I am writing today to ask you to object to Act 143 Emergency Rules governing Vermont's new Homelessness Response Continuum. Our community is at a breaking point in our homelessness crisis, and we need legislative oversight to ensure that our response system functions as intended.
As written, the rules ignore legislative intent and are directly in conflict with state and federal laws. The rules violate disability protections that impact over half of the people in need of services. They restrict the rights of participants and create unnecessarily burdensome administrative hurdles - leaving eligible people without shelter.
The people impacted by these restrictive rules include families with children who risk living outside if shelter access is denied. This includes people who rely on oxygen machines and wheelchairs, and people who have late-stage cancer - putting them at immediate risk of hospitalization - as well as older Vermonters and those fleeing violence. We owe our most vulnerable neighbors a system that catches them when they fall into extreme hardship. We owe them not only a lifeline for immediate survival, but a pathway to long-term stability
Please contact your colleagues serving on the Legislative Committee for Administrative Rules and ask them to object to these rules and move forward with solutions that allow people who qualify for lifesaving services to access them. It is up to all of us- to use our power to protect the lives of our neighbors and ensure that our state government systems function as intended.
