MONTPELIER – H.91, dubbed VHEARTH (Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing Program) by its sponsors in the Vermont House, was introduced with the intent “that unsheltered homelessness be eliminated and that homelessness in Vermont be rare, brief, and nonrecurring.”
The bill is now being considered in the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare after passing to the Senate in early April.
Sen. Sam Douglass (R-Orleans) serves as clerk of that committee and said “H.91 is hopefully an end to using the Emergency/General Assistance (GA) program in ways it was never intended, which is the bipartisan consensus.”
Douglass’ characterization of bipartisan consensus is in keeping with the House version of the bill, which intends that, “arbitrary time limits, night-by-night shelter, relocation between interim housing sites, and other disruptions in housing stability be eliminated to the extent possible.”
Sen. Douglass said, “There are questions about the bill in regard to governance and its structure, and my committee appears unconvinced about the bill in its current form. The bill isn’t short, so without getting into too much detail, I believe that it will look different once we have passed it from my committee.”
The committee has received information from the Joint Fiscal Office, which identifies $10 million in annual spending with $6.5 million allocated for community action agencies and the statewide organization serving households impacted by domestic and sexual violence, $3 million for the continued development of shelter capacity in the state and $500,000 for contractual and other system transformation assistance.
As passed by the House, the bill intends for six regional community action agencies to take the lead and collaborate with other community partners and local housing coalitions to provide emergency and transitional housing.
Testimony and letters of support have been received from a wide range of organizations, including the Vermont Department of Children and Families (DCF), COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter), the Vermont ACLU and Housing First.
Sen Douglass recently said, “There are significant concerns about whether community action organizations have the funding and capacity to take on the task [the bill assigns to them] and I am very worried about the staffing issue . . .”
Douglass sees the capacity of community organizations tasked with taking on the role now filled by DCF as a potential issue. “I work in Human Services, and we struggle to find staffing, so I imagine that, with expanded responsibilities, they will have the same problem, which is a problem that DCF also has with staffing the GA program now.”
“I imagine it will pass to the floor with some changes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t revisit it next session or continue work on the program in the summertime,” said Douglass.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
