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.

“The March 1 deadline is working,” he told the committee. He claimed that “a majority” of participating hotels and motels would accept an $80 per night cap with some conditions. He warned of dire consequences should the March 1 deadline be pushed back. “They’re waiting to see if we blink,” he said.

His own figures belied his self-assurance. While “a majority” may have verbally accepted $80 per night — which at the time, I remind you, was not yet a settled figure in the BAA — there is already a shortage of motel rooms. As of mid-January, around 60 eligible households were being turned away every night. The shortages have continued.

And Daloz said, with a straight face, that “the March 1 deadline is working,” even as he admitted that around 400 rooms “would exit the program” on that date because of the cap.

So… we don’t have enough rooms already, the cap would reduce the number by roughly one-fourth, and he thinks that’s a success?

This would force hundreds out on the streets. Hundreds more would be suddenly shifted from one motel to another, possibly in an entirely different part of the state, with virtually no advance notice. This has placed all the voucher clients are in a state of complete uncertainty, not knowing whether they will have a room in two days’ time or where their accommodation might be.

And from what I’ve been told, the administration is negotiating with motel operators but it’s providing no information at all to voucher clients. They would presumably argue that they can’t communicate with clients yet because the policy isn’t settled.

The administration, as usual, is treating vulnerable Vermonters as if they were interchangeable pieces to be moved around the board at will.

I believe the professional term for this is “clusterfuck.” But it’s just fine and dandy with Mr. Bowtie up there. I don’t know whether to shake my head, get mad, or puke in a bucket.