End Homelessness Vermont: hotel exits led to deaths and crisis; group urges housing-first, tiny-home pilots and alternative vouchers

Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, told the Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee that the state’s recent practice of allowing large cohorts to exit hotel shelter led to catastrophic health outcomes, hospitalizations and deaths.

“We had 7 of our clients die. Every client who died absolutely could have been housed,” Siegel said, recounting the fall period when many clients lost shelter and staff scrambled to respond.

Key findings and data from Siegel’s testimony:

- Phone and casework volume: Since last June, End Homelessness Vermont received roughly 2,000 calls; in January the organization made about 680 outgoing calls and processed about 50 incoming calls and roughly 80 voucher renewals.

- Interview and research program: The group completed an initial interview phase (76 individuals in June 2023) and a second phase (more than 200 interviews from September 2023 to February 2024) probing pathways into homelessness, childhood experiences and service barriers. Siegel said the data indicate high childhood adversity: about a quarter of interviewees had been in foster care and roughly another quarter first experienced homelessness as children (these two groups largely did not overlap).

- Health and safety outcomes during the unsheltering period: Siegel described multiple clients hospitalized for hypothermia, severe infections and other conditions resulting from sleeping rough, including one person whose oxygen level fell to 45 and another who required open-heart surgery after an infection traced to unsheltered living conditions.

- Cost comparisons: Citing a 2017 national estimate (adjusted as a conservative benchmark), Siegel said an unsheltered person costs roughly $35,000 per year in public costs. Using that figure for the current cohort in the “Love Hotel” program (1,425 households; about 2,280 people), she calculated a conservative unsheltered annual cost of roughly $79,800,000 compared with about $45–$49 million to shelter the same population in hotels.

Policy recommendations Siegel presented to the committee:

- Emphasize housing-first with robust voluntary services and the ability to rehouse people if a first placement is not suitable.

- Pilot and scale tiny-home villages that provide kitchens and bathrooms (not pods), using municipal or state land where possible and ensuring proper zoning and ongoing supports. Siegel recommended three pilot sites with mixed-income design; she said capital costs would be comparable to current emergency shelter spending but provide permanent housing.

- Create an alternative housing voucher model for people who do not fit the traditional voucher eligibility; allow emergency housing vouchers to be used for apartments that meet reasonable health, safety and rent-standard checks.

- Fund an Office of Housing Advocate to expand the organization’s capacity; End Homelessness Vermont currently operates with 2.5 staff and argued for more resources to provide statewide casework and advocacy.

Siegel emphasized that homelessness is solvable with the right mix of housing supply, supportive services and regulatory changes that allow adaptive, lower-cost permanent options. “Homelessness is a solvable problem. It is a housing problem,” she said.

Ending: Siegel asked lawmakers to craft a bold housing package this session that includes prevention, affordable permanent options, alternative voucher models and supports to keep people housed.