Brenda Lynn Siegel, the executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, is a policy advocate, educator, writer, and proud single mom. This statement from End Homelessness Vermont comes in response to changes in the state's emergency housing program, which instituted new limits on motel vouchers that will affect as many as 1,000 people.
NEWFANE-What happened in Vermont on Sept. 20 to people experiencing homelessness is nowhere close to a humane treatment of our neighbors.
I saw babies and schoolchildren being sent to live in the woods and on our streets.
I saw people on oxygen and in wheelchairs completely disregarded by our state.
I saw people who are extremely vulnerable with psychiatric disabilities left to fend for themselves.
I saw people who lost their homes in the flood dropped.
That we allowed and even orchestrated this humanitarian crisis in this state is inexcusable.
Vermont is failing to protect our most vulnerable. At End Homelessness Vermont, we work primarily with people with complex needs and disabilities as well as working with people at the point of an emergency. Our most vulnerable clients are being left to catastrophic outcomes.
Over 1,000 Vermonters, including hundreds of children, will lose their access to shelter by mid-October. This burden will be left on providers, municipalities, and our communities in general.
We must all agree that our most vulnerable Vermonters, people experiencing homelessness, deserve continuous shelter until they find permanent housing.
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"I had conversations just trying to comfort clients who did not understand due to their disability," said Shelby LeBarron, who works with us at End Homelessness Vermont.
"Our clients are terrified that they will lose their lives. I can't lay my head down or think of going to bed knowing that there are children crying in a tent in their parents' arms, knowing that there are people struggling to breathe," she said. "They are all alone. There are people in wheelchairs who can't even set up a tent or get access to a bathroom."
Letting people suffer the most catastrophic of outcomes is not who we are in Vermont. The Vermont we know brings people together, picks up shovels after a flood to support our fellow Vermonters.
These are our fellow Vermonters.
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Our municipalities need support to address this crisis in a humane way. We cannot criminalize people for a housing crisis and unsheltering that they did not create. Our community members need to meet those who are suffering with empathy and understanding, or this crisis will never get better.
The governor must call a special session and correct course on this inhumane action. We cannot allow this to stand. We are better than this, and we must do better.
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