Democrats command supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, but overriding the governor is still expected to be a complicated task, particularly in the lower chamber.
It’s unclear how many people will receive the extra month of shelter. An actual breakdown was not available from state officials on Friday, although minors alone account for nearly 600 of the individuals living in motels.
The Agency of Human Services on Wednesday released a request for proposals for emergency shelter staffing and services, with the hope of providing up to 1,000 shelter beds statewide.
Anne Sosin, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College who lobbied lawmakers to extend the motel program, called it “obscene” that Democrats would fundraise “off the backs of the thousands of Vermonters they've just voted to un-shelter.”
“I've been thinking that everything, everyone has its cycle,” Ledbetter said. “And I've had a great run for many years, but I thought it was time for someone else to have their shot.”
While the spending package — the largest in state history — funds a slew of initiatives that would, in a different year, have offered Democrats, buoyed by supermajorities in both chambers, the chance at a victory lap, one subject overshadowed the rest: homelessness.
By a 118-27 vote, the House on Friday evening passed out H.217, a measure that advocates say will likely put Vermont first-in-the-nation for its investment in early childhood education.
The two chambers have been at loggerheads for weeks about how to finance their historic investment in Vermont’s beleaguered child care sector.
The one-time sum does not satisfy advocates, and it may not mollify a group of Democrats and Progressives in the House who are threatening to sustain Gov. Phil Scott’s predicted veto of the state budget if additional funding is not identified.
“We have hit an impasse on funding,” Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, conceded Tuesday evening.
