Important bills face crossover deadline: Legislature tackles consumer protection, social justice

This week and next are the two most crucial times in the legislative calendar as all bills voted in the House and Senate must make crossover so that the other body has sufficient time to deliberate and iterate with further amendments.

Investing federal stimulus funds has been a central focus to undergird the economy. Workforce development, child care and housing shortages are being addressed. Pension liability fair to teachers, state employees and taxpayers was proposed, and strategies to combat our climate crisis outlined. Broadband buildout was implemented. Balancing budgets, both in the mid-year January adjustment and the proposed fiscal year 2023 budget is a priority.

In my committee, the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs, we are making progress on Vermont’s housing shortage and are focused on multiple issues relating to housing Vermonters. A few statistics:

• Federal relief funds totaling more than $57 million have helped Vermont renters stay in their homes and helped make landlords whole.

• Federal relief and general Fund dollars have enabled the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to develop 475 new units of rental housing and to bring several projects online that will result in over 1,100 new rental units by 2023.

• Federal dollars allowed 1,300 households to exit homelessness in 2021, with continued work to be appropriated in the months ahead.

This year in the annual budget adjustment, the House included $50 million to support more mixed-income units, multi-family rentals and to increase shelter capacity, with priority given to populations who may be displaced from the motel voucher program or are currently without housing.

Between now and the end of the session in May, we expect to allocate up to $25 million to rehabilitate 400 existing units that are offline because of code violations as well as a pilot for middle-income buyers.

Consumer, worker protections

Other committee bills focused on consumer and worker protections. H.157 created a “light-touch” registry for construction contractors, along with requiring a contract for work over $3,500. The governor vetoed this bill, but we hope to find a compromise.

Worker protection bills included S.78, streamlining the arbitration process for employees of the Vermont judiciary; H.320, prohibiting agreements that prevent an employee from working for an employer following the settlement of a discrimination case; and H.477, enabling employees to take crime victim leave and expanding to family members who also qualify for this leave from work.

National Guard, liquor laws, human remains

The committee also worked on various bills concerning the Vermont National Guard, the Department of Liquor and Lottery and an alternative method for the final disposition of human remains.

H. 571 extends the National Guard tuition benefit program as an enhanced recruitment tool supporting members seeking a master’s degree, a second baccalaureate degree or appropriate certificate training.

H.244 allows a new method of organic reduction giving Vermonters another option for their permanent disposition choices.

The commissioner of liquor and lottery requested technical corrections and updates of statutes which will be developed along with other liquor bills.

These are expected to pass out of committee and onto to the House floor this week.

Racial and social justice

As I mentioned in last month’s column, the committee also took extensive testimony on H.96, which establishes a truth and reconciliation process, and H.273, which promotes equity in land and home ownership. Details are still in development, but hopefully these two important bills will also make cross-over in the next two weeks.

In committee, from reparations to human composting

I sit on the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs. There are over 80 bills currently on our wall for consideration. I want to share some of the myriad issues currently under discussion to give readers a scope of the portfolio. Not included are National Guard and housing bills, among many other concerns for upcoming agendas.

Most proposed bills stay on the wall in each of the 11 House committees. Legislating is an iterative process, and bills change dramatically while in committee. What I am sharing are the initial proposals prior to vetting and amending. If taken up in the full House and passed, bills are then sent to the Senate for consideration. Bills originating in the Senate follow a similar process.

The crossover deadline is March 11 to allow adequate time for each chamber’s deliberations. Finally, when both House and Senate agree, final bills are sent to the governor to sign or veto. Only a fraction of bills introduced each session become law. Here’s just a sampling of some of my committee considerations:

Human composting

H.244 allows for the natural organic reduction of human remains, a method in which an un-embalmed body is broken down with organic materials like wood chips and straw for several weeks inside of an enclosure until it becomes soil. Washington, Oregon and Colorado permit these kinds of processing facilities. This would provide Vermonters another option to burial and cremation for their permanent disposition choices.

Liquor licensing

The committee looked at several bills that recommend changes in liquor licensing, reflecting the ever-evolving business environment:

• H.591 and H.638 allow in-state manufacturers to mail products directly to consumers.

• H.613 legally defines “on farm” malt or vinous beverages as products in which 51 percent of ingredients (other than water) are grown on the farm that sells them.

• H.684 allows food trucks to hold first- and third-class alcoholic beverage licenses.

Worker protections

H.329 amends current laws prohibiting discrimination by establishing a uniform six-year statute of limitations to file claims; reiterates that a claim is viable regardless of whether an employee filed a complaint through the employer’s internal grievance process; adds harassment as an unlawful employment practice; and lowers the severe and pervasive burden for establishing a claim of harassment or discrimination.

H.477 clarifies a statute enacted in 2018 that enables employees eligible to take crime victim leave and expands family members who also qualify for leave from work.

Truth, reconciliation, reparations

Over the past several weeks, the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs has taken extensive testimony from advocates, scholars and community members on several bills related to racial and social justice: H.96 establishes a truth and reconciliation process; H.387 establishes a task force to study and develop reparation proposals for the institution of chattel slavery; and H.273 promotes racial and social equity in land and home ownership.

We also reviewed several bills related to Indigenous land rights: affirming access to state lands for hunting, trapping, farming and sacred rituals (H.618); identifying, protecting access to and exempting historic and sacred Indigenous sites from taxation (H.668); and creating a study committee to examine possible mechanisms for the repatriation of traditional Abenaki lands to the tribes.

To follow issues being discussed, visit the Vermont General Assembly website and search both House and Senate committees to see agendas and pertinent documents for each day’s discussions. Links are provided to livestream every committee meeting.

House back in session, ready to tackle Vermont’s big issues

We begin again. Last week the Legislature reconvened in person in Montpelier and passed a resolution to meet virtually for at least two weeks, hoping then to return full-time in person for this second year in this biennium. In the meantime, we will be meeting on Zoom — not preferred but essential while the contagion continues to escalate.

In the coming months, there is a lot at stake for the future of Vermont. With enormous federal dollars still coming in to help redress the economic impact of the pandemic, we will focus in on how to utilize these funds prudently. These one-time funds cannot be used to undergird ongoing programs but are already game changing for our state’s housing shortage, broadband buildout and infrastructure needs.

Many momentous decisions are on our legislative agenda, including the unfunded pension liability in a way that’s fair to teachers, state employees and taxpayers; equitable education financing; and amending the Vermont Constitution to guarantee personal reproductive liberty to all Vermonters. If passed, this amendment would then be on the statewide ballot in November for voters to have the ultimate decision.

The Vermont Climate Council’s report needs to be operationalized to assure the state’s environmental and economic resiliency in the years ahead. Increasing access to child care, health care and mental health services are also desperately needed. This year, the state undertook its 10-year reapportionment of legislative districts. With population growth in South Burlington, it looks like we will have gained an additional fifth representative in the Vermont House.

