Senate committee reviews H.938 to establish Vermont homelessness response continuum

A Senate Health and Welfare committee session reviewed H.938, a bill that would establish the Vermont Homelessness Response Continuum and place a statutory framework around emergency housing, prevention and diversion, supportive services, and reporting requirements.

Committee members and the bill’s House reporters described the measure as an attempt to replace the current ad hoc, budget‑driven emergency housing approach with a coordinated statewide system administered through the Department for Children and Families’ Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). The text of the bill sets out five service levels — prevention/diversion; highly structured and low‑barrier shelters; specialized shelters; permanent supportive housing; and hotels/motels as a last resort — and requires integration of case management and individualized housing plans across placements.

The sponsors emphasized the bill’s goals and timeline. A House sponsor summarized the intent as creating “a clear framework that strengthens early intervention supports, works with local partners and ensures that emergency housing is delivered in a safe, organized, accountable, compassionate manner.” The bill includes phased implementation language beginning July 1, 2026, a legislative reportback in FY2027, and an expectation that the program reach full capacity during FY2028.

Jubilee McIll, one of the bill’s House reporters, said the bill aims to make homelessness “rare, brief and non‑reoccurring” and cited the bill’s findings that the Vermont Homeless Management Information System recorded 4,022 individuals experiencing homelessness (863 of them children) as of the referenced December data. Sponsors and staff framed the measure as shifting away from long‑term reliance on hotels and motels and toward an array of housing options including low‑barrier and highly structured shelters, specialized programs, and permanent supportive housing.

Key program mechanics discussed in committee: OEO would administer the continuum and enter agreements with community partners; prevention/diversion services would be the primary entry point with a brief standardized assessment; highly structured shelters would emphasize case management and programming while low‑barrier shelters would reduce entry hurdles and be time‑limited; specialized shelters would address substance‑use, behavioral health or other specific needs; and permanent supportive housing would combine rental assistance with voluntary flexible services (including, where eligible, services funded in whole or part by Medicaid).

The bill sets hotel/motel use as permitted when other levels cannot meet needs but seeks to reduce their role. For FY27 the language in committee materials limits emergency housing payments so that DCF/community partners do not pay more than a hotel’s lowest advertised room rate and not more than $80 per day. The text also includes usage caps on blocks of hotel/motel rooms (700 rooms per night from April 1–Nov. 30 and 1,000 rooms per night from Dec. 1–Mar. 31), with placements for certain survivors of domestic/sexual violence excluded from the caps.

The bill ties many operational provisions to appropriations: multiple sections repeat the phrase “to the extent funds are appropriated,” and staff emphasized that the statutory framework requires corresponding budget line items for services to be triggered. Committee members asked detailed capacity questions — for example, whether the bill will increase beds in rural areas where facilities and financing are limited — and staff and fiscal staff indicated that further agency testimony and a fiscal note would be presented in subsequent hearings.

Other provisions: verification and prioritization rules (prioritizing older adults, people with disabilities, households with children, pregnant people, and survivors of violence), time limits on participation (e.g., 30 days for certain prevention/diversion temporary housing in a rolling 12‑month period; a 70‑day rolling cap for non‑cold‑weather hotel placements with cold‑weather days exempted), notice and fair‑hearing rights through the Human Services Board with a continuation rule for hearings requested within 14 days, emergency and permanent rulemaking timelines, and annual reporting requirements that must include households served, average length of participation, transitions to permanent housing, hotel/motel utilization, and expenditures by continuum level.

Committee members deferred several detailed operational questions to agency witnesses scheduled for upcoming appearances and to the department’s rulemaking process. Staff noted the bill also asks OEO to work with HUD to consolidate the state’s continuums of care by Oct. 1, 2028.

The committee paused further line‑by‑line consideration and scheduled additional time to hear the agency fiscal note and to continue the discussion on subsequent days.

Ending: The committee is expected to receive agency testimony and the fiscal note at a follow‑up hearing, after which members indicated they will return to detailed deliberation and possible amendments.