This commentary is by Frank Knaack, executive director of the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont.
Over 3,400. That’s the estimated number of unhoused Vermonters on any given night, including over 730 children. And, we know this number is an undercount, as it reflects only the people who engaged with our state’s dedicated and perpetually under-resourced shelter service providers.
To give some perspective on how large of a problem this is, Vermont’s statewide shelter capacity is just 655 households, and they are all full. There is literally no safe place for potentially thousands of Vermonters to go.
Vermont is in the middle of a housing and homelessness crisis. This crisis did not come about by accident. It is the result of choices made by generations of local, state and federal political leaders.
Fortunately, our state political leaders also have multiple opportunities to help fix it.
Here’s what the Legislature can do.
First, Vermont must expand the production of affordable housing. According to the 2024 Vermont Housing Needs Assessment, by 2029 Vermont needs 3,295 homes to address homelessness and 3,957 homes to normalize vacancy rates. We urge the Legislature to invest $25 million in funding for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, which will allow VHCB to continue the pipeline of desperately needed affordable housing. This is in addition to VHCB’s full statutory share of the property transfer tax.
Second, Vermont must invest in homelessness prevention programs and services. We urge the legislature to support the House Human Services Committee’s recommendation of an additional $3.75 million to fund 33 critical case management positions that are set to go away in June when federal ERAP money expires. Without these vital positions, we will see more of our neighbors become unhoused. This is in addition to the Housing Opportunity Grant Program funds that are already in the budget.
Third, Vermont must ensure emergency shelter for Vermonters in need. We urge the Legislature to provide $44.6 million to ensure that unhoused Vermonters defined as vulnerable by the state, including seniors, families with children, those with disabilities, and people who are pregnant, can maintain shelter through the General Assistance Emergency Housing Program. To be clear, without these funds our state’s solution will be sending children and vulnerable adults into the streets and woods to live.
Here’s what the governor can do.
In addition to supporting and signing a budget with the funding outlined above, the governor must take immediate action to reduce the harms he created when he vetoed the budget adjustment bill.
This bill would have kept seniors, families with children, those with disabilities, people who are pregnant, and other vulnerable unhoused Vermonters sheltered through the end of June. Because of the governor’s veto, hundreds of these vulnerable Vermonters have already lost their shelter.
The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated. Vermont has no plan to shelter these vulnerable Vermonters. As our state’s shelter and service system was already beyond capacity before this latest crisis, our state’s shelter providers are again at the point of giving tents to families with young children and triaging cases to focus on keeping people literally alive.
This is a humanitarian crisis and requires immediate action by the governor. While we appreciate Gov. Scott’s recent executive order, which allowed a narrowly defined group of vulnerable unhoused Vermonters to stay sheltered, it still leaves hundreds of our most vulnerable unhoused neighbors out on the street, including seniors, people with disabilities and people fleeing domestic violence.
We urge the governor to take immediate action to ensure continued access to emergency shelter through the General Assistance Emergency Housing Program for all vulnerable unhoused Vermonters not included in his executive order.
While Vermont’s housing and homelessness crisis is the result of multiple factors, the core driver of this crisis is the severe shortage of homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes and a widening gap between incomes and housing costs. By expanding access to affordable housing, these recommendations will move Vermont closer to solving one of the major crises facing our state while also helping keep more Vermonters at risk of homelessness from losing their home and continuing to protect our most vulnerable unhoused neighbors.
In addition to helping Vermont solve its housing and homelessness crisis, more affordable housing will also allow Vermont to reduce the need for and costs related to our homelessness response system, which is currently in very high demand.
This should be an easy choice.
Vermont’s housing and homelessness crisis was not created overnight and will not be solved overnight, but these recommendations will show that our state political leaders are serious about a solution. We urge our state leaders to adopt them.
