BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – In their final meeting of the year, Vermont’s Council on Child Poverty shared their most important findings of 2024.
Lawmakers, non-profit leaders, and community members looking to end child poverty met at the Northeast Kingdom Community Action Center in St. Johnsbury Tuesday night hoping to hear from residents away from the statehouse to learn more about the concerns and problems facing them.
Synergy between government and non-government organizations was identified as a major problem.
”Our best intentions can sometimes serve as barriers… The meetings still happen, they’re just not as effective because the agencies are understaffed,” said Addison County Rep. Jubilee McGill.
The state is still reeling from the pandemic in several ways. Many employees looking to help Vermonters got burnt out and left. COVID-19 ′s stimulus checks, which representative Sarita Austin said lifted 40% of children out of poverty in vermont, didn’t have lasting effects.
“All of our issues are in that 2019 recommendations report. The issues unfortunately haven’t changed too much,” said Former Vt. Rep. Karen Lafayette.
So what does the state need to fix its poverty problem? One group says it’s more funding from the state. Advocates say a poor state leads to poorer constituents, and say putting money directly into the hands of those who need it, and the programs that help them, would do the most good.
“The programs we have to, need to be fully funded, and we also know there’s lots of ways to remove the barriers to true stability,” said Amy Rose from Voices for Vermont’s Children.
The group suggested bureaucratic barriers like paperwork could be fixed by agencies using universal applications like those accepted by affordable housing groups, and they say lawmakers shouldn’t reject policy based on up-front cost, but instead consider the long-term cost-saving potential.
“Could there be a way to change the methodology of fiscal notes that could get at these cost savings of things, so we’re investing here and these are the actual benefits,” said Frank Knaack from the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont.
The council will be meeting once more during the legislative session and say they’ll issue a formal report on their findings in late January.