by Guy Page

Governor Phil Scott signed eight bills into law Wednesday and vetoed one major housing measure aimed at restructuring Vermont’s emergency shelter system for the homeless.

Among the bills signed were new laws covering floodplain property sales (H.106), intranasal epinephrine in schools (H.209), PFAS phase-outs in consumer products (H.238), and updates to the cannabis and agricultural statutes (H.321, H.484). Other measures addressed prescription drug pricing (H.266), flood response (H.397), and professional regulation (H.472).

Scott, however, rejected H.91, which would have created the Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing Program, citing concerns over cost and effectiveness.

Supporters of H.91 say it provides a framework of permanent, comprehensive continuity of care for homeless Vermonters. Since the Covid crisis, funding for the ‘homeless hotel’ program has come from the state’s general assistance program.

“This veto is a rubber stamp for the continuation of the current inadequate hotel/motel program,” Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, said in a statement received shortly after the veto announcement.

“Our organization has lost at least 12 clients since September, to a system that left them outside,” Siegel said. 

In his veto letter, Scott raised both spending and safety concerns.

“We are the only state in the region that continues to operate an emergency housing program at this scale,” Scott wrote in a veto letter to lawmakers. “This bill proposes we spend millions more than the $45 million used last year.”

He also noted that 135 deaths had occurred among individuals housed in hotels and motels under the pandemic-era emergency shelter program.

Scott called instead for “real solutions” including new shelter construction and requirements for work, treatment, and job training.

House Democrats published this statement:

“For five years, the Legislature has asked Governor Scott to work with us on a responsible, phased end to the emergency hotel/motel voucher program. Time and again, he has failed to present any viable option. He’s chosen press conferences over partnership, theatre over solutions, and rhetoric over results.

“With his veto of H. 91—a carefully negotiated, fiscally responsible transition plan developed with input from all parties and stakeholders—the Governor has once again abandoned any pretense of leading on this issue let alone any pretense about caring for the most vulnerable.

“H. 91 is not an expansion of the status quo. It is is an off-ramp that places clear limits on the use of motels, mandates accountability, builds real shelter capacity, focuses on preventing homelessness, helps municipalities and prioritizes long-term, cost-effective housing solutions over expensive short-term fixes. It includes workforce engagement, treatment, and community-based solutions.”

“Every one of the Governor’s talking points was addressed directly in the bill. Rather than acknowledging that progress, Governor Scott has chosen to maintain the very system he has repeatedly reminded us he wants to end.”

Absent an effective veto override, the next preventable death, the next ballooning hotel invoice, and the next shattered family will be on the Governor, Democrats said.

“The 135 tragic deaths he cites happened under the current system, on his watch. And now, his veto leaves more than 1,100 children without shelter,” said Human Services Committee Chair Theresa Wood.

The GOP minority in both House and Senate has the votes to uphold the veto, if all or even most choose to do so.