Here are some of the issues I worked on over the summer and fall off-session. Last month I wrote about the need to focus on workforce development, but not leave the worker behind by modernizing Vermont’s outdated wage laws and increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. Another issue I have worked on for three years is expanding the Recovery Home Network statewide, which is so desperately needed with overdose deaths at an all-time high for a second year in a row.

I also introduced legislation to better understand the health effects associated with mold and mycotoxins in water damaged buildings and enhancing food allergy awareness in restaurants. I am also asking the state to repeal the taxing of performing arts admissions for nonprofit theaters and performing arts organizations.

It’s crucial that Vermont invest in its workers

Media pundits are talking about 2021 being the year of the “Great Resignation” and QuitToks are trending on social media. 

I am not convinced people are leaving jobs to find more meaningful ones. People are burned out and lives remain upended by the continual disruptions of the pandemic, but wage disparities seem as relevant a determining factor. 

Here in Vermont, as we focus on workforce development, let’s not leave the worker behind.

Currently there are several bills regarding wages and worker protections pending in the upcoming legislative session. Many complex issues need further examination in committee as we learn from experts and those impacted. Legislation is indeed iterative.

Vermont’s current wage laws are not in sync with federal regulations, including some minimum wage exemptions that were written into the original 1938 federal legislation — for farm workers, domestic workers, tipped workers, nonprofit employees, newspaper delivery people, and other categories. 

Some of these exemptions have not been revisited in over 20 years by Vermont lawmakers and are no longer relevant. Overtime exemptions for retail and service establishments, as well as administrators, also need to be examined considering today’s economic realities.

By current statute, tipped workers in hotels, motels, tourist places and restaurants are eligible for only 50% of the minimum wage as their base, but this standard is in flux, as some Vermont restaurants now pay both front of house and kitchen staff the same full hourly wage and tips are aggregated and shared with all. 

There are many perspectives on this, and committees will take further testimony during the session. This is also a gender issue — 81% of tipped wage workers in Vermont are women, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

As important, increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025 no longer seems like an undue burden on small employers, as current worker shortages spurred increases in hourly wages. However, post-pandemic, the 2022 hourly rate of $12.55 is truly inadequate — far below a living wage.

Securing a base of $15 per hour would do much to improve the earning power of over a third of Vermont’s workers, according to a 2019 study by the Public Assets Institute. At that time, 34% of Vermont men and 39% of Vermont women who worked full-time earned less than $11 an hour. 

However, increasing the minimum wage cannot be done in isolation. To raise wages for home health and personal care organizations, for example, will require increasing Medicaid reimbursements for them to remain financially viable. And state benefits need to be examined so as not to cause workers to lose essential supports by pushing wages just over income eligibility levels.

Other wage-related bills look to improve the stability of all Vermont workers by requiring reliable work schedules, expense reimbursements for remote workers, wage transparency, and prohibiting employers from firing employees without “just cause.” 

Paid family leave remains an important issue, as well as health insurance and subsidized child care for employee recruitment and retention.

Focusing on improving workers’ financial health is essential as Vermont recalibrates itself post-Covid. As living costs continue to escalate, more and more families cannot meet basic needs. Adequately compensating workers needs to be prioritized to ensure a vital economic future for our state. There can be no workforce development without workers. 

Legislative work continues; artist inaugurates city art gallery

I was laid up with a fractured fibula for the last eight weeks, so spent most of the summer rather immobile, but worked on legislative issues regarding Recovery Homes expansion, updating Vermont’s wage laws, and analyzing admissions’ tax issues. These fall under the purview of my General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee.

Overdose deaths spiked to all time levels during the pandemic, demonstrating the desperate need for more help for those with substance use disorders. I continue working on a bill with advocates and hope to move something forward in the new legislative session in January.

As well, wage disparities were magnified and need to be redressed. Vermont’s compensation laws need updating, and minimum wage should move up to $15 per hour. Currently many businesses are paying this rate for workers to return, so it seems right to equalize this for all Vermonters. I reintroduced legislation moving minimum wages up to this level over a three-year period.

Vermont’s entertainment industry was also devastated by Covid, being the first to close and last to open and will take years to recover. Many of our neighboring states do not tax admissions and I have been studying what the fiscal impact of this would be, both for our venues as well as state coffers. 

While I missed the grand opening celebrations of our new Library and City Hall, I did make it to photographer Todd E. Lockwood’s exhibition, One Degree of Separation, which inaugurated the gallery in the main entrance of the new building last Saturday. Lockwood’s high-resolution black and white digital portraits are technically virtuosic and poignantly intimate, inviting the viewer into relationship with his subjects. Every well-earned wrinkle and blemish are magnified and gloriously rendered in large scale formats. 

He photographs friends, thus the title, One Degree of Separation, and many of the subjects might be familiar to visitors: Governor Madeleine Kunin, VPR’s Robert Resnick, filmmaker Jay Craven, visual artist dug nap, and poet Claude Mumbere. Yet these are not celebrity airbrushed photos, but elegant portraiture of their profound humanity. I am honored to also be included in the exhibition.  

Lockwood’s extraordinary work has been exhibited at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (2011), Burlington City Hall (2014), and Champlain College (2016). As he is a South Burlington resident, how fitting that his unique photographic vision opens our new gallery space. One Degree of Separation runs through October 14 and can be viewed whenever the Public Library, City Hall, or Senior Center are open, Monday-Thursday 8 am-7 pm, Friday 8 am-5 pm., and Saturday 10 am–2pm. You can also view Lockwood’s work online at this website: www.toddrlockwoodphotography.com.

If my healing fibula is up to it, I plan to join your other state representatives and senators at this week’s SoBu Nite Out in Veterans Memorial Park. Look for our “Ask your Legislators” sign and stop by and have a chat.

Covid lessons point to housing as health care

Vermont did so many things right responding to Covid, including taking care of our homeless.  Past “point in time” annual surveys estimated the unhoused population to be just over 1,000 statewide. However, during the pandemic, double that number were supported in 76 hotels throughout the state with federal dollars. 

As the emergency period ends, myriad issues are at play as we continue supporting our most vulnerable.  

Last month, 2,051 adults and 373 children were provided shelter in 1,742 hotel rooms statewide. In Chittenden County, 608 adults and 90 children were housed in 523 rooms, including 66 adults in South Burlington’s Holiday Inn. In addition to housing, with collaborative support from many community partners, food and other services were also provided. Vermont was nationally recognized for our efforts. 

However, none of this is sustainable without significant federal subsidy that is winding down.

As of July 1, many hotels returned to serving tourists and travelers and no longer provide rooms for the homeless. Eligibility criteria also changed this month, narrowing the parameters on who could still qualify for emergency housing. Still broader than pre-pandemic times, those who are age 60-plus, families with children up to age 18, women who are pregnant, and people with disabilities were granted stays for an additional 84 days.

