[{"_1":2,"_87":-5,"_88":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":56,"_74":56},"mediaId",6360123,"mediaKeyId","2175323-8aa4ed10432767dd76927fba5d2590ab","parentId",2175323,"title","Human Rights Commission reports record fair‑housing complaints and staff shortages to General & Housing committee","audioSeconds",2440,"startMs",2608000,"endMs",5048000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2175323-8aa4ed10432767dd76927fba5d2590ab&start=2608&end=5048","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2175323-8aa4ed10432767dd76927fba5d2590ab/thumbnail_2608000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6360123/Vermont/Human-Rights-Commission-reports-record-fairhousing-complaints-and-staff-shortages-to-General-Housing-committee","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6360123-637acc43dae5a2aaa6e19cc2831abfe3/orig.mp4?Expires=1776160986&Signature=i4prByZU6GzjPOxjqkLipoQnRuWBtED--PPku7J05bkLsFopOE99IuyJCXCFLgV8xEH4Hkb3sLYwjn1~VvWlgtVyj~~DLUyJXaVP1vzGNV3QB-Cuf9Paiiev0hgxE2mr9dr4adfTcOJVpdYlDotM9L6JEFD3UpNfgnPX1GzMd1s-gzK5TT-pikAnXa5S481Tubp4-XiBdYtBh7xImGt1radEhSvAAhXaQsPBP1YI1WOybaT8gWivvdTSP~gmQchPeBbjzrZjUDIDFTbjgbRoXgOLOWhvskEvYcgnpaaz51dMSD17Q4rDZ-VmsV1ME2SbHqw4Jma3XTLvRFiL77ZD2Q__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","","date","2025-01-30T08:17:21Z","article","Faith (they/them) Hartman, executive director and general counsel of the State of Vermont Human Rights Commission, told the House Committee on General and Housing on Jan. 29, 2025, that the commission accepted a record number of complaints in fiscal 2024 and is operating with insufficient staff to investigate them in a timely way.

Hartman told the committee that the commission accepted 57 new complaints for investigation in fiscal 2024, including 35 housing complaints — roughly double the prior year — and closed 43 cases. By the end of the year the commission completed 33 determinations, of which 22 were found to have reasonable grounds to believe discrimination occurred. Hartman said the commission’s average case age at closure improved from 649 days in fiscal 2023 to 474 days in fiscal 2024 after process‑streamlining efforts, but that housing cases still often take more than a year.

Hartman described the commission’s investigative process and authority: a staff team of three investigative attorneys conducts interviews, gathers documents and issues investigative reports that the five‑member commission reviews in public hearings. If the commission finds reasonable grounds, it has statutory authority to pursue enforcement in superior court; Hartman said the commission recently filled a newly created in‑house litigator position and that enforcement actions and settlements have increased.

The HRC director stressed capacity limits. Hartman said staff turnover and burnout are serious problems: “in the 3 and a half years that I've worked at the commission, out of our whole team of 7, I have seen 7 people leave,” they told the committee. Managers have been sharing intake duties to avoid overwhelming new administrative staff, and several accepted complaints remain unassigned; Hartman said some accepted complaints have waited roughly six months for assignment to an investigator.

Hartman outlined remedies that courts may award under the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations statute, including individual relief for aggrieved parties, injunctive relief, civil penalties and attorneys’ fees. The commission also seeks public‑interest relief in settlements — for example, fair‑housing training, revised policies or monitoring requirements — rather than only individual compensation.

Federal partnership and funding were also discussed. Hartman said the commission is the state’s Fair Housing Assistance Program partner with HUD and that HUD provides a modest base payment plus per‑case funding; the commission must meet HUD performance expectations such as closing a share of cases quickly. Hartman told the committee, however, that the commission “did not close a single case in 100 days” in fiscal 2024 and that HUD’s 100‑day expectation (50% closed within 100 days) has been difficult to meet because of intake and investigative capacity constraints.

Hartman said the commission has pressed the legislature for additional staff and that the committee recently supported a Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) request for new positions. They also referenced H.38, legislation to expand capacity, and said new positions would allow the commission to assign more investigations and handle intake calls without turning people away. Hartman offered a plain‑language guide to commission procedures developed with a small HUD partnership grant.

Committee members asked for clarification about how the commission’s work differs from Vermont Legal Aid, where legal aid can provide direct representation to complainants; Hartman said the commission represents the public interest and does not provide individual legal representation.

