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Homeless citizens are out of view, but they’re still there

MIDDLEBURY — Frigid temperatures and the recent removal of Middlebury’s largest encampment behind the Ilsley Library has temporarily made homelessness more of an unseen problem in the county’s shire town.
So where did the folks go?
The Independent reached out to Addison County’s two shelter directors to get that question answered and get their insights on the current state of homelessness in our area and beyond.

HEIDI LACEY, EXECUTIVE director of the Charter House Coalition
There were, as recently as early December, more than a dozen homeless individuals braving the elements in tents, cars, storage lockers and other makeshift abodes in Middlebury village — most of them off Bakery Lane. That’s in addition to the 25 spots in the Charter House Emergency Shelter at 27 North Pleasant St., and the eight family rooms at the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes.
Local shelters remain full (with waiting lists), while the onset of winter and Middlebury officials’ decision last month to clear the downtown’s most sizable encampment off Bakery Lane — due to safety reasons — has scattered a vulnerable population. There remain a few holdouts trying to survive outdoors, and they receive semi-regular visits from public safety or human service officials.
“The quick answer is that yes, most of the individuals were able to identify an alternate dwelling or rental property,” Charter House shelter Executive Director Heidi Lacey said of the Middlebury-area’s houseless population. “The real question, though, is are the conditions they’ve succumbed to more appropriate or safer than where they had existed this summer, and how sustainable is their situation? The answer is debatable.”
Some have qualified for Vermont’s General Assistance Emergency Housing Program (GAEHP), through which homeless persons can receive vouchers for stays at participating hotels and motels. It’s a program that temporarily housed almost 3,000 Vermont households during the height of the COVID pandemic. But federal money that fed GAEHP has dried up, to the extent it’s only available to 1,600 households.
Fewer Addison County lodgers are participating in GAEHP, in part due to damage to rooms inflicted by some past tenants, and because the program’s reimbursement level has dropped.
Blanca Jenne, owner of the Middlebury Sweets Motel off Route 7 South, used to make around five of her business’s nine rooms available to houseless folks through GAEHP. The program allowed motels to fill rooms during the pandemic while providing a service to those in need. But the state this year lowered its GAEHP reimbursement rate by $29, to $80 per room per night, according to Jenne, whose market rate winter charge is $120.
Middlebury Sweets continues to maintain one GAEHP room but will likely phase that out in the near future, according to Jenne.
“I don’t want to have to rely on the program to fill my rooms,” she said, adding that while the majority of GAEHP guests have been good, she’s had bad experiences with a few — including some who didn’t observe the motel’s no smoking policy.
The Sugarhouse Motel on Route 7 in New Haven makes 12 rooms available to GAEHP clients, but other area lodgers have been following the Middlebury Sweets lead, according to Lacey.
“In Addison County, local motel/hotel managers have, for the most part, declined to re-engage with the state of Vermont to accept voucher participants,” she said. “This leaves Addison County natives faced with even bigger challenges if they have lost their housing and are trying to maintain their support system locally. To my knowledge, any unhoused person who may have left Vermont at the onset of winter met conditions more scary or dire than facing the cold here, and they have returned.”

