 Hey everybody, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate you showing up and standing up to end homelessness in Vermont and show that we really care about Vermonters who are experiencing homelessness and poverty right now. So before we get going, I want to take a moment to thank Progressive Insider and especially Carrie Barber and Andy Kennedy for being here and for doing all of the tech stuff for us and the live stream. We really appreciate it and we cannot do this without you. So thank you. So this press conference has been organized by youth advocates from around the state and adult advocates and we have a bunch of different counties represented from Vermont and so we're really excited to share some stories and solutions to the homelessness crisis in Vermont with you today. So my name is Adi. I'm a high school student from Bennington, Vermont and I'm going to start with kind of my story way back before COVID even started. So in Bennington in February 2020, a man named Terry Huega went to sleep under a bridge in Bennington. He was homeless and it was four degrees outside and he ended up dying that night. Terry had the warmest laugh that rose up from his belly and he always retained joy even when he faced sleeping on the streets and sometimes missing meals. He was incredibly human and reminded me that sometimes society neglects to see the humanity of people who are less fortunate than ourselves. Vermont saw the humanity of our unhoused population when we housed all homeless people in motels during the pandemic with little restriction. People who had never had a stable roof over their head before got it during this time plus food and other services and this program was not perfect. It had its flaws but it kept people stably housed and it temporarily ended homelessness in Vermont and I believe that this program could have led our state to end homelessness overall but to do that 16 months of this program is not enough and the fact that we're ending it so soon is perhaps a testament to the fact that maybe Vermont only cares about the homeless when the whole world is in a crisis because people are now being ousted back onto the streets without an address for job applications without a bed to sleep in without a place to just feel safe and nobody should be outside because of the end of the emergency order. That's unacceptable. The governor claims to support the most vulnerable Vermonters but I'm really not sure that that's what he's doing right now. As many of us feel liberated to return to pre-COVID normal many people are now facing eviction starvation and being robbed while sleeping on the streets. I had honestly thought that after COVID we would create a new sort of normal where homelessness didn't even exist. This pandemic was really our chance to restructure and make positive change in our state in terms of houselessness and poverty but right now people are unstably housed again and we are failing and this is devastating. We're letting our opportunity to end homelessness fall out of grass by ending the motel program and all of the other pandemic services. With everyone in motels those social services and housing was so much easier to provide door to door to people and we could have been building housing at the same time so that it could have been a transition from motels to housing without people ever being forced to sleep on the streets. But without the motel program or a similar structure in place that houses people ending homelessness is so much harder and even impossible and what if the people who are on the streets or on house right now don't even make it to whenever permanent housing is ready? What if they don't make it past the winter? What about families who in September are going to be out on the streets or at least out of the motels? Where will they go? With this in mind we have three action steps for the governor to take. The first one is to expand the GA Motel program for Vermonters experiencing housing insecurity until the people in these programs can be moved to permanent housing. The second one is to continue the moratorium on evictions so that no one else becomes homeless and the third one is to keep in place all increased food access including maximum SNAP benefits that everyone eats program and all food resource programs. Nobody should be sleeping outside or struggling to eat a meal and Vermont has the opportunity to make sure that never happens to Vermonters but we're not taking hold of that responsibility and that obligation. So let's make sure that nobody right now is struggling on basic survival just so the state can save some money because we have a lot of money right now and it's a moral wrong that when we have millions of dollars people are sleeping on the sidewalks. We did an action plan and Governor Scott it's your job to provide that and the real reason that Terry actually died was because he didn't have anyone to give him a ride. He had a shelter to go to to sleep in but he didn't have anyone who was willing to step up and support him and bring him there and so Governor Scott it's your job right now to find a ride for people and to show that you support or else people are going to be dying. We've created a petition and it's been signed by hundreds of youth and we're going to be putting that in live stream chat so we'd really appreciate it if you could sign and share it and we really need your voice right now to help uplift our message and with that I'm going to hand it over to Josh Lizenby who the Governor's actions have impacted deeply so Josh take it away you will rock this. See here can you can you hear me sorry I get prepared a little speech here I don't know really what was expected of me but just wanted to give my history I guess my story I don't really have any suggestions myself but I just want people to know what I personally have gone through and I think my story is pretty indicative of the homeless people that I've been around at least so I mean I did write this out so bear with me I hope I don't sound too robotic but so my name is Josh Lizenby I've been homeless for about 10 years gone from everything from staying at my parents' house to an actual homeless shelter and I'd really like to make it clear that I'm going to make some complaints here obviously but I am very appreciative of everything that's been done for me that has been done that will be done the most common thing I hear when I do complain is that I should be more appreciative for that I shouldn't be so entitled to certain things and I think that just kind of pushes me to the side it doesn't really hear what I'm saying so I really hope you can listen to me again and take my words for for what they are and this is my story so like I said I've been you know homeless struggling with it for a decade and eventually I did go to a homeless shelter about five years ago in Middlebury and at that time it was known as a warming shelter and that means that it's only open from October 15th through April 15th with the hours of 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. and so that's six months and it's literally a place to go get a dinner have a place to sleep take a shower and maybe a cup of coffee in the morning and then leave and you know that's great it you know prevents people from dying in the winter but I mean that's that's really all it does I mean it we signed a contract that we had to you know work with a case manager and try and work on housing and you know fill out applications and go through some of the bureaucracy of everything but that's very hard to do as you can imagine within those time frames I mean we just couldn't go during the day you know there it was just not not really working out and just you know you