The cost of Vermont’s temporary housing program for the homeless has doubled.
The Department of Children and Families, which provides emergency housing to eligible applicants for a limited period of time, has requested a budget adjustment of $2.2 million to prevent more Vermonters from becoming homeless. That’s on top of the $2 million lawmakers appropriated for the new program in last year’s appropriations bill.
The rising costs are “the caboose that is getting jolted because of a problem happening further up in the train,” said Angus Chaney, director of housing for AHS. The predicament, Chaney said, is that homeless shelters are filling up and affordable housing options are scarce. This means more people are placed in motels — a temporary and costly fix.
There has been a 12 percent increase in the number of Vermonters seeking general assistance, and the average cost of cases has nearly doubled — from $617 in 2010 to $1,138 in 2012 — and the average length of stay has risen as well — from 14 days in 2010 to 20 in 2012.
At a joint committee meeting with House General, Housing & Military Affairs and House Human Services, DCF Commissioner David Yacavone told lawmakers that the problem stems from a decision made in 2009 to expand eligibility requirements to allow singles (individuals without dependent children) to access the program. Nearly half of the people receiving assistance this year are single and DCF estimates these cases add between $800,000 and $1 million to annual annual expenses for the general assistance program.
Yacavone also traced some of the costs to the department’s “cold weather policy,” implemented after Gov. Peter Shumlin issued an executive order last January to waive eligibility requirements during extreme cold temperatures. Since November, DCF has provided housing to 300 cases as a result of the policy.
Chaney said this policy makes it harder for the department to predict its budget. In addition to economic data, he quipped, “we’ll need a Farmers’ Almanac.”
Beyond these policy changes Yacavone told lawmakers he couldn’t account for the overall increase of people in need of temporary housing.
His department is making plans to refurbish the general assistance housing program by July to allow more people to access subsidized rental units and reduce their reliance on pricey motel stays. “We are serving them with a tool we don’t really like … we want to retool our general assistance program,” Yacovone said.
In the meantime, DCF will continue with the current policy, which can include paying for motel stays of up to 84 days.
House Human Services Chair Ann Pugh asked, “What would happen to those people?” if they turned down the budget adjustment request.
Yacavone responded, “Some of the single people would stay with family. Others would be in a bad way. There would be more pressure on our shelters. It wouldn’t be good.”
Hal Cohen, executive director of the Central Vermont Community Action Council, one of the agencies that carries out the program, made an even grimmer prediction: “We could see half of the people we serve in the streets.”
