As the federal Emergency Rental Housing Program ends Friday, House Bill 171 was signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott early Thursday morning. The bill is designed to assist residents experiencing homelessness to find permanent homes amid the state’s housing crunch.
It seems that the only solution we hear much about for the homeless, most of whom have mental health or drug abuse issues, is a stay at a hotel, bus tickets out of town or a prison cell. That’s what happens when you tear down institutions.
With the special session to override the budget veto set to begin June 20, legislative leaders are working behind the scenes to develop an alternate funding plan to house recipients indefinitely until they and state workers can “identify an alternate stable setting,” Senate President Phil Baruth is quoted saying.
Federal funding to house otherwise homeless Vermonters in hotels throughout the state is coming to an end and the state is still in the thick of public debate over what to do or not do about it.
The permitting reform that did get through the legislature and which Gov. Phil Scott signed made it easier to build multifamily housing in the state’s urban areas. South Burlington is making it harder to build by imposing additional costs. We don’t need to require solar panels.
True North Reports traveled around Burlington late last month to take photos of the increasing squalor of the Queen City, which includes everything from homeless encampments and trash to graffiti and drug needles.
Maybe Burlington should ask the homeless to serve in a community improvement corps in return for all the benefits that are attracting them there. But then Burlington would have to say no to the homeless who didn’t care to participate.
Gov. Phil Scott and administration officials Friday outlined his plans to help transition the estimated 2,700 homeless Vermonters out of the 76 hotels and motels since the pandemic began.
On Tuesday, the Goddard College radio show “Gathering Peace” interviewed a city mayor and homeless shelter co-director to discuss Vermont’s imminent homeless crisis.
When these families are sent outside with nowhere to go, they will be exited to our downtowns, to our communities. Our communities do not have the resources to support a mass unsheltering of people across the state.
The added language further states, “No bylaw shall have the effect of excluding these multiunit or multifamily dwellings from the municipality.”
Housing advocates see the bill as a chance to protect people who would otherwise be homeless — by telling towns they can’t prevent hotels from renting rooms to those in a state emergency assistance program. The bill would also prohibit municipalities from interfering with efforts to set up emergency shelters.