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Legal Aid urges fixes to Human Services Board fair hearings, citing record gaps and access problems
Summary
Vermont Legal Aid recommended statutory and procedural changes to H.92 to improve access for self-represented appellants, require expedited handling of emergency housing appeals, and ensure favorable hearing officer decisions become part of the official record.
Mary Ellen Griffin, a staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, told the committee that H.92 is an opportunity to fix recurring procedural problems in the Human Services Board fair hearing process that limit access and obscure outcomes for people seeking emergency housing and other services.
Griffin described steep demand for help and gaps between requests and representation: "We had 708 calls asking for emergency housing and 3,278 page views of our website on that topic" in the 2022–2023 legal needs survey period, she said, and added: "We probably represent maybe 20 people through the entire fair hearing process all the way to decision per year and probably another 15 or 20 that we resolve beforehand."
Griffin pressed two core problems she said should be addressed by statute and rule changes. First, she said the process routinely produces favorable…
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