With these changes, numbers decreased dramatically. Currently, 1,163 adults and 345 children are sheltered in 994 rooms statewide, including Chittenden County, where 352 adults and 89 children live in 300 rooms. The Department for Children and Families estimates these numbers will further decrease by the fall to approximately 650 rooms — still double the number the state supported pre-Covid.

Emergency short-term stays in hotel rooms were never intended to end homelessness, but to be another component in safety net provisions that also included congregate shelters throughout the state. Many of those have now reopened but renovated with less capacity and increased social distancing to mitigate future contagion issues.

This transitional period has been fraught with uncertainty and increased anxiety as residents tried to understand if they qualified to remain under new criteria or, if not, could they access federal relief dollars to help those leaving? Available is $2,500 with flexible parameters. Anecdotally, some have used this money to return to families and supportive environments out of state; others are sharing rooms and couch-surfing once again. Tents also qualify for this support, although encampments in Burlington and other cities have not seen as dramatic an increase in populations as feared.

And, for those who can find housing, up to $8,000 can assist with security deposits, first and last months’ rents, and moving expenses. However, entry-level housing remains a daunting barrier. Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity approved 410 housing vouchers for Chittenden, Addison, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, although only 210 have been rehoused. Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) was able to rehouse 79 folks. Herculean efforts against formidable odds — still far short of what is needed.

And once the pandemic-mandated moratorium on evictions is relaxed at the end of this month, housing insecurity will only escalate, sadly increasing those unhoused in Vermont. Although this year’s state budget contains substantial investments to increase shelters and affordable housing units, these will not be realized for two to three years. 

In the interim, we have a humanitarian crisis here in Vermont. So many Covid lessons pointed to the importance of “Housing as Health Care.” Continued collaboration between community providers, state agencies, and the Legislature will be essential in the months ahead.

Legislature undertakes steps to fix women’s prison crisis

Despite the challenges of legislating over Zoom, the session was extremely productive. With the additional $1.052 billion in COVID federal support, major one-time investments will have a long-lasting impact on Vermonters. Approximately half the money was allocated, as we have three years to spend these funds.

Included was $109 million targeted to economic, workforce and community revitalization, $99 million for affordable housing plus $51 million to rental assistance, $150 million for broadband build-out, and $52 million for technology modernization, in addition to $50 million for climate action and $115 million for clean water investments

My committee, House General, Housing, and Military Affairs, developed the resolution adopted by both the House and Senate that acknowledged and apologized for our state’s eugenics policies and practices that led to forced family separation, sterilization, incarceration and institutionalization for hundreds of Vermonters in the first half of the 20th century.

Unions, the National Guard, alcohol and sports betting were also on our agenda. School employees gained bargaining rights to consider different out-of-pocket health insurance premium shares for support staff, teachers and administrators. Statutes were updated to reflect the current roles of the Vermont National Guard and alcoholic beverage laws were amended to support businesses trying to rebound from the pandemic.

The Department of Liquor and Lottery will study how other states have been impacted by sports betting and report back to my committee for consideration.

Sadly, two consumer protection bills did not make it across the finish line. However, this is the first year in the biennium, and hopefully both will be addressed when we return in January. One establishes a registry of rental housing to support housing safety and the other bill is a contractor registry to protect against fraud, deception, breach of contract and violations of law.

Throughout the session, I worked with the women’s caucus to address sexual misconduct and systemic issues in the women’s prison in South Burlington. Both an independent corrections monitoring commission and an investigative unit were set up, and state law expanded to criminalize sexual contact between department of corrections employees and anyone under the department’s supervision. And, training and certification standards for correctional officers will be developed. As well, $1.5 million was allocated for planning and program design for a much-needed new women’s correctional and reentry facility.

Over the summer hiatus, I will be working on several issues that came into high relief during the pandemic. These include paid family and medical leave, modernizing Vermont’s wage laws and increasing the minimum wage to $15, expanding recovery homes to help those dealing with substance use disorders and establishing a homeless bill of rights.

While we suspend the monthly legislative forums with the South Burlington Library until January, I do look forward to speaking with constituents at summer events at Veterans Memorial Park and at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for our new South Burlington Library library in July.

I was part of the library foundation’s capital campaign and helped raise money to equip the new rooms, expand technology and diversify the collection.

The light ahead after COVID

Legislating through Covid over the past twelve months has been challenging as we balanced the state’s ongoing needs while serving impacted Vermonters during the implosion of our economic, civic, and personal lives. The pandemic underscored the already existing fissures and inequities in our society and a moral imperative lies ahead. As infections decline and vaccinations increase, a precarious horizon emerges as we strive toward a new normal.

Federal dollars supported so many sectors, including business recovery, schools and universities, extended unemployment, keeping people housed with rental and mortgage arrearages, and providing food to our communities as well as sheltering the homeless in hotels. Thankfully there is continued near-term federal subsidy, but the transition ahead is fraught for our most vulnerable.

I serve on the General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee, and my focus has been on housing issues. One exemplar program moved the homeless out of congregate shelters into hotels in order to mitigate contagion during the pandemic. Federal dollars supported these efforts. Currently there are 76 lodging establishments providing almost 1,900 rooms. As the emergency period winds down, safely and humanely sheltering this population will be complex given the drought of low-income housing options. 

South Burlington’s Holiday Inn, currently providing 150 rooms for the homeless and two hotels in Middlebury housing 100 have given notice to the state that rooms will no longer be available as of July 1. Hotel capacity state-wide will further decline between April and October as others return to serving tourists and travelers. By the fall, capacity is projected to be approximately 650 rooms, which is a dramatic decrease from numbers currently served.

Households already in Covid emergency housing will continue to be eligible until June 30. New criteria will be instituted for some to remain for up to 84 additional days. Vermont’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) estimates that only two-thirds of those now housed will be eligible. Adding to the dilemma, households currently in emergency housing have the option of receiving meals. Food will no longer be provided as of July; community meal sites should reopen by then.

So, where will ineligible people currently in motels go? DCF worked with a group of community service providers across the state on near-term solutions. Emergency shelters re-opening this summer will provide temporary shelter for some, but not all. Federal rental assistance can help lease an apartment if one can be found. As well, rapid resolution funds can incentivize other safe housing options, including with family or friends. 

With the infusion of a $1 billion from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, there are many one-time opportunities for our state. The Governor proposed $249 million to add 5,000 homes by the end of 2024. This plan includes $12 million to increase 150 shelter units and $90 million to create an additional 600 affordable rental units. Other components include $90 million to expedite the existing pipeline of 2,400 affordable housing projects, $15 million to bring derelict properties back online to add 680 affordable rental units, and $42 million to develop a new program for moderate-income homebuyers in the “missing middle” of our housing market.  

This proposal could be game changing for our housing shortage. However, since these federal funds can be spent over the next three years, all components may not be appropriated in this legislative session scheduled to recess later this month. It is a two-year biennium, and when we return in January these housing issues will be top priority in my committee’s work.  

