Vermont Human Rights Commission warns $187,000 HUD payment is unpaid, asks Legislature for stopgap budget and staff
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Summary
The Vermont Human Rights Commission told the House Judiciary Committee that HUD has not yet paid $187,000 owed for FY25 casework, prompting a request for a $25,000 FY26 budget adjustment and relief from a $65,000 vacancy-savings requirement while the commission seeks three new positions to handle rising caseloads.
Vague Hartman, executive director and general counsel of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the commission has been notified it earned $187,000 from HUD for fiscal year 2025 but has not received the drawdown voucher or payment.
"This year, they did tell us that we earned, a $187,000 for all of the case work that we did in fiscal year 25," Hartman said, adding the commission typically receives HUD funds as a per-case drawdown that historically helped pay for fair-housing investigations.
The unpaid federal payment and broader federal policy changes have created immediate pressure on the commission's budget. Hartman said the commission is seeking a modest FY26 budget adjustment of $25,000 "just to be able to kinda keep the lights on and keep all of our staff employed for this fiscal year," and asked lawmakers not to require a $65,000 vacancy-savings line that the governor recommended.
"A $65,000 vacancy savings would mean that I'm leaving a position open for almost, you know, a year potentially or that we furlough our entire staff for a month," Hartman told the committee, describing the agency's nine-person staff and the operational strain of unfilled positions.
Hartman explained the commission has grown from six to nine positions since 2021 but still turns away potential cases weekly because of capacity limits; he asked the committee to authorize three additional positions, including a staff attorney investigator and a policy director, to reduce backlog and to provide statewide policy and training work.
The commission also flagged a shift in HUD's practice: Hartman said HUD has paused or curtailed regional referrals, that a planned new voucher process requires additional signoffs, and that HUD told the HRC it may re-evaluate which state agencies will be considered "substantially equivalent" for future funding.
The Judiciary committee did not take a vote but asked Hartman to return with detailed budget figures. Committee leadership indicated they would discuss the request further with appropriations and bring Hartman back for a follow-up presentation on the FY26 and FY27 budget specifics.
