Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have shifted state responsibility for housing homeless people in motels onto regional nonprofit groups.
Scott said he was blocking H.91 from becoming law because it still cost too much and didn’t move quickly enough to kill the existing program.
“Rather than continuing to fund a program that isn’t good for those in it, I believe we should focus on real solutions like building additional shelter capacity and requirements to engage in work, training, and treatment for those who need it,” Scott wrote in his veto message.
The veto is the latest round in a long-running dispute between Democratic lawmakers and the Republican governor over how to scale back the pandemic-era housing program.
Time and again, Scott has sought to revert to the pre-pandemic version of the general assistance program in which the state spent about $5 million to provide motel beds for vulnerable people in need, mostly during dangerously inclement weather.
During the pandemic, when stopping the spread of COVID-19 necessitated closing congregate shelters and moving people into motels, the program’s cost ballooned to nearly $50 million per year.
Instead of having the state continue to house vulnerable people in motels, H.91 proposed giving grants to five designated community organizations to do that work. Details were left to an advisory group.
Scott was initially supportive of the approach but noted that the bill would have increased spending above the program’s $45 million cost this year.
Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness VT, said in a statement she was “deeply disappointed.”
“Governor Scott has spent years complaining about the GA hotel/motel program, but continuously leaves no other option but this program for our most vulnerable Vermonters,” she wrote.
Scott noted that during the expansion of the program, 135 people sheltering in hotels and motels had died.
“It’s my belief many of these deaths may have been prevented had there been more accountability and better engagement,” he wrote.
Beyond lowering the costs, Scott gave few hints of how he thinks the transition to a decentralized system should work.
He urged groups to keep working with the state to transform the current model into one that “delivers value” for the taxpayers, homeless people, service agencies “and communities that have been unfairly burdened by this failed program.”
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