Brittany Plucas and her boyfriend will likely sleep in her car when they have to leave the Hilltop Inn on the first of June. The couple both work at a nearby restaurant, and have recently picked up second jobs at the hotel. The 29-year-old says she became homeless a month ago for the first time in her life.
"The shelters are full, there's no housing for anyone right now, there's waiting lists up to 18 months, up to two years, up to six years," she said. "The best thing that our government can do right now is to extend the housing."
Instead, the state of Vermont is ending the last of its Covid-era hotel housing for homeless people in the coming weeks due to a lack of funding. Advocates and local officials warn that these people have nowhere to go, and fear many of the 1,800 households living for free in hotels and motels will end up homeless again.
Good Samaritan plans to hand out camping gear to anyone leaving the hotels who wants it.
Housing advocate Brenda Siegel said there are "people on oxygen, people who have just had surgery, people in recovery, people with mental illness that has finally been stabilized."
Siegel said there are 500 to 600 children whose hotel housing ends a little later, on July 1. She added: "This is one of the most cruel acts that our state government could perpetrate among those who struggle the most with poverty."
