(This story by Kayla Collier was published in the News & Citizen on Dec. 14, 2017.)
A battle that started fiercely in 2015 to build a shelter in Morrisville for Lamoille County’s homeless people has fallen by the wayside — even as homeless counts climb and winter sets in for the third time since talks began.
“The Lamoille Valley Housing and Homeless Coalition wants to work with the whole Lamoille community to come up with solutions people are supportive of. This is an all hands on deck type situation and we will need widespread support to succeed,” Will Eberle, co-chair of the coalition, said. “We are not interested in fighting for something they don’t want.”
In the last two years, the coalition has faced concerns about whether a homeless shelter would admit intoxicated people, whether it would attract people who aren’t from Morristown, and the effect it might have on downtown revitalization.
Coalition members were accosted with questions about why they were trying to help people who “got themselves into this situation,” Eberle said.
The coalition ran into arguments over locations that butted up against the town’s zoning laws and residents’ views on proximity to a child care center.
In the end, nothing panned out.
Meanwhile, the Lamoille County homeless count tripled, to 65 individuals — up from 22 in 2016 — according to the annual point-in-time count taken Jan. 28, 2017. Eberle expects another increase in the annual count next month.
Since that single-night count last January, Capstone Community Action, a nonprofit in Morrisville that helps to move people out of poverty, has worked with 67 households — 119 people — on housing-related issues.
Thirty-three of those people were children under age 18, and four were over age 62.
“We count people who walk in our doors looking for help” during the year, said Melissa Pena of Capstone. “Our hardest thing is finding affordable housing. There aren’t a lot of subsidized housing options in Lamoille County, and we often have to wait for someone else to move out.”
In June, Eberle and the coalition decided they had to get to the root cause of homelessness and come up with a response that is greater than just a shelter. However, they want the answer to come from the community.
“The two biggest barriers are: One, understanding that people who are homeless are not inherently doing anything wrong, and two, working on options with landlords to share the risks of tenancy and put the right supports in place as rents themselves become more expensive,” Eberle said.
There are even more barriers for people who are disabled, or escaping a domestic violence situation, or who need mental health or substance abuse support.
Right now, the Vermont Agency of Human Services office in Morrisville is seeing a lot of families with children who need assistance, many of them are led by working parents who just don’t make enough.
But there is also a lot of addiction and trauma.
These families and individuals often don’t seek assistance until it’s almost too late, because of the stigma associated with being homeless or needing a hand up.
“We’re seeing people trying to make a go of it on their own in trailers that aren’t fit to live in or campers that aren’t fit for the season,” Eberle said. “They come to us when it gets too cold, and often we can’t meet their whole need, as people are rarely seeking help in just one area.”
And if they need a family shelter, even for a night, the closest options are in Burlington or Vergennes, and those shelters are often full with folks from Chittenden and Addison counties.
Emergency vouchers triple
With the lack of housing options, the use of emergency housing vouchers more than tripled — from $36,615 spent in Lamoille County between July 2015 and April 2016 to $121,468 between July 2016 and April 2017. That occurred despite the state’s 2014 pledge to reduce the amount of money it spends on motel vouchers.
“That’s a lot of money for the state to just throw away,” said Tina, a woman in Morrisville who’d spent three months in a hotel with her two children before signing a lease last month on an apartment with help from Capstone.
Tina didn’t want her last name printed, because she didn’t want the stigma of being homeless attached to her daughters, ages 4 and 10, and because her family had been involved in a domestic violence situation.
“The state emergency housing gave us $3,000 a month when it was all boiled down — that’s more than rent — but it could only be used to cover the hotel stay,” Tina said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
For Tina and her two children, finding four walls and a roof to call home is a huge relief, but the months-long process was confusing and drawn out.
“The most important thing for families like mine that were homeless is making sure their kids are housed, clothed and fed,” she said. “There are a lot of blank pages in my life, but now I’m more confident going forward. Capstone’s staff has been amazing.”
Anyone who would like to get involved in community-level efforts to end homelessness can attend Lamoille Valley Housing and Homeless Coalition meetings on the second Thursday of every month from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Vermont Agency of Human Services district office, 63 Professional Drive, Morrisville.
