A MONTH IN THE HILLS

State officials were racing in late October to set up three new emergency shelters for homeless families being evicted from motels across Vermont.

Officials of the state Department of Children and Families said the new shelters in Waterbury and Williston, and a third planned for Montpelier, will be designated specifically for families with children.

But advocates and leaders of nonprofit service organizations around the state stressed that many other individuals being displaced from motels – including people with dementia, schizophrenia and serious medical conditions – would likely wind up staying outdoors as the weather turns colder.

Vermont began paying to house homeless people in hotels and motels during the pandemic to avoid the health risks posed by congregate shelters. In the legislative session that ended this spring, lawmakers capped participation in the motel program at 1,100 households and limited benefits to 80 days. Many of the program’s beneficiaries began running up against that new time limit in late September and early October.

Gov. Phil Scott’s administration revealed plans for the new shelters on Oct. 16, just two days after shelter operators and advocates from across the state gathered in Montpelier to urge the governor to restore and extend motel shelter benefits -- or to call a special session of the Legislature to do so.

A spokesman for the Department of Children and Families told Vermont Public that as of Oct. 15, 724 households totaling 1,175 people had exhausted their motel vouchers under the new 80-day limit.

The new time limit on motel stays and the cap on the number of participants in the motel program both are subject to cold-weather exemptions that begin Dec. 1. But advocates said that still leaves a lengthy period in which hundreds of those now being evicted will likely wind up sleeping outside.

The Scott administration says many of the families being evicted from motels have been able to find shelter elsewhere at least temporarily.

At a press conference on Oct. 16, Scott told reporters that there were only six to eight families in the Chittenden County area that still needed shelter. But he added that “the vast majority” of the families in need were in the Rutland area – where the state has been unable to find a shelter provider.

The Rutland Herald quoted Libby Bennett, executive director of the Groundworks Collaborative in Brattleboro, as saying her organization lately has seen an increase in the number of people needing emergency shelter.

“People are coming in draped in wet blankets and wet sleeping bags, having slept outside in the elements,” she said.

Bennett, speaking at the press conference staged by service providers on Oct. 14, urged the state to avoid setting up large congregate shelters, which she said are particularly unsuitable for families.

“The shelters that were stood up last summer didn’t meet any of the standards and cost more to operate in those weeks than it would have cost to keep people in hotels,” Bennett said. “This warehouse solution is an even less effective Band-Aid solution than continuing to provide hotel rooms.”

In other news from around the region in October:

Rail service cuts raise concerns
Elected officials around eastern New York are questioning a plan to slash more than 20 percent of the train service on Amtrak’s busy line between New York City and Albany.
Amtrak announced last month that it plans to reduce service on the line beginning Nov. 11 in conjunction with the start of a tunnel repair program that is expected to continue for three years. The cuts will eliminate three of the 13 trains that currently ply the route in each direction on weekdays.

Amtrak said in a statement that the service reductions were agreed to by the state Department of Transportation, which pays for service on the Hudson Valley line.

“We have been communicating and collaborating with our partners at NYSDOT on these service changes and mutually agreed to this new schedule, which preserves 80 percent of the line’s service while this major infrastructure asset receives its much-needed and overdue upgrade,” Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams told The Daily Gazette of Schenectady.

But officials of the Empire State Passengers Association, an advocacy group for riders, said the cutbacks will severely reduce capacity on the route, resulting in more sold-out trains and higher fares for the remaining seats – as well as service gaps and long layovers on some of the trains that continue operating.

Steve Strauss, the passenger group’s executive director, told the Times Union of Albany that the service cuts are connected to the planned rehabilitation of the East River tunnels between Manhattan and Queens. Although people riding from Albany to New York don’t pass under the East River, empty trains continue through the East River tunnel from Penn Station to reach storage and maintenance facilities in Queens.

Because portions of the tunnel will be closed during the three-year rehabilitation project, Amtrak says it must reduce the frequency of trains using the portions that will remain open.

But Strauss said too much of the burden is being placed on Hudson Valley riders. His group has called for Amtrak to at least add extra cars to the remaining trains – or to figure out how to store and service the upstate trains without sending them through the tunnel to Queens.

The Gazette reported that Assembly members John McDonald, D-Cohoes, and Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, wrote a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation, urging officials there to mitigate “significant service reductions for the thousands of our constituents who depend on reliable and affordable service” on the Hudson Valley line.

Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson called the service cuts a disappointment and told the paper he would be contacting “higher elected officials” about it.

“A lot of our residents are commuters that use Amtrak, and it’s something we’re looking into to try and do something about it,” Johnson said.

And U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, issued a statement calling on Amtrak to “work towards a solution that avoids disrupting the lives of thousands of New Yorkers.”

The schedule reduction set to begin Nov. 11 would hit evening and early morning services particularly. The first southbound train from Albany, leaving at 5:10 a.m., will be eliminated, and returning from New York, there will be only one remaining train departing Penn Station after 7 p.m. compared with three daily departures now.

In addition, Amtrak plans to combine its Toronto- and Montreal-bound trains between New York and Albany while keeping them on their existing schedules north and west of Albany. As a result, the northbound train to Montreal will sit in the Albany station for nearly two full hours before proceeding to Saratoga Springs and points north. And in the reverse direction, the train from Toronto and Buffalo will sit in Albany for more than 90 minutes while waiting for the train from Montreal to pick up its cars and carry them south to New York.

-- Compiled by Fred Daley