So, you know, for example, if you are pregnant in your specifically third trimester, you get 28 days. So you could only access a voucher to get into a motel if you fit certain fairly strict eligibility criteria. But you know, in the years, kind of immediately before the pandemic, it was very restricted. And there’s actually some great reporting by my colleague Kevin O’Connor about some of the different iterations of it over the years. Lola: I guess we should actually start pre-pandemic because the state has had a shelter program and motels for folks who are unhoused for I think well over a decade now. She said that actually, we should go back a bit further. Sam: I started by asking Lola for a quick rundown on the program we were discussing. She covers politics for VTDigger and has been reporting extensively on the motel program and unhoused people in Vermont.īelow is a partial transcript, edited for length and clarity. So what changed to take this extension from out of the question to a done deal? To unpack this and other questions about homelessness, host Sam Gale Rosen talked to Lola Duffort. This comes after about 800 people had already lost their housing earlier that month.Īt every stage, the motel program has been at the center of fierce debate - among the state’s leaders and the public at large - over cost, efficacy, and what support is owed to some of Vermont’s poorest and most vulnerable residents. The program would be extended, for at least some people, until April. Then, at the end of June, lawmakers worked out a deal. Federal money had run out, and, they said, the program was just too expensive to continue. Phil Scott insisted that extending the Covid-19-era program providing people with vouchers to live in motels past this summer was a no-go. For months, Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov.
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