Can you bring this to the press?

This isn't one bit surprising.

I had worked in this program for quite some time, and you are correct. It is an absolute disaster in every aspect. A lot of the hotels are absolutely negligent towards the state guests and their hotel conditions, with some of the staff throughout the state who I had been appalled by their behavior to not just the guests of the state, but people in general. I had witnessed a hotel manager shout orders at a disabled woman who was smoking a cigarrette on one of the curbs in the parking lot, exclaiming that she wasn't allowed to sit while she was smoking. Any disobedience would be met with the threat of eviction, and in the absence of the possibility of eviction, they would often be subjected to intense and consistent harrassment.

And the faults of the program don't lie with the hotels exclusively. I have seen countless incidents where economic services would out right lose or misplace paper work for people in desperate situations, putting people at risk for not only being unable to find housing, but for those who were looking to renew their housing as well. Economic services would also deny housing to most people that would require extra paper work. Immigrants of recent arrival would be looked over because they would have to be assigned a social security number. I only knew of one agent would was legitimately attempting to help, and would not look at the acquisition of a social security number as too much work. It's hard to say how many immigrants have been denied housing because of this.

Another big problem is the people living off of the program themselves. Most of them anyway, but not all. Some of the shittiest people I have ever come across in my life had been involved in this program(Guests, ESD, and Hotel staff.). I knew of one mother who would regularly leave her children unattended for hours at a time, sometimes leaving them with full diapers. Yes, diapers. They were that young. DCF wanted nothing to do with that case. And there were so many other instances of similarity. Some people came as recovering drug addicts, doing their best to change their lives. Many of them good people. But then there were those who had no interest in self improvement, inviting drug dealers and fellow users over to their rooms, threatening the safety of not only sober guests, but those who were trying to recover from addiction as well. Mental health was also a huge concern. I had worked with many people who had needs that far surpassed the hotels' accommodations.

Then there are the actual paying guests who visit these hotels. People who are lied to about hotel involvment in this state program. People who pay a lot of money to enjoy a restful night but who are instead fooled. Kept up at night by domestic disputes, arguments, barking dogs, police and rescue visits, etc. Everytime I would see a paying guest walk in to any of the hotels, I would wish I could tell them to run.

I could go on and on. I have far to many horror stories to share about this program. It is a fucking circus.

Although I would like to add a comment about the Days Inn, and the comment OP had made regarding them. The Days Inn in Colchester was top of the line in terms of the best places to be assigned through ESD. I was there when complaints about the doors not locking were circulating. First of all, it was only one door that was not secure, and to no fault of the door's. Although there is a bit of a security concern. An individual who did not seem to be of sound mind had walked right through the front doors, and began trying to open several doors to find a room to sleep in. They had found a door that was not fully shut and had walked in disturbing the sleeping guest. After the staff had been alerted, and the individual escorted out, the door was tested extensively after the guest had claimed his lock had not worked, allowing the individual access. The door was tested extensively and was found to operate just fine. It seemed the guest hadn't latched their door that night. Of course the guest, in his malcontent, stuck to the narrative that the doors in the hotel were not secure. I can confirm, that that is bullshit. Although, from my experience, the majority of night shift staff that Days Inn has held over the course of this program had often been wholly negligent in their duties. They often do not care enough, or are too busy sleeping, to stop any unidentified persons walking into the lobby at night per hotel policy. I must say though, besides their night time staff, Days Inn had been extremely accommodating to their guests, going so far as to even keep copies of completed paperwork for their guests, for when ESD would inevitably "lose or misplace" said paperwork. Anyone with a complaint regarding Days Inn, was often the source of their own problems.

As I said, I could go on for quite some time. Conclusively, the housing program is an absolute shit show. Composed of careless state workers, negligent hotels, and a vast number of shit people who have no right taking advantage of the program. And I didn't even touch on the role of law enforcement and security personell(Or rather, the lack thereof). The program should be reformed, and be more careful in their selection of applicants. Until then, this program is nothing more than a trash can where the state throws their unwanted, so they can keep their fabled pristine image of the Burlington and Montpelier areas free of the very real and underlying examples of the state's struggle with homelessness, mental health, addiction, and crime.

This is a powerful read. More people need to hear your story.

Did you reach out to your state representative and state senators? They keep saying affordable housing is going to be the number one thing this session. They need to hear this so they can make sure that situations such as yours are taken into account when they take this issue up.

