'It's hard out here'

The Deeper Dig

For the past few years, Vermont has had the second highest per-capita rate of homelessness in the country. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people counted as homeless more than doubled, and the numbers keep going up.

Lots of people are trying to grasp: Why is this happening? Why have we seen this huge, dramatic spike in the number of people experiencing homelessness here?

Carly Berlin was brought on by Vermont Public and VTDigger last year to report on Vermont’s housing crisis. She’s spent hundreds of hours talking to researchers, politicians, government officials and housing advocates to understand the situation here. And she’s spent a lot of time with people who don’t have a permanent home right now.

Her inbox is full of messages asking some version of this question: How many homeless people in Vermont are really from here?

And sometimes, the question is really more of an implied explanation — that Vermont’s recent rise in homelessness is driven by people crossing state lines.

Berlin worked with the Brave Little State team at Vermont Public to produce this podcast investigating that question, and its implications.

Updated: Sept. , 2024— We removed a caveat about data presented in this story to avoid repetition and the potential for misinterpretation.