literally have to pick up everything you want every day and move every day twice a day it's a really hard thing to do I mean you have to consolidate everything you want what you can care and put into two totes basically I'd really challenge anyone to put everything they own in two totes it's very hard to do and and to bring it all with you and in a couple hours you know it's it's very challenging so eventually that changed just before COVID they changed you uh more of a summer program and they were open all year long there's still some you know minor rules here and there but you got to have rules I understand that you know there's a lot of people there's people with different issues and you've got to maintain some sort of order to the whole thing but some of the rules are you know we're locked up at night you know from from 10 p.m. till 6 a.m. the doors are literally locked you you're not allowed to leave the building on on thread of being thrown out or at least being not allowed to come back until 10 now that was really the big punishment was or the least punishment was if you broke a rule then you just weren't allowed to come back until 10 o'clock at night which is just enough time to lay down and go to sleep and I never had any problems with that I'm happy to say you know I did what I was supposed to I followed the rules say I never caused any trouble I'm pretty quiet personally I have anxiety issues that's one of sort of my issues I'm trying to work on so even just doing this is pretty hard for me you can probably tell but uh so eventually this year through COVID I did get Medicaid and you know I'm starting to kind of get my life in order I kind of came out of my depression I don't really know what happened to be honest but I did I kind of found my voice like you know I'm ready to change my life and do and do some different things and so I started setting up different doctors appointments and dentist appointments and eyeglasses I got glasses finally you know when I was 18 I was told that I probably would need them eventually and I just never had the opportunity to go to an optometrist to get glasses and now I finally have and you know it's just small apologies to life like that really helped a lot just being able to see I mean literally it's a big change but so during all this process I you know I was going to medical doctor and at age where I need to do certain medical procedures and minor medical procedures and I set up an appointment for that on uh March 31st and I needed to get a hotel room for a few days just so I could have do some pre-procedure things and get some things taken care of before I went to the hospital and on the day that I was scheduled to have surgery I was told by the executive director of the charter house coalition shelter that I would no longer be allowed to stay there and the reason was because I was disrespectful and I agree with that to a certain extent I was kind of hypercritical of some of the things I would say it was disrespectful but I definitely brought up some issues that I was having and some problems that I was having and you know whatever we didn't see I'd I you know to throw me out on the day that I have surgery scheduled with this a couple of shanks it took me by surprise to be honest so in the morning I asked you know what can I come get the rest of my property you know the rest of my things from the shelter then there for five years at this point and they were storing things for me you know we've gone past the point where I had to move everything with me and they were storing things like in the basement they even rented a storage space where I could store you know winter clothes summer clothes I did manage to get some clothes mostly all clothes but and so I asked if I could come get the same and I was told that I couldn't until four which would be well after my date my time that I had surgery event I wasn't able to get back until about 6 30 and after some running around to try and figure out where everything was eventually I was told that all of my property was on the front porch and it was supposed to rain in the snow that day it never ended but I mean it was going to rain any minute so I took by myself everything that I owned off the front porch from the shelter and moved it to the hotel room while the staff watched me from the windows again it was pretty big gut punch I'm still struggling with that to this day you know I never mind my anxiety issues before then I mean that that gave me anxiety in and of itself and it it hurt my trust with everyone involved with this you know I just I couldn't believe this happened to me it was a shock you know these are the people that I went to for help and they weren't helping they were hurting they were doing the opposite of what I was asking them to do it took me 27 days to finally get the last of my property from the homeless shelter it took a case manager a new case manager that I was working with she mailed them multiple times I emailed them multiple times finally after 27 days I send an email saying that you know I don't get myself I'm going to have to contact the police you know I the renters rights and I was fairly confident they're in within my contract they only had to hold my stuff for 30 days so I was fearful that after the 30 days were up that they would just throw my stuff away someone was minor stuff but it was my stuff you know that that was really the point they had no right to my stuff whether they thought it was trash or not I I don't care it was mine so I did finally get the rest of my stuff but with my stuff came a threat of a stalking charge from the director from this homeless shelter for sending her 60 emails over three days and I'm now no longer allowed to have any contact with it took another month after that to finally get the copies from the contracts that I signed and I did have a hearing with the board of this shelter to kind of express you know what this whole process had done to me and how purple it it was and they took that very seriously I think I feel like they did they did send me an email eventually saying you know some changes they were going to make but they kind of downplayed the two you know they made it sound like I was saying that I was being more disrespectful but my point was really that this was a more emotionally distressing to me this hurt me in a deep way you know broke trust this and it just hurt me emotionally like I don't really know how to explain it I guess I'm not real good at that but and so even to this day I'm still trying to track down the mail that I've gotten from there to there you know that used to be my mailing address and I still haven't gotten all my mail I mean my new case manager just got a new email from the old executive director of charter house saying that yes there was impact mail there and she was going to send it over to there to her I don't know how old this mail that I mean is it from months ago I'm fairly sure it is I've been waiting on notice from from my economic services about the snap program you know they were limiting their benefits or something like that so I haven't seen that official notice so I don't even know what to expect really I mean I've kind of got to run down obviously but I deserve to get the notice I think I deserve to get my mail I just feel like you know the people that we go to for help or some of the people that are hurting us the worst there really needs to be some sort of oversight into these programs I was shocked you know I've written letters to select board of middlebury I wrote letters to some representatives I don't think anybody is here today but you know some of my local representatives and there's some other people that I could try to reach out