Today’s Burlington Free Press had two articles regarding homelessness in Vermont:
The first discussed yesterday’s vigil in Montpelier where shelter and homeless service providers described the persistent needs among Vermont families and individuals facing homelessness. Highlighting the success of programs that seek to prevent homelessness, officials at the vigil called on Vermont lawmakers to recognize these successes by focusing future efforts in this area. Read more.
On the Opinion page, Barbara Fields, HUD’s New England regional administrator touted the recent success at stemming the increases in homelessness. Nationwide, more than 1.2 million at-risk people averted homelessness through HUD’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP), which was a stimulus-funded program launched in 2009.
Vermont expended all of its HPRP funding by the end of FY11 and starting this past July now has been using state funds to continue the program’s success. The program funded by VT’s Agency of Human Services, uses savings from what would have been spent on emergency hotel/motel usage.