The home for Vermont Public's coverage of housing issues affecting the state of Vermont.
Lexi Krupp is Vermont Public's Upper Valley/Northeast Kingdom reporter, focusing on housing and health care. Learn more about Lexi's coverage and get in touch here.
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Use of the four shelters had ticked up over the week, most notably in Burlington, where nearly 40 people slept in the building on its final night of operation.
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Filmmaker Bess O'Brien previously gained national recognition for her 2013 film "The Hungry Heart."
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The four shelters have seen little use since they were set up last Friday.
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At one of the four shelters, set up in anticipation of people exiting the emergency housing motel program, not a single person showed up over the weekend.
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Vermont municipalities are allowed to auction off a person’s property if they fall behind on their taxes. It’s a process called a tax sale. Local officials say tax sales are an important tool to ensure towns get the revenue they’re owed, but critics say the process has few protections for residents.
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Advocates scrambled to help people hold onto their housing, but state officials said late Friday afternoon that 372 households were still scheduled to lose their rooms.
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Vermont Legal Aid wants the state to assess whether program participants may be eligible to remain in their rooms.
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The shelters would only be open for a matter of days to allow people staying in motels to apply for a new waiver to remain in the program.
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Residents and advocates had worried that a new $80 rate cap would cause motels to abruptly drop out of the state’s emergency housing program.
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The spending bill attempts to preserve housing for most of the Vermonters living in state-subsidized motel rooms, but advocates worry a new cap on rates could lead motel owners to withdraw from the program. The bill would also send millions in funding to municipalities recovering from the July 2023 floods.