State DCF tells Rutland officials Cortina remains under health abatement as room caps reduce placements

Vermont Department for Children and Families Commissioner Chris Winters and Deputy Commissioner Miranda Gray briefed the Rutland Select Board on Sept. 10 about changes to the state's hotel-motel sheltering program and conditions at the Cortina hotel. Winters said the agency has not signed leases with hotels and instead is holding participating properties to "stricter standards of health and safety." He added towns are free to make their own agreements with hotel owners.

Deputy Commissioner Miranda Gray told the board the Cortina has not taken new placements for roughly six weeks because of repeated complaints and that the Food and Lodging division of the state health department issued an abatement order requiring room-by-room corrective steps. "They have very clear next steps that they have to take ... to come into compliance," Gray said.

Winters and Gray described a recent policy shift that will reduce statewide reliance on hotels. Winters said the department is "reducing the number of rooms statewide" and cited an 1,100-room statewide cap that took effect in September. Gray said households will face an 80-day limit under the new rules, with many Rutland households expected to reach that limit in mid- to late September; she projected "85 households in Rutland" would hit 80 days on Sept. 19. Gray reported the town currently has 353 households in placements that include more than the Cortina.

Board members pressed state officials on what would happen when placements expire. Select Board members warned the town could see an increase in people living unsheltered or camping locally; Winters said the state is working with local providers and field staff "to connect people with services and get them into more permanent housing solutions" but acknowledged some people could become unsheltered.

On shelter options, Winters said the state prefers building-based winter shelters and service-provider operated sites over unsited camping or short-term mobile pods because of staffing and services needs; he noted the operational cost for mobile temporary shelters could run into the high tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars — "somewhere around a million dollars to run a site for just a couple of months," he said. Winters also described a mobile-home infill project with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development that would place small surplus units on vacant lots in mobile-home parks as one strategy for exiting households from homelessness.

The Select Board asked the state to share any written inspection findings for the Cortina since the local health officer, John Paul Fignan, said he had not been invited to the inspection teams. Gray said she would check with the health department and pass along records if available. Winters said the state remains open to local requests for assistance on security or safety problems and to coordination with local service providers.

The board said it would continue to press for updates and may check in again as households approach the 80-day marks later in the fall.