Witnesses and state officials tell House panel emergency shelter rules caused deaths and gaps; advocates press for Housing First and accommodations

Brenda Siegel, the executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, told the House Human Services Committee that Vermont’s General Assistance emergency shelter program must become a “general assistance emergency housing plan” that provides shelter to any Vermonter with a current or imminent lack of safe shelter.

Siegel said the state’s current approach — including short trial authorizations, limits tied to the 80‑day cap outside winter rules and a prioritization process — left people unsheltered last fall and produced “catastrophic outcomes, including severe declines in health and loss of life.” She said her organization tracked multiple deaths of people who became unsheltered after hotel placements ended and that staff and providers experienced “moral injury” carrying out policies that forced people outside.

The testimony, delivered at an H91 hearing on the General Assistance emergency housing program, combined first‑hand case examples, data collection work and policy recommendations. Siegel described a multiyear data project: Phase 1 interviewed 76 individuals in June 2023; Phase 2 interviewed more than 200 people across nine towns from September 2023 to February 2024; Phase 3 was under way and scheduled to run through June 2025. She said End Homelessness Vermont’s hotline handled more than 2,000 calls since June (the organization took the hotline over in 2021) and that staff performed dozens to hundreds of renewals per month during peaks: 85 renewals in September and 167 in December, for example.

Why it matters: witnesses argued the program’s structure and implementation decisions affect who remains sheltered and who becomes unsheltered, with life‑and‑death consequences for people with complex disabilities and serious medical needs.

Key recommendations from End Homelessness Vermont included: (1) redesigning GA emergency shelter into an emergency housing plan that treats shelter as a path to permanent housing rather than a temporary stop, (2) expanding non‑congregate shelter statewide so people can…