to and get something to have and get some sort of resolve to the situation and and that was an impossibility really you know I had this hearing with the board but that amounted to nothing in my eyes to be honest I mean you know they said some words are going to try and make some changes blah blah blah but I don't have confidence that what happened to me isn't going to happen to somebody else in the future and and that kind of scares me obviously it hurt me but I'm really concerned about somebody else that this might happen to and what they might go through you know they might be struggling more than me and you know it hurt me pretty deeply it made me think about some pretty dark thoughts and I can only imagine somebody else is in a worse place what they would do what they would think these things really need to be looked into there really needs to be some sort of oversight I guess I guess it's my one suggestion I'd like to say that now I'm I am currently on the waiting list the shortlist as they call it PM I guess I finally did fill out that exact same application and and I was approved and you know I'm on the shortlist I there even mentioned the exact department that I could possibly get and I really hope this all works out you know I don't know what other kind of bureaucracy I have to go through if you get that to happen but trying really hard to get that to happen today I have a meeting with a mental health specialist first time a therapist I guess I don't know what to call it but you know I'm really excited about that I'm really hoping to get through some of my issues get some of the same anxiety at least talked about and you know be able to join the job market again yeah it's one of my things that I've kind of struggled with just my anxiety at the job but just haven't been able to hold down a job in years and that's really been my struggle that's what I could identify anyway so uh yeah I guess I guess that's it I hope I've been too long-winded hoping to board too much too much too many of you about that you know that's my story in a nutshell shelters are great they do a lot of great work but there's a lot of room I guess is the overall take thank you so much Josh for sharing your story and for being courageous and brave to share that in front of everyone and I hope our state and all of us are able to support you and and these issues so thank you and Erica if you want to go next um Erica is a student from southern Vermont Erica yeah so as Adi was saying I am a student I'm from Bennington um I will be starting my freshman year on this fall um so yeah uh I can talk a little bit today um Adi invited me to come speak uh about poverty and homelessness in Vermont which I um I have experienced myself um but I have done a little bit of research about that and it's something I'm very passionate about um solving in Vermont um so yeah uh so last month I had the pleasure to attend a program on global issues to the governor's institute of Vermont in this program I had the opportunity to listen to and speak with many political leaders including numerous legislators from the Vermont state legislature during their visit to our program I was able to speak I was able to ask a few legislators about Vermont's poverty rate in recent months each legislator shared my concern for the hundreds of Vermont's living in poverty and came to one consensus a home is the most important resource for someone living in poverty or experiencing homelessness they're assessing as a poverty cycle where basically an individual is born into poverty and throughout their life is at a significant disadvantage due to a lack of resources provided to them during the course of the pandemic the governor implemented resources to aid those in poverty and low-income families while the entire state found COVID-19 two of the most important resources to escape the poverty cycle include housing and education consequently the two resources do not work as well when a child or individual has one and not the other without a home to come back to how is the students supposed to learn and focus well in school when students when people in poverty are not provided with resources such as shelter SNAP benefits access to education emotional mental health counseling etc they are oftentimes unable to escape the poverty cycle lest the cycle continues for their children we have seen the consequences the pandemic has had on business and markets but we have yet to see in full depth this is totally will take on the future youth if we do not act to continue the resources that benefit them the most by providing shelter through motels for families for homeless families and individuals we are giving them the bare minimum foundation for a future where they can provide for their selves and their families something that many individuals especially parents wish they can do but are often unable to do due to a lack of resources and additional aid from local governments governor phil scott was praised for his response to the pandemic but as the pandemic dies down he only puts more remodels health at risk by ending the motel vouchers for homeless individuals forcing them onto the streets and discontinuing the expanded food access programs he has the ability to continue the motel vouchers and give it and give these families the foundation they need scott has the ability to also continue the moratorium on evictions so that no family is needlessly thrown onto the street when they have access to an apartment and the governor's eyes the threat of COVID-19 is dying out for remodels however i can tell you that the threat of poverty for vermont families and youth is not at all dying out phil scott has the ability to provide an even wider scale of resources and funding towards communities actively working to lower the percentage of remodels especially children and poverty and provide a brighter future for vermont's youth shelter and housing are the foundation for lifting people out of poverty however we must also acknowledge that once someone is housed they need more resources such as education health care counseling and a livable wage the fight does not stop at shelter and housing but housing is the first step and we can accomplish this by continuing the motel voucher program for vermont's experience in homelessness thank you so much erica for that wonderful speech and now um i'll pass it to senator akisha rom to go next thanks so much adi and i want to particularly um thank josh and erica for talking about their own experiences it's hard to do um and adi i appreciate that you continue to uplift the the story of terry who passed away under a bridge because he couldn't get to a motel that night in the cold and it reminds me especially what erica said about the situation prior to the pandemic and how much we all banded together to help people in the pandemic but if you look at you know our experience as i recall as a younger legislator in tropical storm iran all of the advocates and and all of the activists were trying to tell us that the storm of poverty had already been raining down on vermont's and again we look at a very um urgent and unfolding health pandemic and we know that it's wrapped within the pandemic of poverty distress a lack of mental health and healthcare supports in our state and we should be able to hold on to that spirit of togetherness and come out of this pandemic uh more with with a more equitable recovery um than what we have right now and so there's just a few um a few things i want to say number one um you know when you hear the stories of of people who are experiencing homelessness for many of us as policymakers i i hope people know this we might be able to put some of our own family members in that place