Hartman urged more resources to reduce backlog and to avoid denying meritorious complaints solely because of capacity constraints. The committee did not vote at the hearing, but members expressed that they would follow up on staffing and budget matters raised during the testimony.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","House General - 2025-01-29 - 1:30PM","oneSentenceSummary","Faith Hartman, executive director and general counsel of the State of Vermont Human Rights Commission, told the House Committee on General and Housing on Jan. 29 that the commission accepted a record number of complaints in fiscal 2024 and faces a backlog caused by staff shortages and turnover.","taxTitle","General & Housing, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Committees, Legislative , Vermont","taxId",30954,"location","Vermont","headline","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":56,"_74":56},6360126,"Landlord group tells General & Housing committee court delays, rising costs and a ’Decker Towers’ pattern are worsening evictions",2457,121000,2578000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2175323-8aa4ed10432767dd76927fba5d2590ab&start=121&end=2578","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2175323-8aa4ed10432767dd76927fba5d2590ab/thumbnail_121000.jpg","/articles/6360126/Vermont/Landlord-group-tells-General-Housing-committee-court-delays-rising-costs-and-a-Decker-Towers-pattern-are-worsening-evictions","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6360126-a89fa1273cce6bbb78a48fe0bf594bfa/orig.mp4?Expires=1776160986&Signature=l9Elur4qBQldSZdHSzNu2-B2JRizrYioDyhsOk5BT-pKEEkWTK2-Wmhlu8TwyqjIUPDUqBqdJEil8WYhFoPu~gkVAWqCZ2l1tPOeWTIc7nRtUYM5MwsnQQvKULGA~2klZd~RFHdMseYqeyus1U0Yo8xRmML-8kn55fBYse1YV69P1FGcwKjhQLLa~vcbSCqS8Ewds4rGf5Jq0Z1Tc49lD3SEstNT11slzG4k8cQ0w6T~~9JMm0yNfJw4B-lsXVfNZ3~Y7WQcQoP~-aAuNwGjmSYtI-N7rpcGbfcRi5VaM7LAD0C1sU~9G35UM1oOuWBlnWocP06EzrMQAm5dTSqsWw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Angela Zajkowski, director of the Vermont Landlords Association, told the House Committee on General and Housing on Jan. 29, 2025, that landlords statewide are seeing longer court delays, rising operating costs and a pattern of tenants returning to neighboring units after evictions that she said is permitted under a Vermont Supreme Court decision.

Zajkowski said the state lacks a rental registry but estimated “about 75,000 to 76,000 rental units in the state of Vermont,” and that through October 2024 there were “a little bit over 1,800” evictions in court records. She told the committee those statistics are the only consistent court-based data the state has on eviction filings.

The landlord association director described several factors that she said have increased eviction pressure: an 18‑month eviction moratorium during the COVID‑19 period, large but time‑limited rental assistance programs that ended in 2022, and rising costs for property taxes, repairs and insurance. “Most insurance policies are on a replacement cost value,” Zajkowski said, “so the more expensive it is to replace a building, the more expensive your premiums become.”

Zajkowski told lawmakers that the eviction process in Vermont is effectively two steps: a termination notice followed, if the tenant does not leave voluntarily, by a court filing. She said termination notices are public only when filed in court, so the 1,800 figure represents filings rather than all notices sent. She described court processing times for eviction cases as lengthy — on the order of four to six months and with a six‑month clearance parameter in some courts — and said that delay contributes to pressure for landlords and tenants.

She flagged a recurring problem she called the “Decker Towers issue,” referring to a Burlington property and to a legal precedent she identified as State v. April Dixon from the 1980s. Zajkowski said the case has been interpreted to mean that if an evicted person is invited back onto a property by another resident, the entry is not treated as trespass and the landlord must repeat eviction proceedings against successive occupants. “We have tenants who landlords are going through a process to evict out of a property who are then not prohibited from coming back onto that property because they're being invited by another resident,” she said.

On so‑called no‑cause notices, Zajkowski said the phrase is often misunderstood. She told the committee a no‑cause notice functions as a nonrenewal at the end of a lease term rather than as a mechanism to remove a tenant mid‑lease. “A no cause notice is not something that a landlord can use in the middle of a year's lease,” she said, adding that landlords use the nonrenewal tool to address safety and nuisance concerns without forcing other residents to testify in court.

Committee members asked several follow‑up questions. Members suggested additional data sources for tracking rental inventory and single‑unit or accessory dwelling unit availability—U.S. Census data, municipal appraiser records and tax‑department landlord certificate filings were cited as possible leads. One member asked Zajkowski to provide a copy or citation of State v. April Dixon; she agreed to send information.

Zajkowski said landlords do not welcome evictions and that many would prefer tenants who pay rent and respect property. She told the committee she has heard reports of landlords leaving the rental market, single‑family homes returning to owner occupancy, and some units sitting vacant rather than being rented.

The committee did not take legislative action at the Jan. 29 hearing but members signaled interest in continuing the discussion; several asked Zajkowski to return for further testimony and requested follow‑up data on eviction trends and legal options.

The committee will continue its hearings on housing policy in subsequent meetings and scheduled additional testimony for the same day on the Human Rights Commission.","Angela Zajkowski, director of the Vermont Landlords Association, told the House Committee on General and Housing on Jan. 29 that court processing times, rising operating costs and a legal precedent she cited as State v. April Dixon have combined with the end of pandemic rental assistance to worsen eviction pressure across Vermont.","actionData","errors"]

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Human Rights Commission reports record fair‑housing complaints and staff shortages to General & Housing committee

Landlord group tells General & Housing committee court delays, rising costs and a ’Decker Towers’ pattern are worsening evictions