“It’s a really gut-wrenching situation for all the parties involved,” said the commission’s executive director.

by Charlotte Oliver, for the Community News Service

Facing record caseloads and short staffing, the Vermont Human Rights Commission has turned away dozens of Vermonters attempting to file complaints of discrimination in recent years. The cases it does accept have taken about six times longer than the state standard. 

“It’s a really gut-wrenching situation for all the parties involved,” said Big Hartman, the commission’s executive director — it simply lacks the capacity to take some cases on.

Hartman and others from the commission have talked about their concerns with legislators in recent weeks, and the House Committee on General and Housing is weighing a bill, H.38, that would give the commission more staff. 

But a similar bill last year never made it to the House floor. Supporters of the new proposal believe the commission’s work will only grow more important in the future, and staff at the commission want to take on the cases. 

The commission investigates and litigates discrimination complaints. The cases often come from vulnerable Vermonters who might be unable to pursue legal action themselves.

Records show the cases can range from discrimination in employment and housing to verging on violence. In one case in 2021, the commission took legal action after determining that a family in St. Albans, originally from Mexico, was subject to racist harassment and threatened by their next-door neighbors for years. 

In one instance, records say, a neighbor threatened the family with a gun in response to having their property surveyed. In another, a neighbor pushed the mother — who was holding her daughter — to the ground during an argument, according to court records.

Employees at the commission have seen a rise in cases since the beginning of 2024. While the trend is hard to attribute, officials think it may be a perfect storm of the housing crisis in Vermont combining with “emboldened” hate speech nationally, Hartman said. 

The new bill, sponsored by Reps. Kevin Christie, D-Hartford, and Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, could almost double the commission staff, adding six full-time and two part-time positions to the ranks.

The commission “is doing the work of the people who are forgotten,” Stevens said in an interview. 

Hartman partially attributes the rise in complaints to outreach success and greater public awareness of the commission’s work. While that’s a victory officials want to celebrate, the commission only has three investigators currently and has a hard time retaining employees due to burnout, Hartman said. 

“You are just under this constant pressure to move people’s cases forward because they need that from you,” they said.

Victims of harassment are often working through traumatic moments, Hartman said. Managing moments of crisis — especially in high volume — is emotionally heavy for staff too, they said. One investigator recently left the commission due to burnout, and until that position is filled a pile of cases will sit on pause, said Hartman. 

Hartman wishes the commission could take on more cases for people who come to “seek justice” and turn cases around faster. 

On average it took commission employees 649 days to settle a case in fiscal year 2023, according to Hartman. That stat improved in fiscal year 2024, but the state sets a goal of closing cases within six months. The commission also receives 10% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sets a standard of closing cases in 100 days. The federal department has been sympathetic to the commission’s situation, but the long turnaround time could become a problem, Hartman said. 

Last year, Christie and Stevens worked on a similar bill that would’ve added three full-time positions to the commission. But the proposal was never passed. The new bill responds to the most recent needs of the commission, Stevens said, and he sees it as more timely than ever. 

Stevens said he fears that President Donald Trump will condone antagonizing and discriminating against people based on their identities. It’s important for people to know the state “has their back,” Stevens said, “and will try to provide some form of justice when they are being discriminated against.” 

Hartman isn’t exactly optimistic that legislators will prioritize the commission when funding decisions come around. But they are “hopeful that the administration and leadership in the Senate and the House will support this investment in human rights that is currently needed.”

Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship