By Rob Roper
The Vermont House just passed H.938 – An act relating to establishing the Vermont Homelessness Response Continuum, which appropriates just shy of $83,000,000 to deal with the problem. But here’s the problem….
In the years leading up to 2020, Vermont spent about $35 million a year on programs designed to help the homeless out of their unfortunate situations, and there were about 1100 people throughout the state who were considered homeless. Then came the avalanche of COVID cash from the federal government and the amount our esteemed legislators had on hand to solve the homelessness problem ballooned to around $150 million per year – over a 400 percent increase in spending. That’s $136,000 per homeless person.
One would think that with those levels of resources the geniuses in Montpelier – with a majority in charge that claims to care so much — couldn’t fail to fix the issue or at least make significant progress in getting people off the streets and back on track to secure, productive lives. But, no, that is not what happened.
Given this windfall mountain of taxpayer largess earmarked to lower the homeless population our intrepid lawmakers got to work and managed to quadruple it. Yup. According to the findings in H.938, as of December 2025 “…there were 4,022 individuals who were homeless in the State….” Other estimates put the number even higher at over 4500.
Source: Auditor’s Report, Vermont’s Commitment to Ending Homelessness
Source: Vermont Public
Over this time period, with the supermajority of Democrats overriding veto after veto from Governor Scott, Vermont rose to having the fourth highest per capita homeless population in the nation, with the fastest rising homeless population anywhere. That level of incompetence (or corruption) boggles the mind.
There are a couple of possible conclusions we can make here that are debatable. One, that Vermont’s overly generous programs, especially handing out motel vouchers, were attracting hordes of people from other states eager to take advantage of the taxpayers’ compassion. Advocates insist most adamantly that this is not happening. Examples are purely anecdotal, curmudgeons in every state say the same thing, yada yada yada. (They also have no interest in tracking where new applicants are coming from, and you can read into that what you will.)
But, granting the advocates their position on this point, that leaves us with scenario number two: they spent a half a billion dollars or more over a five-year period to drive three thousand or so fellow Vermonters out of their homes and onto the streets. Long, slow clap for that!
It’s a plausible conclusion given all the other policies the majority has forced down our throats over the same half decade. Exploding property taxes certainly comes to mind as a reason why people can’t afford to remain in a home. “Green” building codes and zoning laws that limit and drive up the cost of constructing new, affordable homes for people to move into certainly doesn’t help. A high tax and onerous regulatory environment that has led to Vermont having one of — if not the — lowest rate of economic growth of any state in the Union (0.16 percent) cripples people’s ability to find good paying job opportunities that might allow them to afford housing…. So, yeah, I can buy scenario two.
Will another $83 million turn things around? Will this clean up the massive mess created by colossally mis-spending all that money? Place your bets! (That’s if you have any money left after paying all the taxes necessary to cover Vermont’s $9.33 billion budget.)
On the bright side, $83 million is less than $150 million and there seems to be at least some recognition that the glory days of spraying cash through a firehose at every issue can’t continue. But the real lesson that needs to be learned is that the policy approach we have been taking both directly and indirectly regarding homelessness is making the situation worse, not better. Time for new thinking — and maybe some new lawmakers — not just new money.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 25 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.
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