This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and 开云体育.
Gov. Phil Scott on Friday to extend motel voucher stays for unhoused families with children and certain people with acute medical needs through June 30.
Without the extension, this group of unhoused Vermonters would have faced a cliff next Tuesday, when the voucher program鈥檚 loosened winter rules will expire for the season. Democratic legislators had sought a three-month extension for all people sheltered through the program, a move Scott and fellow Republicans fiercely opposed.
Scott鈥檚 order came down just hours after Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to advance a bill that would have provided an extension for all 2,300 people currently receiving motel vouchers. The blockage essentially ensured that all unhoused people in the program would be subject to strict time-limits on their stays beginning on April 1.
鈥淲hile I鈥檝e been opposed to the Hotel Motel program because it doesn鈥檛 serve those in the program well, I have also been clear that we have an obligation to protect children and Vermonters who are most vulnerable,鈥� Scott said in a statement on Friday afternoon. 鈥淭his executive order does just that without unwinding the important progress we鈥檝e made.鈥�
The extension will apply to just over 400 households, according to Amanda Wheeler, Scott鈥檚 press secretary. State data shows are currently sheltered through the program.
Those eligible for the extension are families with a child under the age of 19, and 鈥渕edically vulnerable鈥� individuals. The order defines 鈥渕edically vulnerable鈥� as being 鈥渉omebound鈥�; requiring a lifesaving device that needs access to electricity, like an oxygen concentrator; in active treatment for cancer, 鈥渟evere kidney/renal disease, or severe liver or heart conditions鈥�; receiving Medicaid or Medicare-eligible 鈥渉ome-based鈥� nursing services; or women in their third trimester of pregnancy.
This eligibility criteria leaves out a broad swath of people currently eligible for the emergency housing benefit, including Vermonters over the age of 65, people fleeing domestic violence, people displaced by flooding, and more.
That means those individuals will still be subject to restrictions on the motel program come April 1: an 80-day allotment on motel stays, along with a 1,100-room cap on the program. Many people housed in motels already used up their 80-day limit for the fiscal year last fall, which resulted in . (The restrictions were eased for the winter months.)
In the fall, some . That prompted considerable public outcry, who had agreed to the new restrictions last year as a way to scale back the motel program鈥檚 pandemic era expansion. Service providers and advocates , but at the time, he declined to do so.
The order on Friday comes after weeks of heated exchanges between Scott and Democratic leaders in the Legislature over the immediate future of the motel voucher program, tied to an annual budget adjustment bill.
two weeks ago, citing concerns about increased spending 鈥� along with his disapproval of the three-month voucher extension.
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate , but held firm in their position to extend eligibility for the voucher program through June 30, proposing to do so with existing state funds.
Scott and Republican legislators fiercely opposed the full extension, arguing that the voucher program is a 鈥渇ailure鈥� that has 鈥渨arehoused鈥� people instead of helping them. Still, to Democrats last week, offering to grant voucher extensions for families with kids and people with severe medical needs.
Democrats declined to take up the offer, in a refusal to carve out exceptions among a broadly vulnerable group.
鈥淲hat we did was to try to stay steadfast behind the idea that nobody should be exited,鈥� said Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, in a Friday interview before the order came down. 鈥淚 think very few people in that program do not have major challenges.鈥�
