Evictions, lack of renter protections partly to blame for homeless crisis

Evictions, low rental vacancy rates, and the loss of the motel program mean there are fewer places for unhoused Vermonters to go.

Vermont’s homelessness crisis is getting worse, according to a new report released by the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont. 

The recently released 2025 State of Homelessness in Vermont Report outlines the scope of Vermont’s worsening homelessness problem — including here in Addison County — and offers potential remedies.

The July 1 sunset of the state’s motel voucher program has sent more than 300 vulnerable Vermont households into uncertain housing situations, and leaders at Addison County’s two homeless shelters are noting a corresponding uptick in demand.

There’s plenty to see in downtown Middlebury these days. But what you won’t see — at least as of this week — are small clusters of houseless persons who, during the past few years, have set up temporary encampments downtown during the warmer months.

Like too many disenfranchised Americans, Jerome Hazelwood is an unhoused neighbor of our community. BIPOC neighbors are five times more likely to experience homelessness in Vermont than their white neighbors. Since this interview, he was “exited” from Ver … (read more)

As you may be aware, May 6 is National Homeless Awareness Day. This issue is important to me as a community member who believes that assisting those in need ultimately benefits society, and who believes those benefits work along both ethical and financial … (read more)

On Homelessness Awareness Day this coming Tuesday, May 6, the Addison County Housing Coalition will mark the occasion with a special event on the Middlebury town green, from 7:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

His wife scurried to collect their things as her half-asleep, disheveled partner hollered at the authorities who had come to “move them along” from their encampment under a bridge.

After just reading the January 16 issue of the Addison Independent, I am struck by two articles. One is about the Middlebury Police Department letting people sleep on the floor of their station when they have nowhere to go.

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 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 … (read more)

The document will guide the community in regulating the makeshift campsites that houseless individuals have been creating and using for shelter — primarily in the downtown and greater village areas — during the warmer months of the year.

Good progress. That’s an apt reflection of the town of Middlebury’s effort to manage its relatively small, and mostly cooperative, houseless population. 

At a recent meeting with colleagues, in which we were discussing how to engage a broader audience regarding services to unhoused people in our area, one person uttered the words “public safety.” This provoked strong reactions from the others.