CVRAN Advocates For Housing Bill

January 14, 2025 0 Comments

“Housing Is a Human Right
“Vermont Es Mi Casa” (Vermont Is My Home)
“Vivienda Sin Discriminacion” (Housing Without Discrimination)

The cluster of speakers in the Cedar Creek Room of the statehouse held up eye-catching signs painted on cardboard cut-out houses in Spanish and English. These members of Migrant Justice were articulate about housing problems in a press conference held Friday, January 10 2025. CVRAN president Rachel Cogbill was one of many joining Migrant Justice in this advocacy for a bill about banning housing discrimination.

People gathered at a rally in the Vermont Statehouse. Image: Terry J. Allen.
Migrant Justice members and others call for a ban on housing discrimination against new Vermonters. Image: Rachel Cogbill.

If this bill passes, social security numbers will not be necessary for a rental application. Other forms of ID can be used. This is very important for both migrant workers, and for our asylum seekers who are awaiting work permits and social security numbers, which sometimes do not arrive for a year or more. Once again, Migrant Justice is continuing its tireless advocacy for constituents in ways that have also benefited others. In recent years they promoted a key piece of legislation granting health access to mothers and young children called the Immigrant Health Insurance Plan. Last year they were able to get a bill passed that allowed greater access to higher education in Vermont for all residents of Vermont, regardless of immigration status. Now the issue is housing, following up on presentation of the problem in the legislature last year.

Why is it important to pass legislation to support new immigrants in the state of Vermont? It is of great benefit to the whole state to have its population healthy, educated, and well-housed. This means less strain on our medical systems, more informed workers and future citizens, and the basic safety of adequate shelter where people are not living in crowded unhealthy situations. Our economy depends on immigrants to help run our farms, our construction industry, our hotel industry. Our governor and our state department of labor welcome these new Vermonters to fill jobs and to help fill in a different age demographic. And it is important to treat everyone right: housing is a human right.

On Friday migrant workers told stories of having their rental applications shunted to the bottom of a pile if they answered in Spanish of if they couldn’t list a social security number. Any person who wanted to leave an employer who provided housing, was often stymied, unless they knew someone who would be a financial sponsor. Someone in the audience asked, “Think of the landlords, don’t they need to have a credit check to see if a renter can pay?”  A speaker answered, “Just look at the amount of money in our bank account!” Some of the speakers were worried about speaking up, fearing they would lose their jobs, yet they wanted to help not only themselves but others who experience housing barriers. One man spoke of having his baby living in an upstairs room without electricity. There was no fan in the summer, and it got so hot they feared for their baby’s health, and in the winter it was cold. Another man said he was part of constructing many houses; his dream was that some of his community could live in them! The room rung to the question and response of, can we do it?  – “Si, se puede!”

People attending a state house rally. Image: Terry J. Allen.
Rallying for housing at the Vermont Statehouse on January 10 are, from left to right, speaker Cristian Santos, Rep. Leonora Dodge, Lindsay Reid (VT NH Asylum Support Network), and CVRAN President Rachel Cogbill. Image: Rachel Cogbill.

CVRAN, as well as other members of the Vermont-New Hampshire Asylum Support Network group, is able to reach out collectively as an advocate much more than one organization can do by itself. Representative Leonora Dodge, one of the collaborative’s liaisons to Migrant Justice spoke movingly at this event. Lindsay Reid, another liaison to Migrant Justice, is holding up one of the signs that says Housing Is a Human Right. Both of them, along with speaker Cristian Santos, are pictured here.

You can read more about the press conference at VTDigger.