Health & Welfare committee directs plan to accelerate HEART rollout, reviews shelter funding reallocations

At a meeting of the Health & Welfare Committee, members reviewed revised bill language that would require the department to deliver a written plan by Nov. 1, 2025, to accelerate implementation of the HEART program and considered changes to how appropriated funds would be redirected to community providers and shelters.

The new section would "direct the department to bring a plan that would accelerate the implementation of HEART before the 07/01/2026 date," and would submit that plan as part of the fiscal year 2026 budget adjustment process for legislative committees to review, staff said. "On or before Nov. 1, 2025, the department shall submit for consideration a detailed written plan to accelerate implementation of the program as part of the fiscal year 26 budget adjustment process to the Joint Fiscal Committee, the House Committee on Appropriations, the House Committee on Human Services, and the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Health and Welfare. The plan shall address the readiness of community providers to implement the program prior to 07/01/2026 and fiscal estimates for the remainder of fiscal year 26," Katie, a staff member, read aloud during the meeting.

Committee members and staff also reviewed edits to the bill's future-appropriations language meant to redirect existing resources into the new program in later fiscal years rather than tying them to a specific prior appropriation year. Staff described updated appropriation splits in the draft: $4,585,000 allocated for community action agencies, $400,000 set aside for distribution to the statewide organization serving households experiencing domestic violence, and $3,000,000 to the Department for Children and Families to "enhance capacity for the creation and expansion of emergency shelters and permanent supportive housing capacity," a portion of which would be administered through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board for infrastructure investments paired with support services, staff said.

The draft also adds reporting requirements: the department's Jan. 15 report would include, if available, the number of housing vouchers Vermont has lost in the past year. Staff and committee members made editorial and cross-reference corrections across the bill, standardized references to service providers for households that have experienced domestic violence, and renumbered sections after adding the accelerated-implementation provision.

No formal vote was taken during the discussion. Janet Coleman, a welfare department representative, asked for a 30-minute recess and indicated the committee hoped to reconvene and vote the bill out to appropriations that day: "I'd like us to take a break for 30 minutes, and then we'll go back. And we may have heard further from Commissioner Winters. If not, anyway, in 30 minutes, I'd like us to be able to vote the bill out knowing this," she said.

The committee's direction requires the department to prepare a timeline and fiscal estimates for an accelerated rollout and to report readiness of community providers; it does not itself authorize moving forward with an accelerated implementation. The revised appropriation language and the $3 million DCF allocation are presented in the draft as targeted uses contingent on later budget actions and legislative review.