The charitable organization Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, or HOPE, this fall was asked to help a growing number of houseless folks who’ve temporarily settled in the shire town, either at the Charter House Emergency Shelter or at makeshift campsites in the village area.

The local homelessness problem could get significantly worse this winter, according to advocates like Susan Whitmore, executive director of John Graham Housing & Services.

In a recent op  ed for the Addison Independent, Whitmore noted the state on Sept. 15 capped its emergency housing program for those experiencing homelessness at 1,100 hotel/motel rooms statewide, down from 1,700.

“Our shelters are full and affordable housing waitlists number in the hundreds. Even as many towns and cities have imposed new restrictions on camping in public areas, many households will have no other option but to camp this fall,” Whitmore said.

“We’re … offering use of our shower, tents, sleeping bags and food that lends itself to a lifestyle devoid of a kitchen,” HOPE Executive Director Jeanne Montrose said in and October letter, noting the HOPE’s recent houseless clients included a single mom with two children and an elderly man with a rescue dog.

People in our communities living outside because they don’t have inside housing has become a more visible problem over the past year. The homeless shelters in Vergennes and Middlebury are constantly full, and as a result some people end up living in tents or under tarps, even as the weather got cold.

It’s a population that’s been omnipresent in Middlebury, though more abundant and overt in 2024: houseless individuals camping downtown and in other areas of the shire town’s village. With it becoming more difficult to ignore their presence, community leaders began drafting an encampment policy to regulate the makeshift settlements.

The town of Middlebury has long been proactive and compassionate in extending care to the homeless. The Congregational Church of Middlebury in 2006 launched the Charter House Coalition, which began offering free community meals and eventually an emergency shelter at 27 North Pleasant St. Officials from the Counseling Service of Addison County, the Turning Point Center and Middlebury police have been checking on those living outdoors.

But Charter House shelter beds have been consistently full as the numbers of houseless folks have been growing, and many have slipped through the cracks of an overwhelmed human services system trying to help those with housing, addiction and mental-health challenges. Growing numbers of houseless individuals from Addison County and beyond have been pitching tents in the village, with the largest concentration settling off Bakery Lane.

At one point this past summer and early fall, Middlebury police said more than a dozen houseless persons had been camping in Middlebury, including off Bakery Lane, along Otter Creek, off Merchants Row and in woods near Mary Hogan Elementary School. School officials raised concerns, as did others who reported unruly behavior among occupants of the most high-profile encampment, behind Ilsley Library.

Middlebury police officers were frequently called to encampments to sort out problems, ranging from fights to public drinking.

So the Middlebury selectboard asked the town’s Policy Review Committee to draft an encampment policy to put in place this spring. Using Montpelier’s policy as a template, the local committee’s first draft suggested a ban on encampments “on the premises of a town or other government building (including the town offices, library and recreation center), public or private school, hospital, childcare facility, or adult day-care facility.”

The ban would also extend to the premises of a business, residence, or other privately owned land and upon which the town has been requested to intervene and enforce an encampment no-trespassing order; cemeteries, monuments, public greens or parks; town highway rights-of-way, lane of traffic, parking lot, sidewalk, bike lane, electric substation or transformer; a designated environmentally protected or recognized wildlife habitat area; or mountain biking or hiking trails, including the Trail Around Middlebury.

The draft document doesn’t reference areas where encampments might be acceptable. Advocates acknowledged that a community could open itself up to lawsuits and/or substantial financial responsibilities if it sanctions encampments in specific areas.

But the policy is intended to be more than a regulatory document, according to those working on it. It will also address “trauma-informed protocols” to guide any relocation of those living in an encampment that is determined to be unsafe and/or a health hazard or located in a restricted location.

The policy will also encourage “self-determination, by involving those with lived experience of being unhoused in decision-making processes,” according to the draft.

Although Middlebury seems to be a draw because of the available social services, Vergennes too has been struggling with individuals who don’t have housing. In early November, Vergennes police responded to a report that an unhoused person was accessing a Walker Avenue residential complex’s lobby to sleep. Also this year, the city council began talking about a policy that would set ground rules for homeless people camping within city limits.

Meanwhile, two forces have affected Middlebury’s homeless encampments in advance of a new policy: The onset of winter, which has sent houseless individuals to warmer climes or subsidized motel rooms; and a town decision to clear the campsite behind Ilsley Library, with officials citing safety, emergency access and winter maintenance issues.