Vermont community action agencies ask Legislature for roughly $15.8 million to expand housing navigation, vouchers and financial programs

Jenna O'Farrell, executive director of Northeast Kingdom Community Action, and other leaders from Vermont's community action agencies told the House Human Services Committee on Jan. 24 that homelessness in the state has risen since the COVID-19 pandemic and that agencies need additional state funding to expand housing navigation, direct financial assistance to landlords and clients, and related case-management services.

The agencies said they are asking for a statewide housing request of about $15.825 million for fiscal 2026, including $2.4 million described for a “home” family voucher component and additional amounts for housing opportunity (HOP) programming, case management and direct financial assistance. “We burned through that $100,000 at NECA in six months,” Casey Winterson, director of economic and community-based services at Northeast Kingdom Community Action, said of local emergency assistance funds, adding that agencies repeatedly exhaust limited pools of flexible dollars.

Why it matters: Speakers said housing navigation plus short-term financial assistance is the lever that prevents people from entering or remaining in homelessness and…