This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
Lawmakers have a new plan to overhaul Vermont’s response to homelessness, an issue that has remained stubbornly persistent in recent years even as state leaders have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at easing the problem.
A bipartisan bill introduced last week is legislators’ latest attempt at reform. The bill would dramatically wind down Vermont’s use of motel rooms as emergency shelter over the next two years, while ramping up funding for shelters, transitional housing and related services.
It would also create a new, voluntary program dedicated to paying for travel for unhoused people in Vermont “who wish to return to their home states.”
Rep. Eric Maguire, R-Rutland City, the bill’s lead sponsor, said his goal is to wrestle the costly motel voucher program back down to its pre-pandemic size, before an influx of federal COVID funds and worsening homelessness ballooned the program’s scale. Funding that once went to the motel program would instead get directed into creating an improved continuum of shelter and housing options, he said, including converting motels into apartments.
“Let’s get it back to where it’s temporary, and get [those] investments made into permanent settings that give people that outlet — that place to go to come out of homelessness, not remain stagnant in the circumstances that they are in,” Maguire said.
The bill places time limits on how long individuals can remain in shelter and transitional housing (60 or 180 days, depending on the program) and sets expectations for engagement with services, something Maguire sees as critical for holding clients “accountable.”
Outside of the Statehouse, Maguire works as the shelter director for BROC Community Action in Rutland, an overlap that he does not view as a conflict with his legislative service.
He envisions the bill as a two-year bridge to a homelessness system that’s primarily run by community-based agencies rather than the state, which had been the goal of legislation that failed last session.
The bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, said she wanted to show support for the reform effort even though she doesn’t agree with all of the details. For instance, she thinks a provision to halt the use of motel rooms in fiscal year 2028 — something that would only happen with an administrative check that enough shelter and housing exists to meet demand — isn’t practical.
“I don’t think we can totally eliminate the use of hotels,” Wood said. “It’s not realistic.”
Still, Wood, who chairs the human services committee in the House, sees the bill as a good starting point. And her cross-aisle collaboration with Maguire has garnered praise from the administration of Republican Gov. Phil Scott, a notable achievement after Scott vetoed the reform effort Wood drove last year.
“We’re really grateful for the partnership between Reps. Wood and Maguire,” said Sandi Hoffman, interim commissioner of the Department for Children and Families. “There’s a lot of things in [the bill] that we like,” and others that need more discussion, Hoffman added, though refrained from sharing details.
The future of the motel voucher program has proven to be a political lightning rod in recent years. Scott has long pushed for its expansion to end, arguing that the program is too expensive — and ineffective — to continue on the state’s dime. Democratic leaders in the Legislature have resisted that aim, though haltingly agreed to winnow down the program’s scale over the last few years, setting restrictions that have resulted in relentless waves of evictions.
The Agency of Human Services quietly convened a working group in December to consider the future of the motel program and the state’s homelessness response system more broadly, according to meeting documents obtained by VTDigger/Vermont Public.
Those discussions focused in part on limiting the use of motel rooms, creating new shelters for people with complex medical needs and verifying Vermont residency before ensuring benefits, according to meeting presentations, agendas and minutes reviewed by the newsrooms.
Advocates for unhoused Vermonters have begun to register their concerns with policymakers’ direction. Brenda Siegel, director of End Homelessness Vermont, said she’s particularly concerned about a renewed focus on people from out of state using Vermont benefit programs.
But a 2024 investigation by Vermont Public/VTDigger dispelled a common narrative that Vermont’s spike in homelessness was driven by unhoused people moving to Vermont from other states.
The bill’s dedicated program to pay for relocation of people with family connections outside of Vermont is unnecessary and stigmatizing, Siegel said.
“What it says is: We don’t want poor people here. And that is a really big problem,” she said.
