Housing advocates, service providers, policymakers, and directly impacted people from across Vermont joined together on January 18 for Homelessness Awareness Day. The day’s events encouraged reflection on the growing number of people experiencing homelessness and offered opportunities for participants and others to commit themselves to advancing the solutions needed to ensure housing for all people without homes. Events were held throughout the state and included meetings and displays at the State House, resource fairs, candlelight vigils, and a pop-up soup kitchen. Advocates also hosted a training focusing on Vermont’s legislative process and provided testimony at committee meetings held by the Vermont State Senate and House of Representatives. Nearly every event featured personal accounts of the impact and experience of being homeless. The Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont (HHAV), an NLIHC state partner, sponsored the activities along with Vermont Interfaith Action, Chittenden County Homeless Alliance, and other local housing coalitions from across the state.
The 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report found that homelessness in Vermont increased by more than 18% from 2022 and that the state had the second-highest rate of homelessness per capita, trailing only New York. A Homelessness Awareness Day flag display on the Vermont State House lawn painted a visual picture of the numbers of children, adults, and elderly people who experienced homelessness in 2023, and regional housing coalitions created similar displays across the state using their respective local data. A candlelight vigil held in Brattleboro focused on the memory of those who died while experiencing homelessness in 2023. Another vigil was held in Burlington, where just hours earlier city agencies had begun evicting people from a homeless encampment despite freezing temperatures and a lack of capacity at local shelters.
In addition to raising awareness about the causes and experiences of homelessness, advocates leveraged the Homelessness Awareness Day events to push for an array of policy solutions to prevent and end homelessness in Vermont. The Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont – a new organization formed recently following the merger of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition and the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness – outlined three key priorities for the remainder of the legislative session: (1) accelerate the production of affordable housing, (2) reimagine emergency housing, and (3) enhance services and subsidies. A primary focus of the organization’s recent advocacy efforts has been to push for a substantial increase in the state’s “Budget Adjustment Act” to fund Vermont’s hotel sheltering program beyond the current April 1, 2024, deadline to June 30 (see Memo 7/17/23). The funding would allow more time for providers to expand shelter capacity and ensure a smoother transition for residents to exit the program. A House vote on the Budget Adjustment Act is planned for late January, with the Senate expected to act in February. Advocates are optimistic that these funds will be included.
“Vermont has made significant investment, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, to temporarily shelter the most vulnerable in our communities, accelerate the production of affordable housing, and bolster the services necessary to aid Vermonters in obtaining housing and achieving housing stability,” said Frank Knaack, executive director of the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont. “We urge the legislature and administration to ensure that the Budget Adjustment Act builds on these urgently needed investments.”
For more information about the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, please visit https://helpingtohousevt.org/