Senate Health & Welfare hears DCF on Act 113 emergency-housing rules, caps and operational strain

The Senate Health & Welfare Committee on Nov. 29 heard Department for Children and Families (DCF) officials and Legislative Counsel explain how the 2023 budget provision known as Act 113 governs General Assistance (GA) emergency housing, and why DCF is operating at capacity.

Legislative Counsel Katie told the committee that the budget language requires emergency housing to be provided in a community-based shelter whenever possible and, if none is available in the household’s AHS district, in a hotel or motel within that district until shelter space becomes available. Miranda Gray, deputy commissioner of DCF’s Economic Services Division, described how DCF has implemented the language and the operational limits the agency faces.

The committee was told that the statute establishes eligibility categories (including age 65 or older, documented disability, households with a child 19 or younger, pregnancy, loss of a spouse/domestic partner/minor child, natural disaster, court-ordered eviction or constructive eviction, and exposure to violence or trafficking). Katie said the statute requires households to attest they lack a “fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” and that DCF may require documentation, including a provider certification, to verify some disability-based claims. “The emergency housing is to be provided in a community-based shelter whenever possible,” Katie said.

The committee learned the lodging rules include two capacity controls: a ceiling of 1,100 hotel/motel rooms per night during two seasonal periods (Sept. 15–Nov. 30 and Apr. 1–Jun. 30) and a 12-month maximum of 80 motel/hotel nights per eligible household. An exception suspends the 80-night count for winter weather housing between Dec. 1 and Mar. 31. DCF must prioritize non-hotel placements where available and may not pay more than an hotel’s lowest advertised room rate and not more than $80 per room per night for hotels used under the program.

Gray outlined operational changes and constraints that have followed Act 113. DCF now relies on an applicant attestation (rather than routine verification calls to family members), and the program’s prior exclusion for households that caused their own loss of housing was removed; as Gray put it, that change has “increased the population that is coming to economic services.” She said DCF has worked with community partners and hotels, added new shelter capacity where possible, and issued a notice of funding to stand up temporary shelter space.

Committee members pressed DCF on how placements are assigned when demand exceeds capacity. Gray described an administrative procedure used when DCF reaches roughly 90% of the 1,100-room ceiling; the procedure establishes priority groups from among the eight statutory eligibility categories and gives those groups earlier access to hotline calls. LCAR (the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules) has raised objections to some parts of DCF’s emergency rules, notably a resource "spend down" and a DCF-created prioritization during capped periods that is not specified in statute.

Gray provided several program metrics: from July through Dec. 31, DCF “worked with over 5,200 unique households.” At the time of the briefing DCF reported supporting roughly 1,618 households in shelter or motel placements and said about 600 households remained unable to be housed because of capacity limits. Gray said authorizations commonly are issued in shorter increments (for example, up to 28 days or shorter priority-period authorizations) and that hotels sometimes require short initial authorizations to confirm a placement is a workable match.

The budget language also directs DCF to adopt emergency rules and later permanent rules for administration; to report monthly (from the previous July through the following June) on program activity; and it includes appropriations: $500,000 for security costs related to emergency housing and $10,000,000 intended to increase shelter capacity (the department has used some of that money to open family shelters in Waterbury and Williston, which together serve about 17 families, the deputy commissioner said).

Committee members repeatedly urged faster expansion of shelter capacity and better pathways from temporary placements to permanent housing. Several senators asked about coordination with municipal officials and community partners, the role of the Office of Economic Opportunity in ramping shelter bed capacity and how DCF tracks exits to permanent housing. Gray said linking people to permanent housing remains difficult because of limited stock, workforce and service gaps for people with serious behavioral-health or substance-use needs.

The briefing also covered administrative practices: DCF’s outreach to hotels and community partners, the weekly public dashboard the department updates (Gray said it is refreshed each Tuesday morning), and the protocol for households to report monthly on their housing search. LCAR has reviewed emergency-rule iterations and submitted a letter raising concerns; the permanent rule remained under consideration.

The committee is scheduled to meet jointly with the House Human Services Committee the following day to review a task force report on housing. No formal committee vote or change to the statute was taken at this session.

Ending: Committee members urged more rapid action on shelter capacity and a clearer administrative pathway to permanent housing; DCF said it will continue implementing Act 113’s emergency rules, work with LCAR on permanent rulemaking, and report monthly as required by the budget language.