Tip: add a tltr that is good enough to get people to actually read this. This sounds like an excellent grass roots cause, VT taxes are some of the highest in the land, there should be ample funding to manage this program with the relatively modest population. Also, with as messed up as the housing market AND the cost of heating and eating, many more may find themselves in need of services. Can you organize and reach out to news organizations and groups that look at these things on a national level? Think about all that Covid money that went out to sham small business only to buy fancy cars and new homes for scammers, it's enraging.

I don't think any buisness that get funding actually used it for what it was for. Maybe 1%.

It also gave them a reason not to hire and continue to claim staff shortage.

Fascinating and awful.

My own experience being homeless in this state shares some similarities to yours.

A good friend of mine, facing homelessness, said they refused to be housed at a hotel because of the frequent and obvious drug presence in the local hotels used for housing homeless people.

People talk about addiction and homelessness like they're personality flaws and not problems born out of a low-pay, low-housing, high-cost, high-stress culture.

Unfortunately the answer to every question seems to be "money" - why is this happening? How do we fix it? How do we permanently remove these issues from society?

Keep investigating. Keep pushing for answers. You need a team. Have you considered reaching out to other people and documenting homelessness and housing issues in the state, to be condensed, edited, and presented to the local presses, hopefully moving some change forward?

I worked at a shelter in rutland for many years. The holiday Inn was disgusting the manager of the holiday Inn in rutland that came to speak with us was a pretty deplorable guy saying it was worth the cost of keeping them there at $74 dollars per person per night.

The state pays homeless shelters a MAXIMUM of 35.08 a night the last I knew generally it was closer to $5

The hotel program basically gave hotel owners money hand over fist like every other program put in place in the past 3-4 years they're are put in place to line the pockets of the already wealthy.

AHS is also placing unhoused persons outside of their county, due to hotel overflow issues …and then, when the unhoused person is helped to find a slot in a transitional housing program, in their home county, the person is then refused the slot because they “reside outside of the county” and it is nearly impossible for ESD to communicate with the transitional housing programs to rectify this. It’s so baffling and heartbreaking to work with.

And all this money being handed out to hotels and yes even people through VERAP almost ZERO case management to go with it. Real spectacular failure and I hate talking about it I’m so angry

I am disappointed we haven't been able to come up with a better system: rural/ small towns tend to have small unsheltered populations, so seasonal shelters aren't a great fit either. The facilities have to be family friendly shelters or choose to be for adults only so that limits the populations it can serve (and small towns are rarely large enough to accommodate two separate shelters). It's difficult to find a pool of volunteers large enough to staff (and because it's overnights, is even more difficult to find volunteers), the insurance for temporary shelters is expensive, and its sometimes difficult to find locations for these temporary shelters (think "not in my backyard" now with the added difficulty in the rental market) Hotel vouchers seemed promising because they allowed for privacy, decreased worries about location/ volunteers/insurance. The amount of money it costs either way to house unsheltered populations is very high and especially problematic in rural New England (if we had higher population density and better public transportation some of the costs/issues would be decreased). Our money would be better spent toward keeping people in their own housing- whether that's through a guaranteed income, subsidies, job training, caseworkers who could assist people in getting jobs or housing or navigating fuel/ for assistance, or more plentiful and affordable housing, I don't know.... This is a complaint I've heard from other people who have experienced homelessness in VT, but I don't know what the solution is because fines or inspectors would probably not create better temporary housing, just less housing (these slum motels would not change, they'd just stop accepting these long term guests).

This extends to more than just the owners of these facilities, this extends to landlords. I can’t think of one property management group that ACTUALLY maintains their units. Painting a crack in the wall isn’t maintenance.

They could’ve used all of those funds going into the program to create large shelters that are adequately stFfed and get paid well.

Unfortunately, the motels have become a cesspool with drugs and crime and I think that prevents the recovery of other populations

My husband and I worked for a local motel during COVID and we were fired for asking to be paid minimum wage. We have an ongoing lawsuit against the owner for sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and a federal wage case. They are also being investigated for the deplorable conditions of the rooms. These local motels are being paid handsomely and treating the employees and guests as second class citizens. We have a lawyer in Williston that is amazing and a lawyer in Florida that specializes in these kinds of cases.

The demand all Americans should be making of our political system is objective systems of accountability. Every service should have measurable short and long term objectives, and each program should be required to report data showing their performance.