as well not because they don't have loving supportive relatives in some cases you know maybe they just didn't feel that that's what they had we have family members who have mental health issues who have drug addiction who face these things in the past and we we want the best for our family members just like everyone does and we should be able to remember that a lot of us can put um put our family members in that place and all of us have fragile health fragile economic situations um you know and so we need to be able to think about this as the solution we want for all Vermonters we know that we had about 2700 people staying in motels during the pandemic and that about two-thirds are still going to be able to stay because of their family status um their disability status etc we can wrap our arms around the remaining third of those individuals and find better options for them than camping than turning back to drugs than turning back to abusive situations um we we have the means and we have the ability and that leads to my second point which is that housing is the basic building block of infrastructure it's where human capital meets the public infrastructure that we need to rebuild the economy and when we look at past natural disasters and storms we've been proud to rebuild bridges and you know put our names on new facilities and new infrastructure that says we were we recovered um you know from this storm we are we are coming out of this better than when we got in we need to be building housing that would be I think the signature way um to show that we are building back stronger and building back better from this pandemic um we also need those wraparound services in our housing and we had started down that path um and that is the basic building block of infrastructure that we should be investing in with the recovery money that we're receiving from the federal government and finally I just want to say um you know as I've said before the young people don't give me hope because that means I'm giving up and passing the baton to them they give me courage to go back to the legislature and fight for what's right and I want to thank Addie I want to thank Erica I know Manel and other students have been working with Addie um you know they they advocated for their positions at at um Governor's Institute and I said oh yeah definitely write me an email and Addie said I already have and I've copied your colleagues and you know written to the governor um so you know just really showing um what our young people are made of and capable of and standing up for what's right um I really applaud you when we started the legislative session all of our colleagues were saying we need to keep people warm and housed and fed and we've somehow lost our way in the budget debates and the ups and downs of the session we started to lose our way and the young people are lighting the way forward so I honor you and thank you and I know this is something we can do if we put our minds to it so I appreciate you giving us the courage to do that. Thank you so much Senator Ram and we're gonna we're gonna do this together I think in partnership um so thank you for speaking and uh now Brenda Siegel pass it to you. Thank you Addie and I also want to echo um thanking I was I spoke at the Governor's Institute and uh Addie and I said anyone can reach out to me and of course Addie already had and I'm so grateful that I've met her and been working with her um through this process so I want to just thank you and Erica and also Josh for your story um in so in my son's life we have moved around a lot and on multiple occasions found ourselves living on air mattresses and a family's member's home after losing our housing due to unhealthy and unsafe living conditions in the former apartment. I have practically begged to rent from landlords when they have said I was too poor it was I was too small a family the apartment was too small for my family I couldn't possibly do it without a husband and so on. What is important to understand that in a state without adequate regulation and not enough housing stock tenants have no real recourse to correct health and safety violations that impact their families. The first apartment that I lived in with my baby caused him to get significant lead poisoning. We did all the right things to report but there was no real system of accountability. The landlord who refused to properly mitigate was able to just move forward and rent to another person. My son and I had to leave in a hurry leaving all of our belongings behind after four months of living on an air mattress and a family member's home. We found another apartment in this house. The landlord would enter without knocking forget notice he wouldn't even knock. Sometimes I would be alone jumping out of the shower and hear him yell to me from inside the house. There was severe black mold in the bathroom rodents had chewed a hole in the crawl space into my kitchen behind the stove and every time I gave my son a bath water leaked into the kitchen. At this point I had section 8 housing and every time I would complain to my landlord he would make up something about me to my case worker. This put me at risk of losing my voucher. I asked him to fix if I asked him to fix something he would threaten eviction. Eviction means you lose your voucher. I needed the voucher to not end up homeless so I basically stayed silent about anything I couldn't point out during a bi-annual expect inspection from the housing authority. I stayed silent for fear of losing my housing and being well aware of how hard it was for me to find a home for my family. We lived in that home for a total of five years. I then found housing immediately to transition into a home I loved and thought we would live in my throughout my child's life. However, Tropical Storm Irene came and ruined everything I owned again. I again found myself living in a family member's house. My son was only nine by the time we had lost all our belongings twice, lived without an apartment twice. We lived in unhealthy and unsafe living conditions until he was six years old by no fault of our own. I did not end up homeless because not because I am any better, any smarter or any hardworking than someone who did. Only because I had somewhere to stay when I found myself in those situations. Only because I had a safety net where others in my situation do not. We effectively interrupted homelessness throughout COVID and we now have the opportunity to end it. We have a moment right now and it will pass where we could choose to keep people safely and consistently housed until such time as they are able to transition folks into permanent housing. At this moment, so many people for the first time in years some ever have access to health care and supports that they need. They are able to get mail. Their head is clear enough from the panic of wondering how to meet their basic needs that they can begin to think about how they can move forward. They have a stable address to apply for work, ID, health services. They have caseworkers that can find them and work with them. Their families know they are safe. The second that we cause that stability to go away, many of these folks will lose all of this support. I ask how does kicking people out in the street better us as a state? How? My understanding of the number one rule of war and crisis is that you don't leave people on the battlefield. Governor Scott is choosing to leave people on the battlefield right now. Governor Scott has the singular power to change outcomes right now. He can allow expanded motel access. He can extend the eviction moratorium and help landlords through it as well. He could help keep in place all expanded food access. The folks impacted by this decision not to do these things are the most vulnerable. The folks that he promised to protect. I have never told my story about housing, no matter how many of the stories of my life I have told because I carry heavy shame and pain because a part of me believed and still believes that I somehow did something wrong to end up in these homes or without housing that I did not deserve housing stability. I want to pause for a minute right here and say to those who are struggling with housing insecurity, you did not fail. We did. Our state did. We should never have been okay with leaving people struggling or without homes. That was never okay. To Governor Scott, my father tells the story of me keeping him up at night as early as four years old, worrying about people suffering, especially in recurring my concern about people experiencing homelessness. I would tell him I could not understand how leaving people to live on the street. I couldn't understand it. I would then finally go to sleep and he would lay awake all night and worry. I cannot imagine having the power to ensure that people do not end up homeless to ensure that people are fed to ensure that our children have shelter and choosing not to use that power. Yes, it is just a band aid and I have used those band aids. They stopped the spiral of disaster that would have occurred had I not had a band aid. To put people on the streets right now is a choice. People have nowhere to go. There are no homes. People are still suffering. How can we leave them to suffer? I have now lived in the same stable house for 10 years. There is never a time, no matter what else is going on, that I don't lock up my front steps, put the key in the door and feel immensely grateful and relieved to have a safe and stable home that I know I can stay in. Everybody deserves that relief. Thank you. Thank you, Brenda, for sharing that super powerful story. I think it really has the potential to make real change in our state that you told that. Thank you so much. Now, I will pass it to Dennis Swigman, State's Attorney. Good morning. I'm Dennis Swigman, State's Attorney in Addison County. A lot of people probably wonder why is there a prosecutor on this panel? Well, I'm here to tell you that actually it is important to have a prosecutor on this panel and have prosecutors' voices heard, because one of the leading indicators of offending is whether or not a person has stable housing. It's been borne out in the Justice Reinvestment Act and the research that was undertaken and the report that was issued back in 2019 and early 2020 that one of the leading hurdles to fighting re-offending was housing. Especially right now, when you have a program that has been, as Brenda put it, a band-aid, and what's important about a band-aid is that it stems the bleeding. It stops the bleeding, but it also keeps the blood from getting on things, right? And so one of the things that strikes me about that analogy is that stable housing has, and you heard from Josh about this, has provided people with the stability of being able to receive mail, of being able to put an address on an application for work, on being able to receive benefits that will actually benefit the rest of us. And that's what's important about this program. I've heard a lot of people talk about how it's really benefited the homeless population in Vermont. That's not the end of it. It's also benefited the people who own hotels. It's also benefited the people who work in those hotels. They've been able to keep jobs throughout that time period. And now when the demand is so high for those rooms, it's shove everybody out the door and onto the street and give them a check and hope for the best. That's not a good policy. That's not a good way to end what was, I think, a very good policy to begin with. There was essentially no exit strategy. And now they want to also enlist law enforcement. They want to enlist the prosecutors in essentially assisting them in taking people from what have become their homes. People that have now at least hold interest in where they're living. People that have been living there for a number of months now, some people about a year even, and kick them out with the assistance of law enforcement and prosecutors. Well, I'm here to tell you that we're not going to do that in Addison County, that we believe that people have least hold interest. Go through the process. Go through the process. It's there for anybody who has least hold interest. But really, the bottom line is, what is the strategy? Is the strategy to have people camp outside, as Keisha talked about? Is the strategy to have people take that $2,500 and do whatever with it? Or would the strategy be more well, would a better strategy be to have, let's say, a registry of apartments throughout the state? Something that the governor just vetoed so that we'd know what available housing is out there and be able to direct individuals in a more controlled way towards available housing? Where we could assure that that $2,500 was going towards that stability that assists us all, that really is good for our communities overall, because it helps people get a leg up, get back to work if they're out there looking, get services if that's what they need in order to be able to get to that position. And let's face it, some folks, they're just not going to be able to provide to an employer what they're looking for. But as Brenda said, don't we have an obligation here? We have a great opportunity. We could build housing. And I know one of the questions that a lot of people have raised, and this is another reason why there's a prosecutor on this panel, is how do we maintain that housing after we've built it? If we build it, there's that added expense, annual maintenance and so on and so forth. We spend about $150 million on prisons, on Department of Corrections and Vermont. And we have a lot of mandatory sentences in areas where how have we evaluated what that return is on that investment? Are we looking at, you know, mandatory sentence and DUIs, for example, and even a misdemeanor DUI, where a person has to go to jail? Are we looking at those and saying, hey, you know, they've been here for a while now. Is it actually doing what it's intended to do? And that is, is it actually encouraging people not to commit a future DUI? Or would it be more helpful to actually provide services to those individuals to assure that they're actually engaging in rehabilitation and addressing whatever substance use disorder they may be suffering from that's led them to get that subsequent DUI? Because I'm here to tell you, DUIs are people have a substance use disorder who happen to drive. And the time in jail, there is no real services being made available to them, at least not from a counseling perspective. And so that's why prosecutors here, I'm here to, you know, basically state that we need affordable, stable housing for every Vermonter that will lower offending in Vermont. It'll lower reoffending in Vermont, and it'll put people back to work. And that's really what, you know, we hear from all the employers out there, you know, where are the people for the jobs? Well, you know what? If you build it, they will come. That's what I have to say. Thanks. Thank you so much for speaking. That was really important to hear. Now, pass it to Representative Vihowski. Thank you so much, everyone for being here and adding for bringing us all together. One of my concerns since the beginning of COVID has been what will happen when some can go back to normal, and those who cannot or would never want to are forgotten and again cast aside. Those experiencing homelessness should not have to go back to their pre-pandemic normal. For