up by around 20 social service organizations prepared to help people facing homelessness as the state’s pandemic-era emergency housing program ramps down. Participants included affordable housing providers and housing advocates such as the Housing Trust of Rutland County, Homeless Prevention Center and BROC Community Action.
There were also food pantries, health care providers, employment resource agencies, substance recovery groups and a wireless phone company, which offered reduced-rate plans for qualifying subscribers.
Groesbeck and her fiance were among the roughly 35 people who took advantage of the city-sponsored event Wednesday, which continued on Thursday.
Groesbeck, 20, said she’d been homeless on and off since the death of her mom when she was a teenager. She said she’d coped largely by couch-surfing with relatives and friends until January of last year, when she got into Vermont’s emergency housing program.
The program, which expanded its eligibility criteria during the pandemic with the injection of federal dollars, sheltered thousands of Vermonters in hotels and motels to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Groesbeck said she’d been housed in rooms at three motels in downtown Rutland, which she shared with her fiance, both their service dogs and a stray dog she adopted. She said she also signed up for affordable housing through the Rutland Housing Authority two years ago but has had trouble finding a place because of her dogs, which she described as integral to her life.
With federal funding for the motel housing no longer available, the state began narrowing the eligibility criteria on June 1. That has removed about 600 households from the program, according to data from the Vermont Agency of Human Services as of Monday.
Groesbeck and her fiance were among those who lost eligibility, but the couple was able to stay at their motel for another two weeks because of an extension the motel owner granted. They said that was coming to an end Thursday, when their plan was to move outdoors.
“We’re gonna go camping, since the weather is nice,” Groesbeck said.
At the housing-resource event on Wednesday, Groesbeck said she still hadn’t found affordable housing and expects the search could take another year. But she did pick up a new cellphone from Cricket, a wireless phone provider that offers reduced-rate plans under the federal government’s affordable connectivity program.
John Mogilka, his wife and their two children have also been living at a motel since May. Because of further changes in the state’s eligibility criteria, the couple expects to lose their housing in Manchester on July 1 — though legislators are trying to come up with an 11th-hour plan to preserve shelter for the roughly 2,000 people still in motels.
Any plan won’t be finalized until the Vermont Legislature convenes for a special veto session next week.
Mogilka, 35, and his wife stopped by the Rutland event on Wednesday, which he’d heard about through a local church. The couple stopped by to chat with representatives from BROC Community Action, which also offers food assistance, the Rutland County Free Clinic and Support Services for Veteran Families.
Mogilka described the event as “very helpful” and said he was surprised by the variety of resources available.
Low turnout
Within the state, Rutland County has had the biggest number of participants in the state’s pandemic-era emergency housing program. Some 484 households were part of the program before the evictions on June 1, and 298 households remained as of Monday.
With hundreds of people having lost their motel housing — or about to lose it — the event turnout was on the low end.
BROC Community Action CEO Tom Donahue said 51 people participated in its gift card promotion over the two-day event. Nikitta Caveney, property manager at the Housing Trust of Rutland County, said around 25 people stopped by to apply for its services during this period. Cricket sales executive Tom Toepfer said a dozen people signed up for their affordable connectivity program as of Wednesday afternoon.
When asked if he was disappointed at the participation rate, Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges said he’d wanted to see more people, but those who came could receive critical services they previously didn’t have.
“We are here to reach at least one person, and every single one of these tables has had at least one person come up and speak to them,” Doenges said, echoing the words of service providers on site. “We’re trying to provide a public service, and this is just one of the many ways that we can provide access.”
Caveney, of the Housing Trust of Rutland County, said the participation rate might be low because some people don’t believe the state will truly remove their motel housing now.
“The programs have been extended so many times over the past few years that we’re not sure if some of the applicants that should be applying are really sure that the program is ending,” she said, and people are probably thinking “they still have time.”
