In Vermont, it was a point of pride that the state moved most of its homeless residents into hotel rooms during the pandemic. But this month, the state began emptying hotels of about 2,800 people living there — most of them with nowhere else to go.
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — As his few remaining hours with a place to live ticked by last Thursday, Scott Alexander panhandled near a McDonald’s in Brattleboro, in southern Vermont, while running through a mental checklist of the supplies he would need for a move back into the woods nearby.
The situation has also highlighted the growing importance of hotels in the housing crisis nationwide, for people whose other options are tents or sidewalks, and for local governments stymied by a paralyzing lack of affordable housing. To some, it felt like a launching point. “With our smaller population, our culture and our passion, I think we felt a lot of hope that we could make real progress toward ending homelessness,” said Jess Graff, director of Franklin Grand Isle Community Action, a nonprofit agency in St. Albans, near the Canadian border.
With waiting lists for shelter beds and transitional housing, the only option available to most of those forced from hotels this month was a free tent. Across the state, social service workers handed out camping equipment, a gesture that pained providers like Graff, who saw 28 households displaced from hotels in her area of northern Vermont on June 1.
Outcry over the expulsions has increased since June 1, ratcheting up pressure on legislators to act this week, the last days of their session. The remaining 2,000 hotel residents, whose stays under the pandemic aid program are scheduled to end July 1, include hundreds of children, and some adults who are bedridden, are dependent on oxygen, or take medications that require refrigeration, according to advocates.
The town, like many in Vermont, does not allow camping on public land and has made no exceptions for the people leaving hotels.
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