Mother’s Day elegy — ‘You gave me so much’

We didn’t know if you would live long enough to celebrate your 82nd birthday. My brother warned me not to be startled. You commanded, “No tears.” 

Even with tubes pumping fluids in and out of your tobacco-scarred body, you were beautiful, your skin translucent. You joked about ending up like a newly born with “no teeth, baby skin, and diapers.”

After the grandchildren sang “Happy Birthday,” they went to a barbecued rib fest, on you of course. I stayed behind to tell you how much I admired you. Your five kids, disparate though we were, you celebrated each of us distinctly. I remembered your reaction to my tattoo. You laughed and said, “I thought the surprises were over.”

As we reminisced, I thanked you for your unfettered support. You were shocked when I told you how proud I was to be your son. You hated your job as a park attendant, but kept at it long after you needed to, so as not to be a burden. Your whole life provided a future for your children, often at a high personal sacrifice.

I wanted to tell you how easy it is to let go. Years ago, paralyzed and hemorrhaging from spinal surgery gone wrong; my spirit, heart and mind imploded as morphine, fear and pain colluded. Past and future collapsed as I drifted off into a seductive, dissolving vagueness. But I awoke to Larry’s pleading, “Don’t die on me,” and returned through his voice, eyes and breath.

I wish I could carry you safely into the void. I am well practiced: cleaning morgue bodies when I was an orderly, witnessing vultures descend upon the Himalayan sky burials, tending hungry ghosts amidst the AIDS carnage, and living through my own death. 

My relation to life remains porous, elusive. I fear the waiting more than dying.

Saying goodbye, I had no solace to give you. All I had were tears and my own sorrow. I realized I would never see you again. 

You cared for so many. Who will be there when you call out like Daddy did for you? I’m sorry I can’t be there. You gave me so much. I wish you clarity and courage for a safe journey, Mom. Carry my love forward. May you find peace.

This commentary is excerpted from my voice-over for my collaborative video short broadcast on VT PBS.

Horses offer a solid outline for rebuilding into a better normal

Early mornings find me at Windswept Farm in Williston, where I board my Shetland pony, along with 24 horses. Social distancing requires tight scheduling so that only two or three mask-wearing boarders are there at any one time and no visitors are allowed.

Currently, the equines aren’t getting exercised as much and pastures are still too wet because of mud season but otherwise, the animals are happy to see us and appreciate the attention. I continue to learn from my pony, as well as from barn mates.

As we do chores and groom animals, passing conversations focus on how to rebuild our social, economic and civic lives post-Covid-19 with a disparate crew of discombobulated college students, working-from-home adults and a woman in her 90s. One of the owners of the barn, Tina Mauss, suggests reentry will be a lot like having an injured horse coming out of stall rest.

Horses are athletes, and sometimes bone fractures, ligament strains, wounds and other serious injuries require stall rest in order to heal. This is frustrating to horses who like to frolic with their herd buddies in the field and are accustomed to being worked strenuously by their owners. But stall rest is necessary to limit activity and encourage healing.

With veterinarian guidance, injured horses can slowly return to work. It may take weeks and sometimes months before they are in condition to play and be worked again. Dressage, jumping, eventing and carriage driving are endurance sports that require meticulous training. Leaving stall rest prematurely or shortcutting fitness often results in reinjury, a debilitating cycle for the animal and owner. Some never return to form.

Stall rest requires developing new relationships between equestrians and their steeds, breaking old habits to work more deliberately and creatively — oftentimes to nurturing and beneficial effects long-term. 

This is not unlike what we are experiencing, working and learning online while sheltering at home. Perhaps, we, too, can rebuild into a better normal.

Claustrophobia from the pandemic has us humans all itching to get back into our fields of life. Horse sense indicates to plan on an incremental transition with a strict rehab schedule. As at the barn, “too soon, too much” could have dire consequences. 

While Gov. Phil Scott continues to open the societal spigot ever so slowly, patience and discipline must guide our graduated activities without risking and causing injury to ourselves and others. Our social, economic and civic lives depend on it.

Mid-term report

I serve on the House General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee with a diverse array of issues in our policy portfolio. Here are a few bills emanating out of our work that passed on the House floor and are now in the Senate.

H.149 updates statutes to reflect the current roles and duties of the Vermont National Guard. The bill addresses outdated language dating back to the Civil War as well as court martial protocols under the Articles of War that were replaced in 1951. 

H.313 amends alcoholic beverages laws to support businesses trying to rebound from the State of Emergency. In part, the bill authorizes a continuation of pandemic policies that allows delivery and curbside pickup of alcoholic beverages so long as the alcoholic beverages are accompanied by a food order and the alcohol is in a container that has a tamper evident seal, is labeled as alcohol, and lists the ingredients and serving size of the beverage. This would sunset after two years. 

Eugenics Apology Resolution, JRH2, apologizes for the General Assembly’s role and expresses sorrow and regret to all individual Vermonters and their families and descendants who were harmed as a result of state-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices. The resolution passed on the House floor with a vote of 146-0. Sadly a few legislators that were present in the floor session, ‘walked’ rather than having their vote recorded in our 150-member assembly. 

Action should also have been taken on H.157, a Consumer protection bill requiring registration, proof of insurance, and written contracts for residential contractors. The bill is intended to protect against fraud, deception, breach of contract, and violations of law, but not to establish professional qualifications or standards of workmanship, merely a listing of contractors in good standing. The bill is expected to be presented on the House Floor on April 6th, so check the legislative website to see if it passed.

The Committee was also introduced to a raft of bills related to worker protections, the impact of the eviction moratorium that was enacted last May, and S.79, an act to improve rental housing and health. Much work lies ahead on some of these this month, while others will wait until we return in January in the second part of the biennium.

I’ve heard from many constituents with concerns and questions about the sustainability of the pension system for our teachers and state employees. On Friday, Speaker of the House, Rep. Jill Krowinski, called for a task force with all stakeholders including the Governor’s office to meet over the summer to discuss possible revenue sources and plan and benefit changes to ensure the long-term viability of the retirement system.

In the short-term, the House’s Government Operations Committee will investigate how to strengthen the governance structure. The Speaker reminded us, “The legislature doesn’t make investment decisions, but we can change the board structure to make it more transparent, independent, and get more expertise at the table.” Stay tuned as this develops in the next month.

Eugenics in Vermont

Ninety years ago on March 31, 1931, Vermont signed into law “An Act for Human Betterment by Voluntary Sterilization” for the purpose of eliminating from the future genetic pool, persons deemed “unfit” to procreate. Vermont joined over 30 other states that enacted Eugenics-inspired legislature targeting people by race, national origin, gender, poverty, and disability.  

Here’s the language from the bill: “Henceforth, it shall be the policy of the state to prevent procreation of idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded or insane persons, when the public welfare, and the welfare of the idiots, feeble-minded or insane persons likely to procreate, can be improved by voluntary sterilization as herein provided.”

