BURLINGTON — A Chittenden County judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state from kicking three homeless people out of hotels.
On March 15, Vermont Legal Aid filed a suit on behalf of homeless service providers after the Agency of Human Services announced it was ending vouchers for some people housed in hotels under the state's emergency housing initiative that arose out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The service agencies claimed they have had to divert resources away from their core activities to try to help as many people as possible through this process.
In the filing, VLA sought a temporary restraining order to keep able-bodied homeless people in their motel rooms past the March 15 voucher expiration date (those considered vulnerable, such as residents with children or disabilities will be able to stay in motels until the end of June), but Judge Helen Toor denied the motion
She stated that courts have held that "a forced significant change in an organization’s programs can constitute irreparable harm."
"However, the harm alleged here is not so severe," wrote Toor in her decision. "A temporary diversion of resources, as opposed to a forced change in an organization’s core mission, is not sufficient to establish irreparable harm."
The issue arose last Friday after the state announced it was opening four temporary night shelters to house anyone displaced by loss of a voucher last Friday. In Brattleboro, a last minute location was found at the old Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee administrative offices on Old Ferry Road after a location in Bennington was deemed too hazardous because it is contaminated with lead and PCBs.
Although bus service was arranged to transport people from Manchester and Bennington to the Brattleboro shelter, on Friday only one person caught the bus to the Brattleboro shelter, advocates said. That person was from Manchester.
After Toor denied the request for an injunction, VLA filed for another on Tuesday, adding three individuals as plaintiffs in the suit.
"Two of these individual plaintiffs are a couple who are eligible because one is 66 years old and the other has several disabilities, but they were not told about the expanded eligibility and were incorrectly told on Friday to leave the motel where they had been staying," states information from VLA. "They spent the weekend outside. The third individual plaintiff requires oxygen 24 hours a day and needs to be in a place with power to support his oxygen machines. He was told on Friday to leave the motel where he had been staying, but the motel allowed him stay there over the weekend as he tried to verify his disability to the Department."
The individuals were identified after homeless service providers "talked to numerous people over the weekend who were not assessed for eligibility before they were kicked out of motels ..." states the VLA.
"Our case management and outreach teams mobilized to ensure that no one on Groundworks' caseload lost their motel vouchers last week," said Libby Bennett, executive director of Groundworks Collaborative, on Tuesday. "While we were successful in ensuring that no one on our caseloads lost motel rooms, it did take an inordinate volume of resources on Groundworks' part to mobilize for such an urgent need."
The VLA also asked Toor to certify a class, so that everyone in this situation is covered by the court’s decisions, not just the three named individuals. A hearing on these matters is set for Thursday, March 21.
VLA said it filed this lawsuit because the state had failed to reach people who were covered by the Legislature in the Budget Adjustment Act and had refused to extend the wintertime shelter program to give time for this to happen.
According to data shared by the Department of Children and Families, on the nights of March 15, 16 and 17, a total of 20 people stayed at the Burlington emergency shelter, seven stayed in Rutland, one in Berlin and none in Brattleboro. On the night of March 18, 30 people found emergency shelter in Burlington, two in Rutland and none in Berlin or Brattleboro.
Numbers for Tuesday night were not yet available.
"Homeless service provider organizations around the state, including the plaintiffs in this case, have been working tirelessly to reach people who were wrongly kicked out of motels on Friday," stated VLA Attorney Sandra Paritz, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, in a news release. "The individual plaintiffs who have gotten relief today are just a few of the extremely vulnerable people who have been harmed by the department’s actions. We hope that everyone will be assessed soon and sheltered if they are eligible.”
For more information, visit vtlegalaid.org/news.