The fraught politics of Vermont’s motel housing program

For months, Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Phil Scott insisted that extending the Covid-19-era program providing people with vouchers to live in motels past this summer was a no-go. Federal money had run out, and, they said, the program was just too expensive to continue.Then, at the end of June, lawmakers worked out a deal. The program would be extended, for at least some people, until April. The governor signed the bill.This comes after about 800 people had already lost their housing earlier that month.At every stage, the motel program has been at the center of fierce debate — among the state’s leaders and the public at large — over cost, efficacy, and what support is owed to some of Vermont’s poorest and most vulnerable residents.So what changed to take this extension from out of the question to a done deal? To unpack this and other questions about homelessness, host Sam Gale Rosen talked to Lola Duffort. She covers politics for VTDigger and has been reporting extensively on the motel program and unhoused people in Vermont.