SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A budget adjustment bill in Montpelier will keep the homeless hotel program going, but at a lower cost. Lawmakers are sharply reducing the nightly reimbursement rate paid to hotels, raising concerns that some establishments will quit the program and force more people onto the streets.
Brittni Conger and Dakota Priddy live at the Travelodge in South Burlington with their two children. “Rough situation for all of us, especially the kids,” Priddy said.
They say they each work a job and save everything they can in hopes of finding permanent housing. “We are busting our butts off in order to get anywhere, to get out, and it’s just not happening,” Conger added.
Under a plan to once again extend the Emergency General Assistance program, the state will cap hotel vouchers at $80 per room per night starting March for the estimated 1,701 households currently in the program.
Tracy Garen, general manager at the Travelodge, is among those hotels who say they are not going to accept that deal. She says that when they started accepting the vouchers four years ago they charged $129, a rate that has remained steady. She says the new offer doesn’t even cover basic operating costs. “It’s basically strong-arming us in a way that puts us in a really bad spot,” Garen said.
Gov. Phil Scott says many hotels have taken advantage of the program and cashed in. “Those days are over. We have this cap in place at this point in time. We have been negotiating. They didn’t quite believe it was going to happen,” he said. The governor says many hotels are accepting the new rate and will continue to offer rooms at the $80 rate. “What we are seeing now is actually good news.” Scott says he plans to sign the budget adjustment legislation.
Housing advocates say it was irresponsible for the state not give more notice about the changes or clarity about which hotels will remain in the program.
“There has been absolutely no notice from the administration to our most vulnerable Vermonters about what’s going to happen to them in just a couple days from now,” said Brenda Siegel with End Homelessness Vermont.
Miranda Gray with the Department for Children and Families says they are aware there will be some exits from the hotels to the streets. “As they can at any time — can say that someone is no longer able to be housed there — and that is a part of the contingency planning that the administration is working on,” she said.
Back in South Burlington, Brittni Conger isn’t sure where her family will go. “I’m terrified. I don’t have enough saved up for first, last, and a deposit,” she said.
And she’s not alone. Emily Kenyon says when Friday comes, she doesn’t know what’s next for her and her 11-month-old son. “I don’t know what to do. There is really no options,” she said. “I’m petrified, not just for myself, but others out there.”
Hotels owners and state officials continued to discuss the situation on Wednesday but there are concerns that a majority of businesses in Chittenden County will not take the state’s deal.
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