Vermont Legal Aid says a judge has granted its request for a temporary restraining order regarding the GA Emergency Housing Program.
Friday, Vermont Legal Aid asked for, and was denied, a temporary restraining order it filed against the Agency of Human Services on behalf of homeless service providers expecting to deal with the exodus of several hundred people from the GA program which was to happen that day. The court did agree, however, to hear the case at a later date to decide on whether to grant a preliminary injunction.
According to a release from Vermont Legal Aid, it asked the court to add three individuals who’d been exited from the hotel program to the list of plaintiffs and to grant a temporary restraining order. To this, the court agreed.
Vermont used its GA Emergency Housing Program to shelter unhoused people since the pandemic, but even before 2020 it existed to keep people experiencing homelessness from suffering and possibly dying during the winter months.
In this year’s Budget Adjust Act, the law expanded eligibility criteria for the GA Emergency Housing Program, meaning more people would be allowed to remain in it. The issue that occurred over the weekend stemmed from the fact that those people entering the program under the state’s cold weather rules weren’t screened for qualifying disabilities or other statuses. They could apply for an extension, if they could have a medical service provider sign off on their form, but for many this meant leaving the program, even if for a short period of time.
The state stood up four temporary overnight shelters, one in Rutland City, another in Burlington, and in Berlin, and the Brattleboro area, to handle the number of people expected to leave the hotel program. Shelter providers and advocates reported having to scramble in order to get folks screened while they, and the state, said the shelters saw little use over the weekend. Some attributed that to poor planning and communication.
According to Vermont Legal Aid, it added three individual names to its lawsuit. Two of them are a couple. Both were eligible because of one’s age and disabilities. Vermont Legal Aid claims they weren’t told about their possibly being eligible for an extension and thus slept outside over the weekend.
The third plaintiff, according to Vermont Legal Aid, needed an oxygen machine at all times with electricity to support it. That person had to leave the program as well, but the hotel they were in allowed them to remain while they were screened.
A hearing is set for Thursday.
“Homeless service provider organizations around the state, including the plaintiffs in this case, have been working tirelessly to reach people who were wrongly kicked out of motels on Friday,” stated Sandra Paritz, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs in Vermont Legal Aid’s lawsuit, in a release. “The individual plaintiffs who have gotten relief today are just a few of the extremely vulnerable people who have been harmed by the Department’s actions. We hope that everyone will be assessed soon and sheltered if they are eligible.”
Rebecca Plummer, an attorney for Vermont Legal Aid and director of its Medical-Legal Partnership Project, said Wednesday that the goal of the lawsuit is to stop the state from exiting people from the cold weather program until it can adequately screen the people entering it for further qualifications.
