Call on Scott to continue emergency housing executive order after he vetoed homeless services bill
by Guy Page
With Governor’s Phil Scott’s veto of H.91, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing Program bill, the state’s current emergency housing hotel/motel program must be continued past July 1, homeless advocates said Tuesday June 17 at a press conference on the State House steps.
Failure to extend the program will leave Vermonters living in cars, parks, sidewalks and riverbanks, they said. Vermont has about 5,000 unhoused residents at present, Frank Knaack said. About 384 households now sheltered under the governor’s emergency program will be unhoused July 1. Many are children or disabled people in wheelchairs and on oxygen, the advocates said.
With the proposed law establishing permanent services for the homeless, the executive order should continue so that “people will not be put outside,” one advocate said.
“Vermonters experiencing homelessness and currently sheltered under the Governor’s Executive Order are scheduled to be exited on July 1st. The Governor has decided at the last minute to attribute days used under his order to the maximum shelter allowed for these households. The result of this is that every highly vulnerable Vermonter and child that the Governor identified since March is at risk of having to fend for themselves outside without electricity, services or medical care that they need,” advocate Brenda Siegel said in a June 16 statement.
“We are going to keep showing up” to publicize the plight of homeless people and to call for better services, Siegel said at today’s press conference.
Siegel insisted that homeless Vermonters are seeking housing, and also are seeking help with the root causes of their homelessness, including substance abuse. It’s cruel to suggest otherwise, she said.
Press conference attendees included Siegel; Ken Russell, Another Way Day Shelter Executive Director; Alex Karambelas, Policy Advocate, ACLU of Vermont; Maryellen Griffin, Attorney with Vermont Legal Aid; Frank Knaack, Executive Director, Housing And Homelessness Alliance Of Vermont; Rev. Jay Boorhees of Vermont Interfaith Action Clergy; and Rep. Brian Cina.