the past 16 months, we've ended homelessness in Vermont. We did it emergently, and perhaps not ideally, but we did it, proving that it can be done. We put roofs over people's heads, ensured that they had food, medical care, and the supports that they needed. And what we saw was that people did better. We have seen that some of the individuals who had long been struggling with homelessness, perhaps with their mental health or with addiction and other challenges, were able to begin healing. But what we, but we already know that housing is a necessity for stability. We have a housing first model here in Vermont that has ended homelessness for 1,963 individuals already. Pathways Vermont is built on the premise that not only is housing a basic human right, but a basic necessity for employment, dignity, and success. I worked for five years with Pathways Vermont, and I saw the transformative capacity that a stable home has. Housing keeps people off the streets, out of the hospitals, out of our jails, and alive. In addition to being the right thing to ensure that all people are housed, we know from our housing first research that providing permanent supported housing is the most fiscally responsible thing to do. It is a fallacy that allowing people to be homeless saves us money. In Vermont, it costs just $43 a day to house someone through this model, versus the astronomical cost of some of the alternatives just mentioned, like hospitalization, criminalization, and lost lives. Given this, it is simply a question of if we have the moral fortitude to say that all people's lives matter enough to invest in them. We have not done the important work or made the investments to be prepared to move all of the Vermonters being displaced by the ending of the emergency hotel program. Those who are experiencing homelessness who need permanent supportive housing. We have some of this infrastructure already, and we need to make the investments in the additional housing and support needed. And until we do, we need to keep roofs over people's heads, extend the motel benefits until we are ready to move people into permanent housing. We need to ensure that those who have been tenuously housed through this pandemic and before are not immediately evicted when the eviction moratoriums are lifted, and instead extend those and support our landlords as well. And we need to ensure that all people continue to have adequate food access and medical care. We have an opportunity to invest some of the billions of dollars flowing into Vermont into ending homelessness permanently. It is not only the right thing to do, but the most responsible thing to do. These investments will save us money, make our community stronger and safer, and make us all more resilient for the next crisis. The people experiencing homelessness that we are talking about are children, veterans, people experiencing domestic violence, substance use, mental health issues, health catastrophes, and the majority of these people experiencing homelessness are already working. And those who are not able to work would be able to more easily access employment with stable housing. It would allow them to get their feet underneath them and be successful. Struggles like these, as well as unmet mental health needs, substance use needs, health and education needs will not be solved while people are living on the streets. A moral and just economy is one that invests in those that need it most, and we have an opportunity right now to move towards being that kind of economy in the state of Vermont. A place where we ensure that every Vermonter has their basic needs met, a state that ends homelessness. Thank you. Thank you so, so, so much. And then last but not least, Representative Small. Thank you so much, Addie, for your advocacy and your work so far, and for bringing together this coalition of youth advocates, community members, and statewide leaders to discuss the importance of housing for all Vermonters. I want to start by acknowledging the fact that housing has been an issue in our state for quite some time. The discussion continues and yet the action is minimal and leaves those who are most vulnerable out of the conversation. As you've heard during the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a transformative opportunity to end homelessness here in Vermont and declare that housing is health care and that no one should be left out on the streets to fund for themselves. I had hoped that this momentum would carry over as we plan strategic investments with both federal and state funding. Sadly, it seems we are moving forward with the status quo, limiting access to emergency resources such as the GA Motel Voucher Program, highlighting investments in future housing infrastructure, which does not mediate our current situation, opening up congregate shelters with little to no privacy, and providing emergency rent for households who struggle to even find a safe and affordable place to rent. A 2020 report from the Housing Opportunity Grant Program showed that on average, households in Vermont will remain homeless for four months before accessing stable housing. And even then, only half of those households are able to exit the program into permanent housing. There are not enough apartments for rent to meet the need that we confront right now. Previous reports from Vermont Digger noted that in December of 2020, the vacancy rate in Chittenden County alone was 1.1%. Pandemic or not, I wish housing and food access would always be seen as necessary for health and basic human dignity. And that significant investments in affordable housing and shelter would always be made to keep up with the need. I wish that program rules would be designed with nothing more than public health and safety in mind. Because what we are talking about here is housing justice, health justice, racial justice, and justice is not just if it is not accessible to all. I want to be clear. DCF has the power to change the rules for the emergency housing program and ensure that all Vermonters have a safe place to live. That the governor had the power to pass S79, ensuring that those Vermonters who are being pushed out onto the streets currently would be housed in a safe place to live. But he instead selfishly reflected on his own story rather than listening to some of our state's most vulnerable community members. And all of us, we have the power to affirm that housing is a human right and demand action now in keeping all Vermonters safe, especially as we face the looming issue of the Delta variant of COVID-19. As others have highlighted today, I just want to really uplift our community members who are here today and the stories that we have heard and acknowledge that our youth are pushing us to do better. They see a world that we all want to live in and all want to embrace and let us listen to the youth who are pushing us and to continue to follow through on that. Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you so much everyone for speaking and everyone who's here supporting. We really appreciate it. And now we're going to take some time for a few questions. We have a few on the lineup, but like Brenda said in the chat, if you haven't signed up to ask a question, please message Brenda or I and we'll add you. But with that, I think Carrie, if you can maybe unmute and allow the reporter from the VT Digger to come on to ask a question, that would be great. I believe that's Abigail Chang. Hi. Yeah, I'm wondering if the governor seems receptive to taking the three actions that you proposed earlier in this meeting and what you see as sort of the first step towards those actions you proposed. Yeah, great question. Thank you so much. I'm going to pass that to Brenda Siegel to answer. Hi there. I have read some of the communications that have gone back and forth to the youth group that has done that, that has sent these suggestions to the governor and he does not seem receptive to changing his course. He seems to feel that it's okay to put people on the street because this is a band-aid and because we don't have a permanent solution and because there is demand for the hotels from tourists as well. But I think that he has done a really great job and this youth group has done a really great job of making sure to make clear that these actions are fully within his power. So honestly, it's a rule change in most cases. So it's a stroke of his pen and it is the first step and ensuring and then working with the hotels to figure out what the the ones that are reluctant to continue, what would they need to continue and making sure that those supports are in place as well. So I think that those are two of the things and then, you know, I really suggest making sure that there is a full table of people who are experiencing poverty, who have utilized their food supports and who have utilized the hotels, not just people who work in the field, but people who have really been experiencing this with him to really explain what the impacts are if you end up on the street. And then I think reconsidering S79, even though he's already vetoed it, to whatever his concerns are, work with the legislature, but understand that even if he and his wife are remodeling their home and just want to make ends meet by adding an apartment to their house, even then the people that live there deserve safe and stable housing and to know that it's on the market. So I think that he that every single first step is within the governor's power. Thank you. Thank you. And now, Bridget, do you have a question? I do. Yes. Hello. Got a question for, I would like to direct it to Representative Vahovsky if I can. I would like to know where you propose affordable housing be built in Vermont. Specifically, there are some people who will say that Chittenden County is already too densely populated, that many of the towns, schools are at capacity. So where do you see those areas to be building the housing that you proposed? I think we need to look at all possible areas to put housing in. I think that this speaks to larger challenges within our economy that we do need to invest more in our education systems and we need to invest more in our food systems and we need to pay livable wages. There are so many pieces here and they're all intersectional. But I think we are building all over the state, but it is because it is less advantageous monetarily for builders to build affordable housing than it is to build higher income housing. We're not building the kind of housing that we truly need. And so we need to really be looking at the ways that we invest in affordable housing that is in perpetuity and not only for five or 10 years. With a tax break, we need to be looking at mixed income housing. We need to be looking at what kind of housing we're building. And I think that I live in Essex, which is the fastest growing town in Vermont and there are new apartment buildings going up every day. So we are building here. So the argument that we can't build more in Chittenden County, we are doing it. So I think we need to put it in Chittenden County and ensure that it is housing that gets people off the streets. And we need to put it across the state because as we've heard, people are not only homeless in Chittenden County. I think we need to also be thinking about what's best for the individuals experiencing homelessness and is it to drag them out of Chittenden County and move them to Middlebury because that's where it's more convenient or to move them to Bennington because that's where it's more convenient. No, it's to build housing where the housing is needed. Great. Thank you very much. Keith Whitcomb, do you want to ask a question? Can you hear me? Cool. I was just wondering if anybody has a sense of what the housing market, the way it is now, what kind of impact that's had on people's ability to find apartments. I don't know, is that forcing people? I've heard of, I'm hearing stories where people's renting situations are suddenly put because the landlord has chosen to sell it. And then they're in a position where they just can't find anywhere else to rent because a lot of people are just looking to sell these buildings because from what I understand, the housing market is moving right now pretty good. Does anybody have any sense of what that impact has been like? I don't know, maybe fluctuations in the housing market or nothing new to this scene? I don't know. I don't know if about it really. I put that out to anybody. Yeah, totally. Representative Small, do you want to take that? Sure. Well, I think the only evidence that we have right now is anecdotal evidence from those in community who are willing and able to share their story. But I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to looking at our unstable housing market now, the push to sell, the lack of safe or affordable renting options, and knowing that we had this issue again prior to the pandemic and it is only being exacerbated now as to where folks are able to find that safe and affordable housing, which is where the difference goes to in selling rather than upkeep or making it a place where folks can safely live. Thank you. I'm just going to jump in also and say that people, realtors knocked on my door and asked if we were interested in selling. I'm renting, so that's not a thing for me, but also my first response was like, well, then I'd have to have somewhere to go. So the push to sell, and they were like, yes, but people are buying at site on scene. I was like, right, and then Vermonters are having nowhere to go. So the problem is I have no problem with people moving here, but I think that we have to ensure that people have housing in Vermont. And like Tanya, like Representative Vajowski said, and Representative Small, we need to build housing where housing is needed. And as you know, here in southern Vermont, we have a really serious problem with housing stock as well that gets a little less play than what's happening in Chittenden County. And there are absolutely places that we could build. And so that's part of it, but also that push to sell is really tempting for people who have maybe just been on play for 17 months. But we have to start realizing what the impact is. Thank you. Thank you all for the questions. If anyone has one more, feel free to just put it in the chat really quickly. But I think we've got, oh, we have one more question. Sorry. Okay, so Greg asks, or Greg, do you want to unmute and ask? Sure. Addy, thank you for holding this. Just, I have a question about S79, the bill that would have created the rental registry, also would have, there was some money in there for helping landlords put rental units that aren't meeting code back online and also some money for first time home buyers. I wondered if you had an opportunity to reach out to lawmakers from Greater Bennington about that issue and about the issues that you're passionate about here with regards to homelessness and what you're hearing back from folks like the folks who represent us here in southern Vermont in Montpelier. Yeah, totally. Erica, do you want to go? Yeah, I can talk a little bit about the rental registry. So I think Bennington has a big problem about having actual apartments. I think that Bennington has such a lack of apartments that when we do have apartments, they're often overpriced to the point that many families can't afford to live in them. So I think that the rental registry is a good idea