Committee debates draft 'Vermont HEART' homelessness program; disputes which agency should designate regional providers

Lawmakers on the House Human Services Committee spent the meeting reviewing a draft bill to create the Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing program — informally discussed as “Vermont HEART” or “VTR” — focusing on how the new program would be defined, who would oversee regional designations, and how emergency shelters would operate.

The bill would establish a statewide grant program to fund a range of homelessness responses including prevention and case management, temporary/emergency shelters, transitional housing and short-term extreme-weather shelters. Committee members and staff debated whether responsibility for designating regional resource organizations should rest with the Agency of Human Services (AHS) as a whole, with the Department for Children and Families (DCF), or by rule under an existing statutory office such as the director of OEO.

The discussion mattered because the committee is trying to fit the new program into multiple existing statutes and established provider roles. Committee members noted that community action agencies already have statutory recognition and national standards (the CSBG organizational standards) and queried whether the bill should create a new label — “regional resource organization” — as a supplemental authorization for a community action agency that would lead regional coordination and…