House Human Services plans new committee bill; residency definition labeled a likely dealbreaker
Loading...
Summary
Chair Wood told the committee she and staff will draft a new committee bill combining elements of H.91 and H.594. She said the bill faces two major obstacles: how residency is proven and a department proposal to revert to a night-to-night motel placement process, both of which could block progress if not resolved.
Chair Wood told the House Committee on Human Services that she and staff are preparing a committee bill that will draw elements from H.91 and H.594 and include new provisions developed by members and stakeholders. She said the goal is to create a continuum-of-care approach that shifts reliance away from emergency motel placements toward stable, long-term solutions but cautioned the draft faces two central sticking points.
“One of the sticking points is the definition of residency,” Chair Wood said, describing three evidentiary proofs in the current bill draft (a Vermont driver’s license, a Vermont utility or other bill, or certification from a Vermont provider). She said legislative counsel told members those items could be interpreted as requiring a duration to obtain and therefore might meet a constitutional challenge against durational residency. “If that’s a sticking point that we can’t overcome, I’m not sure we can overcome any of the rest of the bill,” she said.
The second issue Chair Wood identified was the department’s apparent intent to return to a day-to-day (night-to-night) emergency placement process similar to pre-pandemic practice. She characterized that approach as a nonstarter for the committee because it would impose intensive administrative work and not produce durable housing results.
Chair Wood said she has asked DCF and Appropriations for guidance on whether appropriations for a new bill should be included in the bill itself or handled instead in the governor’s budget, and she urged colleagues to help the committee use its time efficiently given crossover deadlines after the town meeting break. She said staff are drafting proposed language aimed at capturing evidence of a person’s intent to remain in Vermont and that the committee will circulate that language for legal review by the department and legislative counsel.
The chair closed by warning that failure to resolve the residency question could undermine the bill’s viability at crossover and urged continued stakeholder engagement and attorney review before the committee votes.
