Well, it’s looking like the Legislature’s plan for extending the emergency housing program is in danger of falling apart for reasons that were pretty obvious from jump. As I put it at the time, “I’ll be pleasantly surprised if this thing actually works.”

As Carly Berlin, Designated Homelessness Correspondent for both Vermont Public and VTDigger, reports, motel owners are balking at a proposed $75 or $80 per night cap on GA housing vouchers. The former figure is in the House plan; the latter is in the version passed last week by the Senate.

As a reminder, the current average nightly voucher is $132 per night. And that figure was achieved after months and months of bargaining by the state, which was directed by the Legislature to negotiate lower rates for vouchers.

And hey, extra bonus fail points: The new cap would take effect on March 1 — a mere 15 days from now.

That bit hadn’t been reported before. Top marks to Ms. Berlin for catching it.

I don’t know how the Legislature can even expect this to work. The House and Senate still have to reconcile the differences between their versions of the Budget Adjustment Act, of which the voucher extension is but one part. They haven’t even appointed a committee of conference yet. That body will have to meet, come to agreement on a single bill, rush it through both chambers, and send it on to Gov. Phil Scott.

And it’s far from a sure thing that he will sign the bill. He’s made plenty of sour noises about excessive spending.

But let’s say he does on, oh, I don’t know, Monday the 26th? Not out of the question at all. In fact’s it’s a pretty optimistic timeline considering Scott’s predilection for sitting on bills for a few days before signing, refusing to sign, or vetoing.

If the bill takes effect on the 26th, the state would have three whole days to negotiate a roughly 40% price cut with motel operators.

Reminder: The current GA housing program is due to expire on April 1. Now, if motel operators pull out of the program, people will be thrown out of their lodgings an entire month earlier.

It all creates, as the headline of Berlin’s story puts it, “uncertainty, anxiety.” Just another instance of the administration and Legislature being willing to put the well-being of the most vulnerable Vermonters at risk to save a few shekels.

The $75 figure wasn’t pulled from thin air. It was, in fact, the rate offered by the state before Covid-19. So isn’t it reasonable to go back to that figure after years of, pardon the expression, featherbedding by motel owners?

Well, yes and no, emphasis on “no.” According to the Inflation Calculator, an item that cost $75 in the year 2019 can be expected to cost $90.48 now.

So we’re not trying to return to a former baseline. We’re trying to enforce a 20% (inflation adjusted) cut in voucher reimbursements.

Hell, if I ran a motel, I’d be telling Chris Winters to go pound sand.

As I wrote when the House Human Services Committee included the $75 cap in its version of the BAA,

I asked Human Services Chair Rep. Theresa Wood if $75 by April 1 was a realistic figure. “It’s what was being paid before the pandemic,” she replied. “The administration came to my committee a week ago Friday and said they wanted a cap. That’s a figure that they had agreed to.”

Which doesn’t answer my question.

The question remains unanswered. Time is running out. We’re staring down the barrel of a mass unhousing in a mere two weeks’ time. Even if we don’t take that dark, dreary road, we’re creating a whole lot of “uncertainty, anxiety” among those who are already living on the edge.

Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be?