MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – State lawmakers are working on a bill that aims to shift how homeless Vermonters receive services, with the goal of helping people work their way to permanent housing. It comes after the state auditor last year found that the state’s homelessness rate tripled despite spending over $800 million over the last five years to combat it.
At Another Way, a Montpelier day shelter, director Ken Russell shows a memorial remembering those who struggled with homelessness who have died, and the lives they impacted.
“There’s been many tearful moments as people write names on the wall,” Russell said. “All day long, it’s like a firehose of human moments we’re in touch with. I feel like we need a novelist to come in here and tell the story.” Some of these people, Russell says, fell through the cracks of Vermont’s social safety net.
“There’s not enough housing to go around for everybody,” said Belinda Kidder, who along with Ivy Legrand, is homeless. She says even when they and others have a roof over their heads, they don’t have the right supports or access to rehabilitation programs and struggle to get a leg up and stay in their housing.
“I don’t blame the people. I think there are good people. I think the systems are broken,” Legrand said.
That fragmented system will soon once again be the focus of state lawmakers. A bipartisan bill introduced this week would create a new framework for addressing homelessness, moving away from hotel rooms and toward a new tiered system where case managers assess people’s needs and place them in the right housing situation with services.
“The intent behind this is to expand our current system but then make the quality investments into those permanent solutions,” said Rep. Eric Maguire, R-Rutland, the lead sponsor of the bill.
The bill also creates a so-called “Return to Home Program,” allowing people to voluntarily take a bus to another community or leave the state to reconnect with family. The aim, Maguire says, is to lift people out of poverty and off the streets. “I find that to be much more dignified,” he said.
Back on the street in Montpelier, Kidder and Legrand say they are thankful for their temporary shelter and worry about those, including some of their friends, who might end up on the shelter’s memorial wall.
“We’re trying our hardest here to make it easier for us. Stop fighting against us and help us,” Kidder said.
Ultimately, lawmakers say the bill is a two-year plan to get to broader homelessness reforms, where community action agencies would spearhead the state’s homelessness response instead of the state. That bill was vetoed by Governor Phil Scott last year.
