MONTPELIER — Amid growing concerns about the plight of unhoused persons in Vermont, religious leaders and housing advocates on Thursday called on Gov. Phil Scott’s administration to step up its response to the housing crisis.
Representatives of the group Vermont Interfaith Action raised their concerns in a press conference held in the Christ Episcopal Church, following a letter they sent to Gov. Scott in which they outlined specific actions they want to see taken. The advocates say these steps would lead to more permanent solutions, rather than rely on emergency temporary shelters.
“We need the state to be behind us, to support us, and to come up with a comprehensive plan,” said Pastor Earl Kooperkamp of the Good Shepherd Episcopal in Barre.
Specifically, the group called for: a reintroduction of rental subsidies; more housing construction to meet a vacancy rate of 5-6 percent; greater cooperation and support from the state to help municipalities address homelessness; a comprehensive plan to provide shelter “farther into the future than the current scramble every few months”; and a centralized decision-making body “rather than the hodge-podge of state entities that exist now.”
“Over the last two years, we have pressed the administration and legislature for a comprehensive plan that would provide stable and humane shelter for all individuals experiencing homelessness,” the letter said.
But as of Thursday, they said, their letter sent to Scott on Nov. 8 had yet to receive a response.
Earlier this month, Chris Winters, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, proposed a slate of new temporary emergency shelters, accommodating those who will lose shelter next spring.
As of early November, an estimated 800 households were still housed in the state’s pandemic-era motel program, which will end in April.
But religious leaders say more permanent solutions are needed.
Vermont’s housing vacancy rate is among the lowest in the country ranging from 0.5% to 3% across the state at the beginning of 2023, according to Vermont’s point-in-time-count report by Chittenden County Homeless Alliance and the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness. The count on January 25 found that 3,295 Vermonters were unhoused. However all but 137 were sleeping in emergency and transitional shelters at the time of the count in January.
In 2022, Vermont had the second-highest per-capita rate of people experiencing homelessness in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The same analysis also found that the state had the lowest percentage of people experiencing homelessness who were without shelter at 2%.
“Over the last four years we have more than doubled our shelter capacity,” said Rick DeAngelis, the co-executive director of the Good Samaritan Haven, which operates several shelters in central Vermont. “We estimate that right now here in Washington county there are 40 to 50 individuals and families who are living in their car or outside.”
DeAngelis added that even people who are eligible for housing face wait times of one or two years, further putting pressure on an overflowing shelter system.
Since the July flood, the Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier has been functioning as a place to get food and socialize for people experiencing homelessness, according to Kevin Sparrow, the church’s reverend.
“It’s been a wonderful effort, but faith communities alone cannot address the housing crisis,” Sparrow said.
The interfaith group acknowledged that they have met with state officials, including Winters, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, as well as Alex Farrell, the commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development, but said they had yet to receive a response from the governor.
The governor’s office responded to VTDigger in an email on Thursday by saying more details of a housing package focused on regulation reform would be introduced in the new year.
“The only way to truly address Vermont’s housing crisis, at all levels of income, is to build more housing,” Jason Maulucci, the governor’s press secretary said.