The bill was the culmination of UVM zoology professor Henry Perkins’ research. In 1925, he established and directed a Eugenics Survey to measure “delinquency, dependency, and mental deficiencies” in order to preserve “old pioneer stock.” 

Perkins and his team compiled files on thousands of Vermonters, collaborating with state and municipal officials and the Vermont Department of Welfare, sharing confidential information resulting in children being removed, individuals institutionalized and incarcerated, family connections severed, and hundreds being sterilized. 

His surveys targeted Abenaki bands and other indigenous people, Vermonters of mixed race or French-Canadian heritage, the poor, and persons with disabilities, among others. Records are incomplete, but at least 253 people were sterilized as a result of this legislation. This practice shamefully continued until 1957. 

In 2019, UVM apologized for its “unethical and regrettable” eugenics role of supporting Henry Perkins’ research and stripped his family’s name from a building on campus. It was a powerful ceremony about truth and reconciliation.

This session, I re-introduced Joint Resolution JRH2 for both the House and Senate. It “apologizes and expresses sorrow and regret to all individual Vermonters and their families and descendants who were harmed as a result of State-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices.” A similar resolution was first introduced ten years ago. The time is long overdue for public acknowledgement of the state’s role in this dark chapter of our history. The resolution is co-sponsored by forty three other House members. 

As we worked on the resolution in committee, heart wrenching testimony was received from impacted individuals sharing stories of finding hundreds of pages from the surveys about their families, mothers changing their names and moving continually to avoid being targeted, and relatives desperate to assimilate and giving up all traditional cultural practices and languages. 

Nancy Gallagher’s book, “Breeding Better Vermonters” details the history within our state, illustrating the familial carnage. In Pondville, VT, the Doless family’s seven children were taken away from the parents in 1928 and sent to the Vermont Industrial School and the Brandon School for the Feebleminded as it was called then. Three of the four oldest children were subsequently sterilized prior to discharge.

One woman described to our committee what it was like to be isolated and segregated in the Brandon School, and another shared a letter found in her relative’s attic from Brandon’s superintendent in 1932 telling him that due to the “mental retardation” of his two children, it would be inadvisable to return them home. 

Merely an apology from the legislature acknowledging the state’s role in this travesty is inadequate. The resolution recognizes that further legislative action should be taken to address the continuing impacts of eugenics policies and the related practices of disenfranchisement, ethnocide, and genocide.  

Looking back on a whirlwind of a first month in session

The opening month of the session was a whirlwind: analyzing how the $1.25 billion COVID Relief Funds were utilized, approving the mid-year budget adjustment, responding to the governor’s priorities for next year’s budget as well as beginning committee deliberations as bills were introduced. 

 Here's some good news on the affordable housing front. In the governor’s budget proposal for next year, an increased allocation of $30.8M is to be used to build more much needed housing. As well, the second federal COVID funding includes $200M that provide continued emergency rental assistance – including utility assistance.  This will most certainly help, as we especially learned this past year, “Housing is Healthcare.”

 I serve on the General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee. In a joint meeting with the Human Services Committee we heard from a range of housing providers and individuals who have experienced being homeless. Among their recommendations: keep funding flexible to meet a range of current and emerging needs; continue to support collaborative, cross-sector initiatives that strengthen communities in new ways; fund additional emergency and transitional housing; and increase the number of housing vouchers and new case workers. 

 Mental Health Workers and Advocates detailed how unstable housing has only exacerbated issues during the pandemic. Moving people off the streets and out of shelters into hotels in order to mitigate contagion was the right short-term decision at the onset of COVID, but now eleven months into the ongoing crisis, over 2,200 adults and 400 children are still being housed in over 70 hotels across the state.

These are some of our most hyper-vulnerable Vermonters, and the isolation, displacement, and uncertainty compounded in some instances by poverty, trauma, substance use disorder, and/or mental illness has necessitated support services in order to keep residents safe. Criminal behavior, self-harm, and unsanitary conditions add further duress. These efforts are still being supported through federal relief dollars; creating a humane transition post-pandemic will be an enormous challenge.

As it is the beginning of the biennium, dozens of bills were already introduced to our committee, including prevailing wages on school construction projects, political lawn signs, zoning restrictions, organ donors, Homeless Bill of Rights, and a Eugenics Apology Resolution to all Vermonters harmed from state-sanctioned eugenically inspired sterilization programs. More on these if they are taken up for in-depth consideration. Each season, only a select few make it through the legislative process. At this time, priority is being given to time sensitive matters and pandemic recovery.

Other committee briefings included background on the Veteran’s Home, National Guard, and status of the state’s unemployment insurance fund. These reports are key for our work in the months ahead. 

Significant time was spent discussing two proposed bills (H.63 & H.81), both of which propose technical changes to a 2018 bill that created a new statewide healthcare bargaining process for all public school employees. The bills contain several differences, two of which are more significant: whether the parties are allowed to bargain different premiums and out-of-pocket costs for support staff and higher-paid teachers and administrators; and in the ways each would resolve disputes through arbitration. Two members of South Burlington’s School Board, Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Bridget Burkhardt, and Superintendent of Schools, David Young, among dozens of others, gave oral and written comments regarding how the bills would impact local school budgets.

Everybody gains with cultural cross pollination

In 1983, Trisha Brown unveiled her choreographic masterpiece, “Set and Reset,” at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. I was the company’s managing director. Immediately after the premiere, I stuffed my backpack with resplendent reviews, flew to London, and got a Eurorail pass. Art Becofsky from Merce Cunningham’s company had given me a list of European sponsors. I visited cities in England, France, Germany, and Italy meeting with producers, festival directors, and agents. 

It was rather haphazard; nothing was prearranged. Meetings were organized after I arrived and first found a hotel. Somehow it worked, the relationships established during this trip developed into a touring network for the company. Years later, Trisha told me, “Europe gave me my career,” as it had for so many other American artists.

Next stop for me was working as managing director for Christopher Hunt, director of the PepsiCo Summerfare Festival at SUNY Purchase. American debuts of foreign ensembles were central. Highlights included The Stary Theatre of Cracow’s dramatization of Andrzej Wajda’s “Crime and Punishment” (1986) and William Forsythe’s “Artifact” with Frankfurt Ballet (1987). Experiencing these works, live in real time with others, was revelatory.

In 1988, I became curator of performing arts at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for eight years. International artists diversified programming as well as engendered artmaking in the community. Butoh dancers, Bulgarian singers, Tibetan chanting monks, Cuban jazz legends, Burundi drummers, and Grand Kabuki performers were cheered alongside European choreographers. Neil Bartlett and Bloolips introduced a very particular British camp sensibility, exploding theatrical possibilities for local queer creators.

These virtuosos were curated amongst an intentional community of like-minded presenters and agents who traveled together to see work and be in contact with artists and peers worldwide. My Eurocentric lens broadened through journeys to Australia, Cuba, France, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, and Russia. 

