(NECN: Jack Thurston, Montpelier, Vt.) - At a vigil Thursday on the steps of the Vt. Statehouse in Montpelier, advocates for the homeless urged a continued focus by lawmakers and community members on combating homelessness.
A recent estimate from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development put the number of homeless people in Vermont at 1,500, though most at the vigil called that a conservative number. The figure did rise over the previous estimate, noted Dave Yacovone, the commissioner of the Vt. Dept. for Children and Families.
"I didn't think I was going to survive," Morgan Brown of Montpelier told New England Cable News, describing his former homelessness.
Brown said he's battled homelessness several times throughout his life, starting, he said, as a teenager fleeing a violent home. In one stretch, Brown said he spent more than a decade on the streets or in the woods around Montpelier, occasionally couch surfing when he was lucky.
"One doesn't always recover; one survives," Brown tearfully told the crowd gathered for the vigil. "You can see the pain."
Advocates for the homeless say the high cost of housing in Vermont is a major contributor to the problem. Federal numbers from HUD show the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Vermont is more than $1,000. In the Burlington area, the number is closer to $1,300.
"When people have very low or no incomes, everything's unaffordable," Morgan Brown told NECN.
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The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates Vermont has a shortage of 9,925 housing units available for extremely low-income renters. The group added that more than 16,500 households in Vermont are considered extremely low income.
"You should have the ability to be housed in a country as rich as this one," Vermont's Speaker of the House, democrat Shap Smith, said at the vigil.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vt., recently proposed $2.5-million in new spending on anti-poverty initiatives. Shumlin said his goals include a doubling of a rental subsidy program and increases in funding to shelters and supports for families at risk. Additional funds should also be spent on childcare help for low-income families and on substance abuse and mental health treatment for ReachUp recipients, Shumlin has said.
"If you think of a child who's homeless, of a young family who's struggling to make ends meet, how do we break that cycle of poverty so that child will succeed?" asked DCF commissioner Dave Yacovone. "We won't do it with hope alone."
Getting more money for boosted programs won't be easy. Vermont lawmakers will have to grapple this session with a projected $70-million budget gap.
As for Morgan Brown, he told NECN he now lives in a small apartment; nothing fancy, but it sure beats the cold.
