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Vermont Legal Aid warns H 5 94 could worsen homelessness without housing and due-process fixes
Summary
Vermont Legal Aid told the committee H 5 94 relies on residency checks, time limits and sanctions that would push people into unsheltered homelessness unless the state significantly expands shelter, affordable housing and case management; the witness urged written notice, less punitive sanctions and investment in permanent housing.
Deanna Hartog, the poverty law fellow at Vermont Legal Aid, told committee members that H 5 94 — as drafted — emphasizes restrictions, deadlines and sanctions that do not match Vermont’s current housing supply and support capacity. Legal Aid argued the bill’s residency verification and a so-called "return home" relocation approach could be unconstitutional, ethically problematic and practically harmful.
"The bill assumes that if we tighten eligibility, impose deadlines, and require compliance, that people will move more…
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