It is very obvious to me that the people of the Vermont could not give a shit about this population. If they truly wish to do some thing they would, but this will continue unabated and unchecked! I’m sorry I wish it wasn’t true it just is. It’s better to be more concerned about whatever it is. Vermonters are concerned about if they wanted some thing to happen, it would.

I don’t actually see the state following through on major habitability issues in Apartments, it really doesn’t shock me to see the same attitude towards lodgings for the poor. We have great protections on book in this state, but the agencies refuse to enforce the law.

Would it be ok for us to connect via private message? Given the blatant fair housing violations, there is an opportunity for a class action lawsuit against the state. I'm so sorry you've had this experience, but I can help. Thank you so much for sharing.

This is why I do not want to be in a hotel if I cannot find housing down the road. It's below me and others who deserve better.

Jimmy Carter's Habitat for Humanity has a presence here in VT that you might want to check out.

The terms for qualifying is provided in the website below. There is also a link section to find local resources. Some of the websites listed for VT aren't active but some are and it might be there are other means to contact them.

https://www.habitat.org/housing-help/apply

Hope this might prove helpful. Considering the housing crisis in VT, I'm surprised that there isn't more activity but I could well be out of the loop,

I empathize with your situation, and hope things work out for you.

I hate to ask, but what was the hotel’s rates prior to COVID? Since it’s 2022, I’m assuming these are long term guests? And since the guests were through a government program, I assume they can’t be evicted?

if the hotel’s rates were higher than $133.34 ($4000/30) a night, then the establishment would be losing money on these guests. If the hotel is losing money on guests that don’t leave, what incentive is there to provide good service? Good service has costs in labor and material. Can they recoup these costs at that rate?

What I imagined happened was that when COVID hit, and everyone stopped traveling, and the hotel was desperate for any income, and agreed (or were required) to accept any business they could get. This was even if it didn’t cover their costs, but just to remain in business. Now that things are getting back to normal, they have a number of unprofitable customers, that they cannot raise prices on to match the current rates.

From what I’ve seen, most business, including hotels, have very thin profit margins. They can’t charge more than local competitors without losing customers.

I applaud you for complaining to the alphabet soup of government agencies you mentioned about the conditions you have seen, as the hotel probably agreed to maintain services. Keep up the good work.

Have you reached out to any press? I sorry this has been your experience and admire your resilience.

This is where you start by contacting every media outlet within a 250 mile radius.

Shame and outrage makes government move.

As lovely as we find our home state to be our government agencies, especially DCF are not in any way benevolent or compassionate toward the humans they are supposed to serve. Corruption and abuse are rampant at these agencies. Profits over people is the golden rule. Whether it's your children in contested divorce or as here with our vulnerable homeless/economically challenged population, DCF will mess up your life and carry on like nothing. Complaints via official channels will be ignored and the press won't touch these issues with a ten foot pole. There is much to love and be proud of here in Vermont but the VT Department of Children and Families is not included.

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What's most blackpilling about this situation, IMO, is that 90% of Americans will observe the same thing as you did, and immediately blame the victims for the deplorable slum conditions at these hotels. Landlords and capitalists feast off our suffering and then convince us to hate the victim instead of the oppressor. Or, as Malcolm X put it far more eloquently,

> If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

The average American will use these conditions that violate basic human rights as a reason to support even more austerity. Oh, just look at what *those people* do when we give them nice things. They just destroy them! Surely we must cut what little remains of the social safety net. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! (willfully ignorant that the whole point of that idiom is that it is impossible)

We are a country populated mostly by demons, with no semblance of morality left whatsoever. The only American value that remains is greed. Glad there's still a few good ones left out there like you, OP. I wish you the best of luck in trying to make things a bit less awful in your neck of the woods. But you must know, it's an uphill battle when you're living in a failed state. This thing we call America is dead already.

Reality Check: Anyone with a nice motel is renting to tourists and has no interest in housing the homeless. There simply are no homeless shelter beds available, especially for families (with a few notable exceptions, which are at capacity.) So the State looks for anywhere they can house people...and this means shoddy motels that would otherwise simply shut down. They're not going to sign up these facilities if it comes with a laundry list of 'code' violations to be corrected at the owners expense. They determined that an available, poorly-maintained housing unit is better than your car. You can make that determination, too.

You are describing government bloat and waste that conservatives always complain about. And for good reason. These lazy state employees are more than happy to take a basically free paycheck every week but lord forbid they actually do anything that would benefit real people they aren’t related to. But don’t you dare take their wasteful pensions that we are stuck footing the bill for

"Housing advocate" is not a job.