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Appropriations committee hears breakdown of $82.63 million for homelessness prevention bill, amendment expected
Summary
House Human Services Chair Teresa Wood told the House Appropriations Committee that H98 will move homelessness prevention services into the Office of Economic Opportunity and that a forthcoming amendment will spell out how the $82,634,153 in governor-recommended funds will be allocated in FY27. Committee members asked for corrections to a hotel/motel calculation and requested line-item breakouts by service level before a vote.
The House Appropriations Committee on March 19 heard a detailed spending update on H98, the homelessness prevention continuum bill, from Teresa Wood, chair of the House Human Services Committee. Wood said the bill creates a program within the Office of Economic Opportunity and that while the bill outlines expenditures it does not itself appropriate funds; appropriation will occur in the General Assembly budget.
"We're not appropriating it in this bill but we are outlining where the expenditures will happen," Wood told the committee. She said the committee is using the governor's total and that "the total is the exact same as the governor has in his budget," naming a working figure of $82,634,153 for FY27.
The principal policy change Wood described is a transition of the program into OEO and a request to provide more line-item detail than the two existing line items in the current Housing Opportunity Program (HOP). Wood said the committee will prepare an amendment to enumerate specific categories that should be spelled out in the budget: shelter development, use of hotels and motels, rental assistance administered by the Vermont State Housing Authority, municipal grants and emergency cold-weather supports. The remainder of funding would be left in a more flexible HOP-style appropriation during a transition year.
Wood acknowledged a drafting or calculation error affecting hotel/motel funding and administrative costs and said staff will correct it. "These numbers will be adjusted," she said, and told members they would receive a "real spreadsheet" and a written amendment with final dollar amounts and categories within 24 hours.
Committee members pressed Wood to supply the requested level-by-level breakout (levels 1–5 used in the bill text) where feasible for FY27, and raised a drafting question about a carryforward clause on page 36 that appeared to reference a prior fiscal year. A member said automatic carryforward language could be problematic; Wood and staff said technical corrections and clarifications would be addressed in the amendment.
Appropriations Chair (name not stated in the transcript) confirmed the committee will not vote on H98 until the amendment and the supporting spreadsheet are circulated and reviewed: "we need you to come back tomorrow when you have the amendment and the numbers and then we can vote on the whole bill," the chair said. The committee also scheduled short votes later the same afternoon on three other agenda bills (agenda numbers 577, 778 and 915).
Next steps: Wood's office will work with legislative counsel and fiscal staff to provide the amendment and a corrected spreadsheet; the Appropriations Committee expects to reconvene with those materials for a formal vote. No final vote on H98 was recorded during the hearing.
