Researcher tells House Human Services committee Vermont should adopt statewide Housing First strategy and favor non‑congregate interim housing for H.91

Anne Sossen, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College, told the House Human Services Committee during its discussion of H.91 that Vermont’s homelessness problem is primarily a housing-supply and affordability problem and urged the committee to adopt a statewide Housing First strategy, prioritize non‑congregate interim housing and set measurable targets.

Sossen told the committee: "Homelessness is primarily a housing problem. It's not a problem of unhousable people," and said Vermont faces both growing unsheltered homelessness and rising family homelessness while veteran homelessness is declining.

The researcher summarized five common myths and the evidence she says refutes them, then laid out policy recommendations the committee could incorporate into H.91. Sossen said Vermont has an estimated shortage of about 60,000 housing units, that half of Vermonters are cost‑burdened, and that Vermont’s housing wage is $29.42 — figures she offered to support the state-level framing of the crisis. She warned that individual-level factors such as substance use and mental…