and I think that we also need to make it possible to have more apartments that are Erica, I think we might have lost your audio. I don't know if maybe that's just me or anybody else. I can't hear. Can anyone hear me? No, it's back. Okay. Where did I cut out? Sorry. I think talking about just like the the rental registry and how it would help in Bennington. So I think that I'll just repeat. I think the rental registry would be a great idea in Bennington, but I think that Bennington also has a big issue of affordable apartments and rentals in general. So I think that in order to have a rental registry, we need to have apartments and rentals that Bennington citizens can afford. So I think that that's a huge issue in Bennington in general. And I personally have not reached out to any lawmakers. I'm not sure if Addy has, but I think that that's something that we could definitely look into doing. So yeah. Yeah, and I think that's maybe something Erica, we can do as a next step, but I think because I think reach out to lawmakers about that specifically in Bennington. And I know something I had talked about with some other lawmakers, not necessarily in Bennington, but from other places is like, can we have a session where we override the governor's veto on that and also have a public hearing on homelessness and also deal with the affordable housing and really have, you know, a time for that, whether that's in an October session or a January session. But I think that that's really important as Erica said. So I think that's something we need to address with lawmakers. I think you very much. And then I believe Keith, did you have one more question? Yeah, yeah, one more. And again, I'd throw this out to anybody. And maybe this has been addressed before and I just didn't hear it. But my understanding is one of the things you're advocating for here is for the stays in the hotels to be extended, unless I'm misunderstanding that. I'm wondering if that does happen, is there going to be anything on top of that to kind of maybe alleviate some of the issues that had cropped up? And I know Rutland with the Holiday Inn and Quality Inn had some a number of issues. It just seemed like the commercial hotels weren't really geared for basically operating as large homeless shelters. I mean, there were just a number of issues just with that. So I don't know, is there anything that could go into this that would alleviate some of those problems? I don't know. I'd throw that out to anybody. I'm assuming everybody's kind of familiar with that situation, but maybe not. Yeah, Brenda, do you want to go ahead? You can go ahead if you have an answer or do you have an answer? Well, I was just kind of going to reflect that. Yeah, like what Josh is saying and also like the Motel program is like the the Band-Aid thing and then overarching it's like housing. So even though the Motel program isn't perfect, like that's the route to get to housing permanently. But I want to pass over to Josh to maybe emphasize on what you said in the chat and then Brenda. Yeah, I just want to say, you know, those issues are always there. I mean, on the street or if we're on the street, those issues are still there. It's just not in your face. You don't have to deal with them. I mean, when we're in hotels, it kind of makes you deal with it. And in my opinion, that's better. I mean, that's the way to solve those problems. And it's hard and it's not fun, but that's that's the problem that we're facing. I mean, those issues have to be dealt with. You can't just put people on the street and expect that they're going to go away. I don't understand that. That's what I had to say. Thank you. So in many of the counties, crime has gone down to some extent. So I would argue that while it might be that you see it directly in a different way when it happens in the motel programs, I would argue that it's actually helping support slowing down of crime because crime generally are crimes of desperation or mental health needed mental health support. So rather than saying, because if you remove people from the hotels, the crime is still there, then nothing has changed. However, we could increase, as many have said for many years in this state, we could increase human services for mental health supports and for substance use disorder to ensure that we people are actually getting what they need in health care to be able to work beyond that. Also in these situations, you have people who are able to it is able to be caught and contained in a different way than when it's on the street. And oftentimes the people who end up being victims of those crimes are other people who are experiencing homelessness and have no voice to actually advocate for themselves or stop it. And so I also think that there is, but for the most part, it's a little bit of a false narrative because crime is happening in apartment buildings and crime is happening with people who get to go home to their own homes all the time. And I think it's another way that we other people and try to say that well, these people are no longer deserving of homes. And so while I know that it's a complicated issue for those hotels who have experienced it, it is an issue that needs to be addressed through human service lens rather than it addressed through a, well these people don't, we can't put them in homes because they're other than us. They aren't, they're the same. So would you be looking to pair more services or something like that with a hotel that's serving this population in this way? Like is that part of what you're advocating or? Well, I've long advocated so that I don't think there's any secret to this. I've long advocated that we should be decreasing the criminalization of people who have mental health challenges and substance use disorder and increasing human services. So we absolutely should. Right now, our state is flush with resources. So for us not to solve these basic needs issues and these mental health issues, when we have the time, we either have to make a decision, we either have to say out loud that we just don't care, or we have to be willing to use those resources to change it. And so what I'd be advocating for, yeah, is of course increased human services and supports, but also decreasing the criminalization of poor people. I think that that's really important because I think all it does is perpetuate crime in our communities. All right. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you to everyone. And if there are any more last minute questions put them in the chat. I don't think there. I think we got everyone. But as I'm sure you heard, this is a very complex issue. We need to continue stable housing in the present. We need like Brenda said, social services and decriminalization of poor people. But there are so many actions that Governor Scott and the legislature can take. And so we really hope that they will take action because right now is the time and we've said that Vermont is so good with vaccination and with COVID. But we can't really brag about that if we still have this dire issue of homelessness and poverty. And so we hope that there can be solutions. And again, thank you all so much for being here. I also wanted to say that many of the legislators who reached out to me just after they had to get off to go back to their day jobs and said that if any of any of the reporters or any of the media needed to reach out to them, they could be reached out to them. So if you don't have their contact information, feel free to email me, Brenda, Brenda for vermont.com or call me even and I can get you their contact information as well. Thank you all so much to all the press who are here and to all of the speakers. You guys all rock. Thank you.