Residents and advocates back S.157, urge stronger appeals, disability protections

Chair Teresa Wood opened the House Human Services Committee session by saying members would continue consideration of S.157, a bill to certify recovery residences and set standards for operation. Witnesses with lived experience and one provider spoke in favor of the bill but pressed the committee to add clearer legal protections and procedural safeguards.

Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, who said she also consults on human services and drug policy and has lost family members to overdose, told the committee she does not support “a wholesale exemption from a landlord tenant law for recovery residents,” and urged several changes if the bill moves forward. Siegel recommended that the statute require agreements to “clearly state that there is a landlord to tenant relationship” for the portions of the residency not covered by any exemption, and that operators “owe a duty of care to the tenants.” She also pressed the committee to add disability-specific language and stronger reporting so the legislature can…