The Vermont House on Friday passed a midyear budget bill that includes $5 million to extend through June the controversial emergency housing program that is currently slated to end April 1.

The bill, which still needs the approval of the Senate, would also require the administration to reduce the amount it pays for rooms from the current average of $132 a night to $75.

The extension is meant to give lawmakers time to come up with a long-term solution to the homelessness crisis, something they argue that Gov. Phil Scott’s administration has failed to do.



“We’re taking matters into our own hands,” Rep. Theresa Wood (D-Waterbury) told her colleagues during debate.


But Republican House members argued that continuing the program was financially irresponsible and wouldn't help enough people find permanent housing. Rep. Tom Burditt (R-West Rutland) said he recently toured a large hotel in Rutland taking part in the program and was appalled.

“It is nothing but a slum,” he said. “It is atrocious conditions that some of these people are being forced to live under.”

Burditt tried to amend the bill to lower the nightly rate to $50, though he said owners of such motels “don’t deserve 50 cents.” He withdrew the amendment after his committee rejected it.

Rep. Butch Shaw (R-Pittsford) said he supported efforts to rein in “price gouging” by hotel owners. But he said more needs to be done to address the crime and nuisance behaviors associated with some of the motels.

“We need to do something to get rid of the bad actors,” Shaw said. “It’s decimating communities in my county.” Earlier this week, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark announced a legal settlement with one hotel owner, Anil Sachdev, who must return $300,000 in damage deposits he withheld from unhoused Vermonters.

But Democrats said they were not willing to kick people out of their rooms when the existing cold-weather program ends March 15 or the pandemic-era motel program ends April 1.

Wood noted that the people remaining in the program are some of the most vulnerable, including those over 60, people with disabilities and families with young children.

“I’m not willing to say, 'You’re out on the street, and you must find your own way,'” Wood said.

There were about 1,600 households with 2,600 people in the program at the end of December, according to a presentation by Chris Winters, the commissioner of the Department for Children and Families.

This includes more than 600 households allowed to remain after some Democratic lawmakers objected in June 2023 to a budget that threatened to evict them. Another nearly 1,000 households are using the seasonal cold-weather hotel program.

Anticipating the evictions, the administration has proposed opening five new emergency shelters, at a cost of $4 million. But even if all five new shelters actually opened and were staffed by April 1, something few expect, they could not provide enough beds to house everyone, Winters testified.



Homeless groups applauded the House vote.

Frank Knaack, executive director of the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, commended the House and hoped the Senate and Scott would support the measure, too. Lawmakers recognized that the administration’s shelter plans were insufficient, he said. He hopes the state comes up with a clear, long-term plan that is based on metrics, not dates.

“I think there is universal recognition that this is not a permanent solution,” Knaack said. “None of us are sitting here saying this is where we should be in 10 years.”

Minority Leader Rep. Pattie McCoy (R-Poultney) chastised her Democratic colleagues for rushing to spend more than Scott had proposed as federal assistance dries up.

'There is only so much pie," she said. "We're running out of slices."