Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. MONTPELIER â About 2,295 people are living in 1,631 hotel and motel rooms around Vermont as part of the stateâs response to housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the number will continue to drop as changes have been made to the General Assistance Housing Program. âWe are starting to lose capacity every day in the hotels and motels in terms of rooms as the state begins to reopen,â Mike Smith, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Services, said at the governorâs Tuesday news conference. âThis program had restrictive criteria for eligibility in place before the pandemic. We recognized the need to protect the most vulnerable and we suspended all eligibility criteria during the pandemic.â