Experiencing artists’ fully produced work in their home countries was far superior to studio showcases during American booking conferences. And since we were traveling in a group, if a few of us got excited about an artist, a tour became instantly viable. In addition to attending performances, bus rides to the Gulf of Guinea, Guadalajaran drag shows, and overnight trains to St. Petersburg forged lifelong friendships as our world views changed and aesthetics redefined. 

These trips were resource-intensive, but through the intrepid efforts of people like David White and Sam Miller, philanthropic support enabled cohorts of Americans to research artists, network with international administrators, and present an array of worldwide artistry throughout the country. This work was often highly subsidized by foreign governments recognizing the importance of global exchange. 

Furthermore, I taught workshops with colleagues in Bratislava, Buenos Aires, Sofia, Salzburg, Toronto, and Warsaw. American marketing and funding strategies did not always translate; I often learned more than our lesson plans offered. Shared meals and post-performance drinks were as essential as daytime curriculum. In Bytom, while lecturing with Silesian Dance Theatre (1995), I encountered the unmitigated hell of Auschwitz – life changing indeed.

Internationalism was also important while I was executive director at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Chief curator Renny Pritikin invited Japanese sculptor Kenji Yanobe’s robotics (1997) and British filmmaker Isaac Julien’s media installations (2002) to complement the Bay Area focus in its galleries. Alonzo King’s explorations with Shoalin monks and people from the Ituri Rainforest expanded his choreographic range on the stage. 

More recently, I was executive director at Flynn Center in Burlington (retiring in 2018). Artistic director Steve MacQueen programmed Canadian circus groups alongside Angélique Kidjo, Gilberto Gil and Compagnie Hervé Koubi as well as emerging dancemakers from the Congo, Mozambique and Japan. As important, he curated a New Voices series featuring New American immigrant musicians living in the community. Everybody gains with cultural cross pollination. 

Sadly, opportunities for curatorial research travel have diminished considerably and immigration visas became more cumbersome, restrictive and expensive. Consequently, world artists all but disappeared in many presenting seasons. 

With the Biden/Harris administration, I do hope a renewed commitment to the import of internationalism will be rekindled. Philanthropic support will be essential. Open borders are more necessary than ever. 

As the sector rebuilds post-pandemic, composer Arvo Pärt reminds us, “This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism and that human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings.”

First Week of the New Legislative Session

There was so much uncertainty as we returned (virtually) to the legislature last week. Prior to the session, the Joint Fiscal Office detailed upcoming budget pressures, even with a second federal stimulus package. The Democratic Caucus nominated leadership for the biennium and agreed to focus on prioritizing COVID economic recovery. In our second day, following the insurgent storming of the U.S. Capitol, the House passed a resolution aligning with the Governor’s call for President Trump to “resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet or by the Congress.” 

It is an honor to serve as one of four representatives in South Burlington, and I welcome your input. The pandemic’s disproportionate impact on lower income Vermonters ruptured our state’s fraying social safety net and illuminated the extraordinary challenges constituents faced in this profound time of need. Navigating outdated and overwhelmed unemployment online portals as well as the complexity of applying for food, fuel, and housing benefits were some of the frustrating issues shared with me.

I continue serving on the General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committee. Issues of concern include expanding affordable housing and childcare opportunities, strengthening unions, providing a living wage, increasing the number of recovery beds available, and protecting our homeless. Constituents also talked with me about food sensitivity issues. As well, the committee will work with the National Guard and their families during the upcoming deployments. 

As we focus on rebuilding the economy, the critical shortage of affordable housing and childcare must be addressed. More work needs to be done to move our minimum wage to $15 per hour - over 40,000 Vermonters will be impacted. Paid Family and Medical Leave should be reintroduced. If we had access to these benefits, a disproportionate share of women would not have left the workforce. 

The most marginalized cannot be left behind. During the pandemic, 2,126 adults and 386 children who were homeless were moved out of shelters into hotels in order to mitigate contagion. Once the emergency period winds down, it is imperative to have a humane transition plan. This will be daunting, and highlights the need for a more integrated system, from emergency shelters to supportive permanent housing solutions. 

Tragically, last year Vermont set a new record for deaths from overdoses. Recovery homes are a key component of treatment alternatives, providing a shared living residence supporting persons grappling with substance use disorders, prohibits use of alcohol and illegal drugs, and assists residents in accessing support services including medication-assisted treatment. I worked with advocates and stakeholders to strengthen a bill from last session, and will be reintroducing a revision seeking to increase the number of needed recovery beds statewide.

Two other issues I worked on last biennium will hopefully be reintroduced: a Homeless Bill of Rights prohibiting discrimination against people without homes and a Eugenics Apology Resolution to all Vermonters harmed as a result of state-sanctioned eugenically inspired sterilization programs that targeted members of Abenaki bands, Vermonters of mixed racial or French-Canadian heritage, the poor, and persons with disabilities. 

Over the past year, many lessons were learned legislating through COVID. Under-resourced nonprofit service providers, already stretched too thin, partnered in consortiums of community-based groups to heroically meet the dire needs throughout the state. These inter-agency coalitions delivered essential services in regionally-specific ways and will need ongoing support. 

As well, both the House and Senate collaborated across party lines with the Governor to streamline processes and fast track support for Vermonters. As a part-time citizen legislator, I found this to be efficient and effective. The pandemic highlighted the need for a more holistic legislative paradigm breaking down policy silos in both chambers. I look forward to further cooperation in the challenging months ahead. 

Imagining a post-pandemic art world

I attended my first political rally while still in high school at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Earlier that year, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, many cities were in flames, and antiwar sentiment raged. The convention site was locked down, but I jumped right into the street protests. Television news cameras filmed the police riot that bloodied and bruised us as we chanted, “The whole world is watching.”

Amidst the civil unrest of that decade, an aesthetic revolution was also percolating. Peter Brook’s The Empty Space and Jerzy Grotwoski’s Towards a Poor Theatre called for reimaging a stripped down essentialism. Their credos echoed Anna Halprin’s task-oriented movement and Yvonne Rainer’s No Manifesto. John Cage, Terry Riley, and Ornette Coleman deconstructed compositional notions. Amiri Baraka’s plays called out white racism, New Wave filmmakers embraced quirky realness, and visual artists tossed out all the rules, as art performed life.

By the time I moved to New York in the early 1970s, the next wave of post-modernism was blossoming: Meredith Monk performing in parking lots, Trisha Brown dancing on rooftops, David Gordon improvising with Grand Union at the 14th Street Y, Phillip Glass playing at the Whitney, and Patti Smith singing in St. Mark’s Church. By the next decade, these iconoclasts were appearing in major theaters and opera houses—proof that change oftentimes emanates from the fringes.

Not all was high art. Charles Ludlum’s camp extravaganzas ignited gender-bending hijinks in bars, clubs, and small theaters across the East Village. All was fabulous, nothing was sacred. The annual queer pride parade allowed us all to be theatrical and political.

