Below is the article written Ellen Pratt as printed in the Commons on October 4, 2023. We thank the writer and Commons, for the thoughtful piece on the number of people experiencing homelessness and accessing shelter. To see the numbers of people exiting homelessness to permanent housing being eclipsed by people coming into shelter is always so disheartening and really speaks to the need for more stock available at affordable rates. The market is just not meeting the need of our communities. We would like to offer a clarification on numbers reported on the VHIP program that we administer for this area. Through this program we have 2 ADU units and 29 apartments in progress with 30 units in our application pipeline rather than three projects as stated. These numbers are in addition to work that has already been completed through the earlier iteration of the VHIP program called Rehousing Recovery Program which was created in 2020 with the same goals. Rehousing brought 75 units online across our entire two-county footprint.
Ellen Pratt
Wednesday, October 4, 2023 — Issue 734
BRATTLEBORO — The number of unsheltered people in Vermont is increasing, according to Chris Winters, commissioner of the Agency of Human Services’ Department of Children and Families (AHS/DCF).
“We’re seeing as many people coming into homelessness now as are exiting – even more,” Winters reported at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Joint Fiscal Committee.
Statewide, as of Sept. 27, there are 874 households in what has been dubbed the “June 30 cohort” sheltering in motels through the state’s Transitional Housing Program.
This number is down from 1,250 of the original cohort on June 30, when these households became eligible to extend their stay until April 1, 2024, through the enactment of Act 81.
However, Winters reported that while the number of households in the June 30 cohort is declining, the state’s General Assistance (GA) Emergency Housing Program continues to take in new households under its “catastrophic” and “vulnerable populations” eligibility criteria that allow for either 28 or 84 motel nights (four or 12 weeks) in a 12-month period.
“While we are still exiting people from the cohort, there are close to the same numbers coming into the housing program,” Winters said.
In Brattleboro, 124 households, including 28 children, have been sheltering in six area motels. Of the 96 households in the June 30 cohort, 77 are individuals.
