Vermont caps emergency motel housing for homeless, forcing many to leave this month

BERLIN, Vt. (AP) — This fall, hundreds of the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness in Vermont must leave state-funded motel rooms where they’ve been living as the state winds down its pandemic-era motel voucher program. The move is prompting outcry from municipal leaders and advocates who say many don't have a place to go.

The biggest exodus — about 230 households — is expected Thursday when they reach a new 80-day limit stay in the motel rooms that the Legislature imposed starting in July. Those affected include families, people with disabilities, older individuals, those who are pregnant, and people who have experienced domestic violence or a natural disaster such as a fire or a flood.

A new 1,110-room cap on the number of motel rooms the state can use to house those people in the warmer months from April through November also kicked in Sunday. Some households who still haven't used up their 80 days have been denied rooms because there's no space, advocates say.

In the central Vermont area of the cities of Montpelier and Barre, around 100 to 140 families will be leaving motels this fall. The state estimates that about 1,000 households will be out of motels statewide, said Jen Armbrister, outreach case manager for the Good Samaritan Haven in Barre.

Shelters in the area are consistently full and advocates are racing to find housing in a state with a housing crisis that had the second highest per capita rate of homelessness in the country in 2023, according to an assessment from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“I can’t tell you how many families I’ve sat down with and said I really pray that I would never have to have this conversation with you but we don’t have any solutions,” Armbrister said. She's had to tell them that if they don’t have somewhere to go, the best she’s able to do is put them on a list to get a tent and sleeping bags. But there's nowhere nearby to camp.

The households will be eligible for motel housing again on Dec. 1 as winter sets in. But until then, some don’t know where they will live.

Nova and Bruce Jewett must leave the Hilltop Inn in Berlin on Oct. 1. Bruce Jewett, 63, is a disabled veteran who has cancer and can't camp because of a back injury.

The couple have been looking for housing but say there's none available. They're always put on hold, or told that someone else is looking at a place or that it's been rented, he said.

“It bothers me because I'm a veteran and I don't believe that veterans should be having to deal with this,” he said.

Heidi Wright, 50, must leave the Budget Inn in Barre on Sept. 28. She has seizures, as well as depression, anxiety and emphysema, and she said doctors have talked about putting in a pacemaker.

“My hands are tied ... and I don't know what I'm going to do,” she said.

People are getting desperate, said Armbrister, who met with Wright on Wednesday and told her she would do everything she can to keep her housed.

"There’s no solutions. We’re meeting as much as we possibly can with different organizations, and teams to try to figure this out but nothing’s come up yet for a solution," Armbrister said. “It’s really super sad. It’s traumatic.”

On Wednesday, leaders from more than a dozen Vermont cities and towns said they are overwhelmed by the growing rate of homelessness in their communities and called on state government to do more to address the issue and problems associated with it.

“Our first responders can't keep up with the calls, our residents are reluctant to use public spaces, our limited staff are cleaning up unsanitary messes, volunteers are exhausted, and our nonprofit partners are at a break point,” said Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott.

The state has been attempting to wean itself off the hotel-motel program for several years now without much success, Republican Gov. Phil Scott said at his weekly news conference on Wednesday.

“It's just not sustainable on a long-term basis,” he said. “It's a difficult situation. (I) understand the point of view of the municipalities as well, but we don't have the resources either and so we're in the position we're at,” Scott said.

The long-term approach is trying to establish more shelters, he said, although he added that when the state set up emergency shelters last spring during another reduction to the motel program, few people used them.

While Vermont is working to create more housing, it can't come soon enough.

A shortage of apartments for rent in Vermont contributed to a tripling of the number of Vermonters experiencing homelessness between 2019 and 2023, according to a recent state housing report. City and town leaders say the number of people experiencing homelessness is more than 3,400, up from the 1,100 the state reported in 2020.

Vermont has a rental vacancy rate of just 3% statewide, and it's an estimated 1% in Chittenden County, which includes Vermont’s largest city of Burlington and is the state’s most populous county.

To meet demand, house people experiencing homelessness, normalize vacancy rates and replace homes lost through flooding and other causes, the state will need to create 24,000 to 36,000 homes between 2025 and 2029, according to the most recent Vermont Housing Needs Assessment.

Much of the Agency of Human Services staff effort goes into helping people find housing but the state doesn't have enough units, said Agency Secretary Jenney Samuelson.

“While we can’t afford this program, what we really need to be focused on is building housing units that the individuals we serve can afford and expanding that significantly," she said.