The Problem
Vermont has one of the highest rates of unhoused people in the country. According to the 2024 Vermont Point in Time count, there were 3,458 unhoused Vermonters in a single night, including 737 children and 646 Vermonters 55 years old or older. This number is an undercount, as it reflects only the people who engaged with our state’s dedicated and perpetually under-resourced shelter service providers on the PIT count day. When compared with states across the United States, last year Vermont had the 4th highest rate of unhoused people per capita in the country. And, Vermont’s crisis is getting worse – with an over 300 percent increase in unhoused people between 2020 and 2024.
Vermont has a severe need for additional year-round homes. According to the 2024 Vermont Housing Needs Assessment, Vermont needs 24,000 – 36,000 additional year-round homes by 2029 “to meet demand, normalize vacancy rates, house the homeless and replace homes lost from the stock through flooding and other causes.” This includes 3,295 homes to address homelessness and 3,957 homes to normalize vacancy rates. The report also notes that rising rents and home costs have disproportionately impacted low- and middle-income Vermonters and that rising rents and “inadequate housing quality” have left hundreds of rental housing vouchers on the table, both of which further fuel Vermont’s rising homelessness crisis.
Black Vermonters are significantly less likely to own their home and are unhoused at a staggering rate. In 2023, 74 percent of White Vermonters owned their home compared with just 27 percent of Black Vermonters. To make matters worse, VSHA’s housingdata.org tracks Vermont’s homeownership rates since 2009, and according to this data set Black Vermonter’s saw a six percent decrease in homeownership between 2011 and 2023. In 2024, Black Vermonters were also 5.6 times more likely to be unhoused compared with white Vermonters. In Chittenden County, Black Vermonters were 6.6 times more likely to be unhoused compared with white Vermonters. As this data clearly shows, the housing and homelessness crisis has been disproportionately felt by Black Vermonters.
The human and economic costs of failing to provide shelter are greater than the costs of shelter. Homelessness is linked with a broad range of negative health conditions, including premature death. People experiencing homelessness also are far more likely than the general population to be a victim of crime. Unsheltered homelessness is harsh and alienating. In addition, the economic costs associated with the failure to provide shelter – including on health systems, schools, criminal legal systems, and other public services – fall on municipalities and the state to cover. For example, the $80 per day cap on the cost for hotel/motel in GA Program is substantially cheaper than the $260 daily cost to incarcerate someone in Vermont or the $1,386 average cost for an ER visit in Vermont (a pre-COVID number).
Vermont’s housing and homelessness crises will take sustained long-term investments to fully solve. Vermont’s housing and homelessness crisis is the result of multiple factors, including a lack of sufficient permanently affordable housing units, skyrocketing housing and constructions costs, more people moving to Vermont, increasing short term rentals, a failure to ensure a living wage, a failure to provide adequate mental health and substance use services (and continuing to criminalize people who use drugs), and more. While we urge the legislature to make the sustained long-term investments necessary to ensure perpetually affordable housing, including with any necessary support services, to meet the demand, we also urge the legislature to provide the resources necessary to ensure sufficient emergency shelter and supports while we get there.
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2025 Legislative Solutions
2025 Legislative Advocacy Materials
- General
- Budget Adjustment Act
- Emergency Shelter
- FY 26 Budget
End of 2024 Session Documents: