WASHINGTON – Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) announced Monday that Vermont recently received more than $150 million through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance Program. The funding will reimburse the State of Vermont for the cost of COVID-19 vaccine distribution and for hotel and motel rooms for vulnerable unhoused Vermonters and others who needed a place to temporarily quarantine.
Leahy, Sanders and Welch said: “This funding helps the State to get shots in arms and slow the spread of COVID among our most vulnerable citizens. By offering safe, temporary housing to those who need it most, we can protect our neighbors and continue to quickly vaccinate Vermonters so we can beat this terrible virus.”
$104 million will go to the Vermont Agency of Human Services to reimburse the cost of administering the COVID-19 vaccine. More than one half of adult Vermonters have received at least one dose of vaccine, and by April 30th, everyone 16 and up in Vermont will be eligible to receive the vaccine. This funding will help continue the successful roll out of vaccination efforts across the state.
$46 million of the money will go to pay for hotel and motel rooms for housing insecure individuals so they do not have to risk contracting COVID in crowded housing shelters. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated Vermont’s affordable housing crisis. Pandemic safety guidelines have necessitated moving housing insecure individuals out of housing shelters, and more than 2,700 Vermonters, including more than 400 children, are currently residing in hotels and motels.
