I am writing to ask you to object to Act 143 Emergency Rules governing Vermont’s new Homelessness Response Continuum. Advocates have been actively engaged in conversation with the administration, but unfortunately DCF has not implemented necessary changes to either the rules or the department’s current practices, despite directives from LCAR. Our community is at a breaking point in our homelessness crisis, and we need legislative oversight to ensure that our response system operates as intended.
As written, the rules ignore legislative intent and conflict with both state and federal laws. The rules violate disability protections that impact over half of the people in need of services. They restrict participants’ rights and create unnecessary, 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 also includes those who rely on oxygen machines and wheelchairs, individuals with late-stage cancer—putting them at immediate risk of hospitalization, as well as older Vermonters and those fleeing domestic violence. We owe our most vulnerable neighbors a system that catches them when they fall into extreme hardships. We owe them not only a lifeline for immediate survival, but a pathway to long-term stability.
Please urge your colleagues on the Legislative Committee for Administrative Rules to object to these rules and advance solutions that ensure eligible Vermonters who qualify for life-saving services aren’t turned away. It is up to all of us to use our power to protect the lives of our neighbors and insist that our state government systems function as intended.