SUSAN WHITMORE, EXECUTIVE director of John Graham Housing & Services
Susan Whitmore, executive director of John Graham Housing & Services, is also aware of the GAEHP issues.
“This year, we have seen more demand from those who don’t fit into a special population (people with kids or disabilities) in the General Assistance program,” she said. “So, more demand from single adults. And there’s also an increase in calls because hotels/motels participating in General Assistance has decreased.”
STILL STRUGGLING
Lacey noted not all of the folks who congregated at the now-cleared Bakery Lane encampment were homeless.
“For the six or so that were last to leave and who would meet the (federal Department of Housing and Urban Development) definition of homelessness, two households secured housing and others either accepted an out-of-county motel voucher or have placed themselves back in harm’s way in unsafe and sometimes abusive circumstances,” she said. “All, you can bet, are thankful to be out of the frigid temperatures but may be struggling in ways not related to the cold.”
Whitmore is aware of around five individuals still living outdoors in the northern part of the county.
Lacey noted the encampment behind the library wasn’t the only temporary “home” to persons living outside or in their vehicles. “The continued lack of affordable housing has crippled many households again this winter,” Lacey said. “The work of our community outreach team still meets or checks in on several individuals in Addison County who are sleeping outdoors: some fortunate to have vehicles, some without.”
One man has been living under a tarp off Merchants Row, in the shadow of the new Town Hall Theater addition. Middlebury police have periodically invited him, and others with no other options on the most frigid of nights, to warm up at the police headquarters.
“When all else fails, we offer the lobby of the police department as a temporary shelter, if the person is willing,” said Middlebury Police Chief Jason Covey. “As a matter of fact, we did this with two different individuals on two separate nights last week. Each person spent the night in the lobby and then departed in the morning.”
Covey stressed a warmup at Middlebury PD “clearly is not a long-term solution and presents some challenges in and of itself, but it is often the only option we have when other solutions are not available.”
Sadly, other solutions aren’t readily available given the county’s maxed-out homeless shelters.
“Our emergency overflow (contingency) has been open since Nov. 1 and has served on average three individuals each night,” Lacey said. “We typically see the nightly numbers reach five to seven individuals regularly in January, I suspect that will happen this week and through the end of February as it did last year.
The Committee on Temporary Shelter was slated to open a new, 30-bed shelter at 58 Pearl St. in Burlington this week. Might this stem the flow of houseless individuals who’ve been leaving Chittenden County in search of beds in Addison County?
“Perhaps our service in Middlebury would be less sought after, however many unhoused guests report not feeling safe in the Burlington area,” Lacey said. “We’re not counting on any added capacity, and we’ll be here to provide services as needed, and as we are able.”
MEDICALLY VULNERABLE
Lacey said she and her colleagues are most concerned right now about patients being discharged from hospitals “who are medically vulnerable that have nowhere to go but to the streets… Due to the lack of hospital beds and the service capacity of shelter providers, people living with chronic medical conditions are literally being left in the cold. Without medically trained staff and a properly equipped environment, the stakes get too high for shelter providers and sometimes their staff and other guests.”
According to Phillip Rau, senior communications specialist with the University of Vermont Health Network, Middlebury’s Porter Medical Center partners with local shelters, transitional housing programs and nonprofit organizations to provide temporary or long-term housing solutions to patients upon discharge.
He said “medically vulnerable” individuals discharged from Porter are connected with community resources and support services, including housing assistance, transportation, and follow-up medical care. They’re also offered post-discharge follow-up appointments, telehealth options and medication management services.
Porter doesn’t have short-term emergency beds to accommodate houseless patients.
Linda Havey, Porter’s chief nursing officer, provided the following statement:
“At Porter Medical Center, we are committed to addressing social determinants of health in our community — including housing instability. We strive to make immediate connections to community-based resources for medically vulnerable individuals discharged from the hospital. Addressing housing and health care instability requires a coordinated approach by local and state policymakers that addresses the root causes of these challenges. We will continue to advocate for broad, community-based solutions and legislative action to expand transitional housing resources and support services — as well as fostering partnerships and seeking innovative ways to support our most vulnerable patients.”
Most — if not all — of Vermont’s low-barrier shelters have outfitted to provide rehabilitation-level care for guests who need it, Lacey noted.
The John Graham Shelter has been seeing firsthand the needs of the frail.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in elders seeking shelter,” Whitmore said. “50% of households currently in shelter at John Graham Shelter are elders with long-term care needs.”
41 HOMELESS CHILDREN
And more are at risk of becoming homeless given the county’s housing crisis, advocates lamented.
Based on local service-providers’ data, there were 156 houseless persons in Addison County last year, of which 41 were children. This data doesn’t include all unhoused people and doesn’t acknowledge those at risk of becoming homeless.
“The facts are discouraging,” Lacey said.
And the longer a person remains houseless, then more trauma they’ll likely experience, according to Lacey.
Sadly, part of the trauma comes from trying to navigate the human services system that was built to help them.
“Homeless people have been put through their paces and given the runaround by a system that may have good intentions but that is lacking in continuity,” Lacey said. “We see their reluctance to engage and respect the reasons why. Our systems are breaking people down. The ignorant comments made about a person who appears to be stubbornly declining services and/or ‘choosing’ a life of hardship are just that; ignorant. The systems meant to serve and to promote healing are far beyond just needing minor repair. A very unsettling trend that staff and I see, is that engagement on the part of the providers has had to change over the past four years.”
State and federal authorities have acknowledged Vermont’s homelessness problem and have tried to fund shelters accordingly. But Whitmore pointed to clouds on the horizon.
She said the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance – Housing Stability Services program will end on June 30. That program has bankrolled two full-time housing navigators at JGHS.
“Unless we find alternative funding, we will lose this staff — and each has a caseload of 15-18 at any given time,” Whitmore said.
Other financial barriers: No in-shelter treatment resources for guests with chronic ailments, including memory care.
“Long wait times for mental health care mean we now have a fund to support a per diem therapist to provide mental health counseling — and it’s rapidly dwindling,” Whitmore added.
And while a new state childcare law has beefed up childcare supports for many parents and centers, folks in shelters aren’t reaping the rewards — at least not yet, Whitmore noted.
“A complete lack of childcare (or long wait lists) is a barrier to our shelter guests finding employment, and that delays any opportunity for people to get a housing voucher and move into housing,” she said.
John Flowers is at [email protected].
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