Today, the convergence of COVID-19 closing down public events, along with the explosive outrage with continued police carnage in communities of color, brings us to a similar inflection point as the late 1960s. Once again, a fundamental shift wherein art is stripped of any pretense is emerging. As well, the enormous chasm between aesthetics and inequity must be addressed as systemic racism is dismantled.

Perhaps it is a gift that we are currently forced to live in a continuous present, with no past, and no future, just now. Artists and organizations are re-examining their practices. Art can no longer be treated solely as a transactional product, with audience as consumers. What is important now is how culture can be essential in our communities.

Makers shifted to online strategies to create, disseminate, help others, and enliven protests. Organizations struggled at first, not realizing their missions were not tied to shuttered galleries and stages. However, many are slowly pivoting to seeing themselves as virtual community centers. Black Lives Matter must also manifest in staffing, governance, and programming within cultural organizations to redress structural racism. Embracing this new normal will have profound impact as we slowly rebuild our social, economic, and civic lives.

We are in this liminal moment imagining a post-pandemic art world. The opportunity in this crisis will be lost, if in hindsight we simply rush to put everything back together the way it was. As Peter Brook reminded us 50 years ago, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.”

Synopsis of Corona Relief Funds

The Vermont General Assembly finalized $1 Billion in federal Corona Relief Funds (CRF) to help Vermonters and to rebuild Vermont's economy and the institutions and systems vital to our quality of life.

• $76 million dispersed via the Department of Taxes (for businesses that pay Rooms & Meals or Sales taxes) 

• $76 million dispersed via ACCD working with regional economic development corporations to businesses and nonprofits that do not pay sales, or R&M taxes.  

• $5.0 million to help women-owned and minority-owned small businesses

• $5.0 million to assist our creative economy

• $2.5 million in fund tourism and marketing efforts

• $3.5 million to Working Lands Enterprise Fund to aid the agriculture, forestry and wood products industry 

• $1.5 for help outdoor recreation during COVID-19

• $2.5 million to offer a variety of financial and technical supports to businesses

• $5.0 million to Restaurants and Farms Feed the Hungry 

• $25 million to milk producers and processors

• $5 million to non-dairy producers and processors

• $5 million to Forest Economy Stabilization Grants

• $15 million to Local Governments for COVID-19 Reimbursements

• $1.4 billion to MicroBusiness grants through Community Action Agencies

Millions more will shore up schools, child care, parent child centers, and our health care system. The dollars will provide housing rehabilitation to increase the number of housing units for the homeless and for those in poverty, will help tenants and landlords with eviction and foreclosure protection, provide food for those who are hungry and summer meals for children. Workers will be protected by COVID-19 related workers compensation changes. Essential workers will receive hazard pay. Monies will support our farms and fund broadband build-out, our Vermont State Colleges, the University of Vermont, working lands and conservation.

Strict federal guidelines require the $1 Billion in federal funds be used for Covid-19-related expenses on items not previously budgeted for at the state or local level, and that the funds be spent by December 30, 2020. 

Along with allocating Corona Relief Funds, we continue our work to build a healthier, stronger future for Vermont. During this session, we passed an increase to the minimum wage to put more dollars in the pockets of Vermonters in the coming years. We passed legislation that starts to dismantle systemic and structural racism, hiring a Director of Racial Equity and directing more than $5 Million in Corona Relief Funds to women- and minority-owned businesses and to New Americans.

We look forward to taking action on the Global Warming Solutions Act to make progress on climate change and to taking steps to modernize Act 250. We voted to allocate $7.5 million to our state college system in the Quarter 1 budget. More decisions about higher education, to which $80 million has already been allocated, will take place when we reconvene in August.

The Legislature will return on August 25th. By then we will have received an August 15th updated revenue forecast and the Governor’s Recommended Budget. We stand ready to meet Vermonters' needs because we reserved some CRF funds in anticipation of further requests. We are committed to building a Vermont that works for everyone.

Bill anatomy - recovery residences

Now that COVID-related emergency legislation is winding down, the legislature is returning to bills that had been on the back burner. As housing is within the domain of my committee work, one issue I was working on is how to increase the number of recovery beds available to those grappling with substance use disorders. 

Recovery residences are a key component of treatment alternatives. A 2019 report by Downstreet Housing identified there were only 212 recovery beds state-wide, with the majority in Chittenden County and Brattleboro. However, 73% of the existing beds are for men, despite 42% of those receiving treatment are women, and there is only one recovery residence for women with children. The study identified the need for more than 1,000 additional beds to help communities counter the ever increasing devastation from addiction. 

Representative Jean O’Sullivan has been working on this issue for years and I co-sponsored H.783 with her, a bill whose intention is to improve the quality and increase the number of recovery beds throughout the state. Recovery homes provide a shared living residence supporting persons recovering from a substance use disorder that provides peer support, prohibits use of alcohol and illegal drugs, and assists residents in accessing support services including medication-assisted treatment. 

The bill does not regulate all recovery residences in Vermont, but proposes for homes meeting national standards certified by the Vermont Alliance for Recovery Residences to be exempt from certain landlord and tenant relationships outlined in the bill. The certification process provides a toolkit with state-wide definitions, detailed expectations, and operational policies. This is needed to improve the quality of recovery homes across the state as there are no industry standards. 

The bill also addresses zoning for these homes as single-family residential use. This clarity is essential for both operators and communities, eliminating barriers and discrepancies from town to town, thus allowing homes to be in proximity to transportation, employment, and necessary support services. Vermont did this over 30 years ago for independent living group homes for people with disabilities.

Guidelines and policies for temporary and permanent removal is also addressed to allow a fair due process for both tenants and landlords, balancing individual and community rights. Currently, no standards exist in this arena as well. Under the bill, residents are provided protections. 

This is a very delicate balance as relapses are often part of the recovery process, so safeguards were put into the bill to ensure that people who need to be removed are helped with re-housing and harm reduction strategies consistent with their recovery plans. And importantly, a recovery residence may not remove a resident solely on the use of medication-assisted treatment. 

Certified recovery residences will  benefit from being in this network, including technical support and guidance on best practices. The Vermont Community Foundation announced the formation of the Jenna Fund to be administered by Vermont Association for Recovery Residences and only be available to certified residences in the state. These funds provide initial deposits and first month’s rent for individuals who have financial need.  

Advocates, recovery residence operators, state administrators from departments of health, housing, and corrections, as well as people grappling with substance use disorders helped develop the bill. Responding to input, seven iterations of the bill evolved, and then in committee, two more friendly amendments were integrated. 

The bill is waiting to come before the full House, and may not make it through the process this summer. While working on the issue, I learned recovery homes save lives, and are essential to helping people overcome substance use disorders. Site visits to South Burlington’s exemplary Suburban Square women’s home and Jenna’s Promise being developed in Johnson affirmed the benefits recovery residences provide.  Hopefully, the time will be right to act upon this bill.

