Daily Archives: February 28, 2024

So I Guess March 1 Is Just Fine, Tra La La

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In my previous post, I slammed Deputy Human Services Secretary Todd Daloz for insisting on a cap of $80 — to take effect the day after tomorrow — on motel vouchers under the GA housing program. Well, now I get to slam Democratic lawmakers because they, too, see no problem with this administrative and human rights absurdity. Yesterday, the House-Senate conference committee approved H.839, the Budget Adjustment Act, with more generous eligibility standards for the voucher program but also with that damned March 1 deadline.

And today the full Senate rammed it through on a voice vote. On to the House tomorrow, I suppose, and then to Gov. Phil Scott’s desk. He’d better sign it lickety-split so the ink will be dry before the cap takes effect.

ON FRIDAY.

Most, but not all, of the participating motels have agreed to accept $80 per household per night. On Tuesday, Daloz said that about 400 rooms might drop out of the program. And there’s already a shortage of rooms. So if this thing goes through — and the skids appear thoroughly greased — then hundreds of Vermonters face complete unsheltering THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW and hundreds more are likely to be shunted around the state with precious little notice.

Good God in Heaven, what are we doing?

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I Saved the Worst for Last: The Meanest, Absurdest, Most Ridiculous Thing Anyone Said at That Joint Fiscal Hearing

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The gent pictured above, bowtie rakishly askew, is Todd Daloz, Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Human Services. In a Tuesday hearing of the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee, he staunchly defended Scott administration policy on emergency housing. I covered some of his remarks in my previous post, but there was one passage so incredible, so morally bankrupt, so blithely dismissive of basic calendrical logic, that it deserved a piece all to itself.

As you may recall, the single worst idea in the Legislature’s latest iteration of an emergency housing extension was the imposition of a motel voucher rate cap — to take effect on March 1 — of either $75 (House version) or $80 (Senate). That’s a drop of more than $50 from the current average rate. May I remind you that March 1 is a mere two days away.

It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. It’s heartless. And extra bonus points, it’s just plain impossible in terms of governmental process. This is a provision in the FY2024 Budget Adjustment Act that still has to pass the House and Senate and gain Gov. Phil Scott’s signature, which is far from a sure thing.

I don’t see how all that can happen by March 1, much less all the necessary steps to implement the idea.

And yet, on Tuesday Mr. Daloz made a point of insisting that the March 1 rate cap must stand.

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Pointed Questions and Jazz Hands

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The Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee tried something different today. It didn’t really go that well.

The committee called a hearing that was kinda meant to embarrass the Scott administration over its utterly inadequate response to our crises of homelessness and affordable. Well, it was cast as part of the JFC’s responsibility to track the progress being made (or not) under Act 81, the Legislature’s last-minute extension of the General Assistance housing program approved in June 2023. But the intent was to put administration officials under a bright light and watch them squirm.

Problem was, said officials (including Miranda Gray of the Department of Children and Families and Agency of Human Services Deputy Secretary Todd Daloz, pictured above) came prepared with reams and reams of jargon. They filibustered the hearing. It wasn’t 100% successful, but it limited the committee’s capacity to ask questions. It also had the truly unfortunate effect of almost completely sidelining input from providers of shelter and services to the unhoused. On the agenda, the administration was allotted 45 minutes of the 90-minute hearing and three provider witnesses got a combined 30 minutes. In actual fact, the administration occupied an hour and fifteen minutes, while provider testimony was crammed into the final 10 minutes of the affair.

There were still some embarrassing moments for the administration and some good information from the providers. The hearing wasn’t a bust, but it was far less effective than it could have been.

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