In my decades of work with disadvantaged Vermonters, I have seen assistance programs come and go, and funding commitments rise and fall, dependent on the economy, political administrations, and government priorities.
On Saturday, March 30, come to Town Hall Theater in Middlebury to see Bess O’Brien’s new documentary “Just Getting By.” This film is a sweeping, and yet intimate look at the lives of Vermonters who are struggling with food and housing insecurity.
While there’s apt to be more than one right answer, I was taught that a crisis, fundamentally, is a critical situation in which the demands exceed the resources available to meet them. A crisis often feels like “we can’t get there from here.”
If you have spent any amount of time in the “affordable housing” rabbit hole, you are aware that research over the last 50 years has shown that nonprofit housing organizations are consistently better at keeping people housed than for-profit housing develo … (read more)
In the spirit of the Living Together series, we cannot live together unless there are homes for people to live in.
Twenty years ago — March 26, 2004 — members of the Congregational Church of Middlebury cooked and served the first Friday Night Community Supper.
Each day in the news, tales of woe involving people who are unhoused can be found. The message is loud. Disguised in intellectual words and politically correct terms; people living in the unhoused category hear only one thing, “You are not wanted here!”
Our community faces a multifaceted crisis where these issues not only strain our resources but also impact the safety and well-being of our most vulnerable residents.
It’s a common misconception that unhoused people are not working. The truth is quite the opposite; 85% of the families served by John Graham Housing and Services have one or more working parents.
As the Emergency Services Coordinator at Counseling Service of Addison County, I read Chris Mason’s article ‘New Mental Health Strategy Needed’ from last week’s paper with concern and an active desire to connect with him and others in the community about … (read more)
There is a burgeoning housing crisis in Vermont, as evidenced in our state’s shockingly high rate of unhoused, and even more shocking increase in that rate — an estimated 218% between 2007 and 2023 according to HUD. The causes are complex, with contributi … (read more)
My story is not unique, and the isolation and hopeless feelings of active addiction are not unique. Finding a place to belong was an essential first step in my journey to recovery.
The small contingent of houseless campers under Middlebury’s Cross Street Bridge and along the Otter Creek further downstream has at least temporarily left the downtown area in favor of warmer accommodations — though they’ve left some of their possessions … (read more)
While the comfortably housed segment of our communities might consider homelessness to be a blight on society, to the unhoused and housing insecure members of our community, homelessness is a devastating reality.
A lack of available housing created a lot of problems in 2023, not only for folks trying to settle in Addison County, but for various businesses and institutions trying to fill vacancies on their workforce rosters.