The arts are essential businesses

The economic damage to our arts organizations is profound and will be long-lasting. Theaters, museums, galleries, music clubs, and community art centers were the first to close in the pandemic and will be the last to open. Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities Council surveyed the field and found the cultural sector has already lost $14.4 million with future losses estimated at $21 million with no opening dates in sight.  

As Covid-19 forces us to live in a continuous present, planning has been impossible. Performances and gallery exhibitions scheduled months, even years in advance, were canceled, and future events are tentative at best. Thousands of arts workers lost their jobs and performing artists that depend on touring lost all income for 2020.

The creative sector employed more than 40,000 in our state. Arts organizations have been economic anchors for downtown businesses. When I ran the Flynn Center in Burlington for eight years, I can attest that the 1,400-seat theater often provided 500+ diners at near-by restaurants, in addition to customers for neighboring bars and coffee shops. 

Rutland’s Paramount Theatre and Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, along with other venues across the state are economic drivers in their communities as well. Vermont Arts Council’s latest estimate of event-related spending by cultural audiences totaled $44 million (not including ticket income) – a very significant amount for downtown businesses.

Summer festivals won’t be happening this year, and they will be sorely missed by residents and tourists in Dorset, Putney, Guilford, Weston, St. Johnsbury, and other towns. Mainstage venues in White River Junction, Barre, Montpelier, Burlington, and elsewhere will be hard pressed to offer fall productions. And museums and galleries across the state, including in Woodstock, Brattleboro, Bennington, Shelburne, and Stowe are struggling as to when they can welcome visitors again.

Emergency relief dollars from the federal CARES Act of $800,000 is being distributed through the Vermont Arts and Vermont Humanities councils, but this is not sufficient to stabilize the field. The governor has proposed a $400 million economic recovery package. However, the arts are peripheral in the plan and need to be deemed as essential as retail, food and accommodation services, and agriculture. Grants are needed far more than low interest loans. Even with skeletal staff, significant overhead costs are being incurred with absolutely no revenue generated at present.

Cultural organizations should also play a more central role in the governor’s $5 million set-aside to encourage Vermonters to explore the state and spend locally. Bread and Puppet Theatre in Glover should be a must-see on everyone’s travel itinerary. And the Hall Art Foundation in Reading is one of our state’s hidden jewels – exhibiting world-renowned artists in exquisite galleries.

As we begin to rebuild our social, economic, and civic lives post-Covid, arts are crucial for our well-being and community vitality. It may take years for the cultural sector to fully recover. Sadly, without significant investment, many anchor organizations may not be able to return – an incalculable loss to civil society. Vermonters need the arts, now more than ever.

Tom Stevens & John Killacky: After a respite from homelessness, now what?

On Friday, March 13, Vermont was faced with an unprecedented question: What do we do in the face of an emergency of the size of the one in front of us, particularly for those without resources who were either living in the street, couch surfing or in congregate settings (shelters), and were considered high-risk “vectors? 

Amazingly, we provided adequate housing for most of our homeless by moving as many people as possible into hotels in order to mitigate contagion. There are currently 1,961 people in hotel rooms across the state, including 273 children. And this strategy worked — as of May 8, there have been no recorded cases of Covid-19 in any of the individuals now housed.

In addition, regional consortiums of community-based groups with innumerable volunteers provided supplemental services to this population, including delivering meals. These organizations banded together in the spirit of “Vermont Strong,” but these nonprofits are working beyond their bandwidth and fiscal capability. 

In our legislative work, we have been keenly aware of the deficiencies in our social safety net, as it applies to emergency shelter, affordable housing, and wrap-around services. We have seen us, as a state, get caught in the vise of budgetary restraint and diminished capacity, even though it is clear that by providing, at the least, four walls and a roof, mitigates many other social issues that come with poverty, food insecurity, and precarious housing.

And here we are, in a global emergency, and we housed every homeless individual and family we found. It was no mean feat, and we honor those who did the work: our nonprofits, Vermont’s Office of Economic Opportunity, Department for Children and Families, and the Agency of Human Services. 

Housing individuals and families in available hotel rooms was the right thing to do, but it is not sustainable. Which leads us to this question: what is the NEXT right thing to do? As the Covid emergency plateaus, it is important to have a humane transition plan. With the coronavirus still active, returning people back into shelters is not the answer and is a public health risk. Therefore, the state is extending hotel vouchers as well as supportive services and food near-term.

The pandemic highlights the need for a more integrated housing system, from emergency shelters to supportive permanent housing solutions – something that has been studied, but not capitalized for years. Current systems are untenable. Covid has shown us Vermont can house its homeless, at least temporarily, now we need to reimagine, reengineer, and build upon recent successes. The Agency of Human Services, with other state departments and housing advocates, is currently developing a “Rehousing Plan” to present to the Legislature.

We have in place an infrastructure that can act upon any plan we put in place, as any plan will essentially be the long-sought desired outcome of the affordable housing sector: to provide housing with dignity and the services needed to succeed with the hardest population to shelter in the state. All agree a Housing First model improves vulnerable lives, lessens support of other public resources, and builds more robust communities. Here are some of the issues discussed:  

• Better support for non-profit service providers across the state. Level state funding for many have compromised their abilities over the last few years. 

• Expand rental subsidies and arrearages support, including mobile homes, to maintain housing stability in the near-term as we rebuild the economy.

• Develop and rehabilitate permanently affordable housing units, so that lower wage income earners are not spending more than 30% of their income on rent. 

• Expand permanent supportive housing for individuals with complex needs, which will require acquisition of units in an incredibly tight real estate market. 

• Design, test, and support new and innovative programs by providers to remain responsive to existing and emerging needs. 

How to pay for these programs?

• Initial estimates calculate about $110 million is needed to jumpstart these efforts and the majority could come from federal Covid relief funds. This includes funding for support services, rental subsidy, assistance and arrearage programs, and capital expenditures. Given the strictures of the use of these funds, these efforts would focus on housing the homeless and providing long-term solutions.

• Longer-term, we need to examine how state tax credits are utilized to subsidize rental and home ownership opportunities as well as making annual budget decisions supporting these programs. With these investments, we can recognize through data collection and interpretation that we may save money currently allocated for emergency services.

• Realign Vermont’s property transfer tax funding. Prior to the emergency, the direct allocation from the property transfer tax was just under 50% of the statutory formula, with other funds allocated to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust Fund through sources such as the Capital Fund. Money used from the property transfer tax is incredibly effective in creating new affordable housing.

• Finally, we need to continue to work alongside the administration and our congressional delegation on upcoming stimulus and recovery bills to address unmet needs, secure necessary statutory and regulatory flexibility, enhance the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, HOME Investment Partnerships, and other federal resources.

The opportunity in this crisis will be lost, if in hindsight, we look back and see that we merely interrupted homelessness during this health cataclysm. Everyone deserves a home.