Vermont Senate Passes $83 Million Homelessness Bill. The Bill Contains No Money.
The Vermont Senate gave preliminary approval to H.938, a sweeping reorganization of the state’s homelessness response system costing nearly $83 million. The bill itself contains no appropriations.
The Vermont Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to H.938, a sweeping reorganization of the state’s homelessness response system that establishes a five-level continuum of services, restricts the long-running motel voucher program, and is being widely described as an $82.6 million policy.
The bill itself contains no appropriations.
According to the Joint Fiscal Office’s May 14 fiscal note, prepared by Principal Fiscal Analyst Nolan Langweil, “the bill contains no appropriations.” The $82,634,153 cited in coverage of H.938 is the figure Gov. Phil Scott included in his FY27 budget recommendation for homelessness — not money the bill itself directs.
The distinction matters. H.938 establishes the framework. The state budget — a separate bill, subject to its own negotiations, amendments, and possible veto — writes the check.
What the bill actually does
H.938 creates the Vermont Homelessness Response Continuum, administered by the Department for Children and Families’ Office of Economic Opportunity. Per the JFO fiscal note, the continuum has five levels:
Level 1: Prevention and diversion services
Level 2A: Highly structured shelter services (case management required)
Level 2B: Low-barrier shelter services (time-limited stays)
Level 3: Specialized shelter for people with substance use disorders or physical and mental health conditions
Level 4: Permanent supportive housing
Level 5: Hotels and motels
A household entering the system would be considered first for prevention support, then routed through shelter levels based on need and availability, with motels remaining part of the continuum but capped on room count and stay length.
Sen. Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden Southeast), who presented the bill on the Senate floor Wednesday, called H.938 “a responsible, systematic approach and response as a way to move people from unhoused to housed and stay within a budget,” according to VTDigger. The Senate passed the bill unanimously on preliminary reading.
A final Senate vote is scheduled for Thursday. The bill then returns to the House to consider Senate amendments before going to Scott. The administration has worked closely with lawmakers on H.938 but has not said whether Scott will sign it. He vetoed last year’s homelessness overhaul, arguing it did not adequately reduce the motel program’s size or cost.
The per-person math
DCF’s April 30 monthly housing report, submitted under Act 27, identifies three different populations relevant to the bill:
995 households (1,302 adults, 373 children) currently in the General Assistance motel program as of April 27
3,386 people counted in the 2025 statewide Point-in-Time homelessness count on Jan. 22, 2025
4,692 individuals with completed assessments in the Vermont Coordinated Entry Dashboard as of April 20, 2026
The $82,634,153 figure divided across roughly 4,000 homeless Vermonters works out to approximately $20,650 per person per year — to fund the entire continuum, including prevention, all four shelter tiers, permanent supportive housing, case management, and remaining motel rooms.
For comparison, Vermont’s FY26 budgeted cost for the motel program alone was $32.6 million for roughly 1,000 households, or approximately $32,800 per household per year for shelter without permanent housing or wraparound services.
Libby Bennett, executive director of Brattleboro shelter provider Groundworks Collaborative, told VTDigger the bill is “not enough money to really be a solutions-based bill” and described it as “a rearranging of the deck chairs.”
What the appropriation must cover
The Governor’s $82.6 million FY27 budget recommendation, which H.938 would repurpose, was originally allocated across General Assistance Emergency Housing (motels), shelter funding, permanent supportive housing, rental assistance, outreach, and case management services, according to the JFO fiscal note.
Some of the shelter capacity the bill aims to develop is already in the construction pipeline. The Act 27 report identifies five providers — Groundworks Collaborative, Upper Valley Haven, Northeast Kingdom Community Action, BROC/Cornerstone Housing Partners, and the Charter House Coalition — with shelter projects expected to open during SFY27, adding capacity for approximately 80 to 100 additional households.
Statewide emergency shelter currently provides 708 household slots, concentrated in Chittenden (227) and Washington (138) counties, with seven counties operating fewer than 50 each.
The federal voucher problem
H.938 also creates a “rental assistance bridge” program intended to link homeless households to long-term housing in the absence of federal Section 8 vouchers. The federal voucher program has faced funding shortfalls that have left Vermont housing authorities unable to issue new vouchers.
The Bridge program is the bill’s primary mechanism for moving households out of shelter and into permanent housing — Level 4 of the continuum. The fiscal allocation for the Bridge program within the $82.6 million envelope, and how much rent it can cover for how many households, will shape whether the upstream levels of the continuum function or simply hold people in shelter indefinitely.
What happens next
Final Senate passage is expected Thursday. The bill then returns to the House for concurrence on Senate amendments before going to the Governor’s desk. Scott’s press secretary, Amanda Wheeler, told VTDigger the administration will review the final language after passage before deciding how to act.
Whether the framework H.938 creates is followed by the funding it assumes will be determined in the budget bill — and the budget bill is not yet on Scott’s desk either.