Frigid temperatures send more people to Vermont’s homeless hotels

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Frigid temperatures overnight-- and the winter season-- means more people need to use Vermont’s homeless hotel program.

Sunday night, 1,336 rooms were used statewide for more than 1,600 adults and nearly 500 children.

That’s 200 more than we saw around Thanksgiving.

The Vermont Department for Children and Families says that everyone is trying to find a better option for housing but the pandemic and cold temps have created an immediate need.

“Right now with the housing crunch and different things that are happening, it’s just exacerbated the problem. So this year it’s very important that we do what we can to keep people safe through the winter and figure out the next steps,” said Tricia Tyo, the deputy commissioner for the economic services division of DCF.

As the winter goes on, more people will be in need of temporary shelter out of the cold.

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