The situation around funding for housing has been changing rapidly! We have an update for you, which is mostly good news.
As of their meeting on Friday, May 14, the Conference Committee on Appropriations agreed to allocate $104 million in FY22 of state and federal funds to both transition people out of motels and build more affordable housing. This total amount is $25 million short of what we had hoped for, but this is primarily because the Treasury guidelines for the federal ARPA funds are more restrictive than it was first thought. So this seems like the best number that we can realistically expect.
But we have also learned that even with this spending, there are still over a hundred Vermonters who will have to exit motels on July 1st who are being offered the options of moving into tents, campers, or cars until the fall -- and this is by those who work in the government housing sector. So we are revising our requests to include asking legislators to work with the housing organizations in their districts to provide better alternatives to these Vermonters. We were able to rally to save lives from COVID; now let's rally to save lives from lack of housing.
And finally, we still need legislators to adopt a bold vision for building 5,000 more affordable housing units over the next three years. They can achieve this goal if they take the money appropriated for this year and add another $120 million over the next two fiscal years. Urge them to adopt this vision and make these commitments!
In short, please use these steps to contact your legislators:
Step 1: Find your state legislators using this document. (Note: some legislators only allowed the Sergeant-at-Arms’ phone number to be posted for them; since the legislators are not in the Statehouse the SA seems unwilling to take messages. You can either look these legislators up using White Pages or a regular telephone directory, or just email them.)
Step 2: Use this script as a guide to either call or email them.
Hello, my name is [Your Name] and I'm calling from [village/town/city]. I’m calling on you, [state legislator], to vote in favor of the Appropriations Conference Committee’s proposal to spend $104 million on transitioning folks out of motels and building affordable housing in FY22. Please keep in mind, however, that some people in your district may still need emergency measures to provide better options than tents, campers or cars when they exit motels in the next two months. We urge you to work with housing organizations in your district to offer these folks better housing alternatives. And long-term, can we count on you to support a bold vision to spend an additional $120 million over the next two years to build 5,000 units of affordable housing? There can be no better use for state and federal funds than safely housing our fellow Vermonters. Thank you.
Step 3: Repeat steps 1 & 2 as many times as needed to connect with your remaining state senators and representatives; it’s important that they hear from you! It often only takes hearing from as few as 2 or 3 constituents to have our state legislators notice that what they are doing is not what Vermonters want!
And there's more!
To download a document with background on the issue and social media samples, please click here.
Also look for news coverage of our Press Conference. This will be Wed, May 19th at 1 pm at Christ Episcopal Church courtyard on State St, in Montpelier near the Statehouse. We will hold this in-person event outdoors following all COVID guidelines.
