Editor’s Note: Addie Lentzner is a senior at Arlington Memorial High School and also a student activist, advocating for Vermonters experiencing homelessness and leading the Student Anti-Racism Committee. For this story she worked as a student journalist, using on-the-ground reporting to raise awareness.
The Underground Workshop publishes student journalism from high school and college students across Vermont. There are many ways to contribute: students or teachers interested in participating should consult our current menu of opportunities. For more information, please email the workshop’s editor, Ben Heintz, at ben@vtdigger.org.
One motel in limbo: the view from Fife and Drum
by Addie Lentzner, Arlington Memorial High School
The Fife and Drum motel sits atop a small hill on the highway between downtown Bennington and Pownal. This October afternoon was dark and rainy, but the corridor was busy nonetheless, with residents arriving from errands and sitting outside. Pammy Mears, the motel’s assistant manager and housekeeper, bustled down the hallway, stopping to check in with guests and answer her phone.
The Fife and Drum has become home to an array of people, from young kids to an entertainer who once worked with Frank Sinatra. “We’re a family,” Pammy said.
Pammy was once homeless herself. She does not take for granted a roof, a bed, a shower. More than a decade ago, Pammy experienced homelessness with her husband, Tom, and their son, who was in second grade at the time. They lived in the shelter in North Bennington, then lived in their van for a time.
Eventually, the family moved to the Southgate motel in Bennington, then to the Fife and Drum. That’s when fate struck: the owners of the Fife and Drum asked Tom to work for them, and that’s how Pammy ended up working at the motel.
When Pammy was homeless, she paid out of pocket for their motel room. Today, the General Assistance Motel Program allows the state to pay for rooms for people in need. Since March 2020, the state has paid for motel rooms for roughly 2,000 people at 75 different motels.
Pammy wishes that the state-paid program existed when she experienced homelessness.
“This program is amazing,” she said, “how it’s helped people.”
Pammy has worked at the Fife and Drum for 8 years. She has taken on a social worker role over the course of the pandemic, carrying her lived experience with her into her work. She helps with food stamps, paperwork, and everyday essentials. Last year, the motel even held a Thanksgiving dinner for all residents.
Why does she go this extra mile? According to Pammy, “everybody is a human, everybody deserves a chance, everybody deserves help.”
In July, at least 700 Vermonters lost eligibility and were pushed out of the motels, many of whom now sleep on the street. The next round of exiting was set for September 23, but the program was extended first until October 21, and finally until December 31. The extension only applied to those set to leave on September 23; the people exited in July received no extension. The fate of the program, and the people in it, remains uncertain.
Donald and Rhonda are two guests at the Fife. Sitting in chairs outside their room, they said they had no other option than the GA program. After hurricanes and power outages, they said, their landlord left the couple without power or necessary home repairs for months on end. The landlord left them with no smoke detectors in their home and electrical wires running throughout their trailer. They had to eventually call a home inspector; living there had become unbearable. They transitioned to the GA Motel Program.
Donald and Rhonda are just two of thousands of clients around the state. Every situation differs, and the issue is perceived in different ways. Pammy said that just because the motels house people experiencing homelessness, people often connect them with crime.
Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette said that his department does receive calls to the local motels. He wrote in an email that “money needs to be used to help people that suffer from substance abuse or other types of mental health issues” in order to lower crime and calls to police.
According to Pammy, though, the Fife and Drum has not had to deal with any crime or other related issues: “We have a pretty quiet group here.”
Bonnie, sitting on the bench outside her motel room, emphasized the closeness and tranquility of the group at the Fife and Drum. Residents call her the ‘grammy’ of the motel while Pammy is the ‘mom’.
Bonnie said she has a Ph.D. in cognitive therapy and was once an entertainer who worked with Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra. “I’ve driven Mercedes, and had grandiose homes. I’ve had it all,” she said. “And I’ve lost it all.”
Bonnie spent time in the Albany Hospital, and then transitioned to the GA Program. In typical entertainer style, she explained how the hospital staff introduced her to the emergency service motel program, exclaiming with jazz hands and a ‘da da da!”
Bonnie does not know many people locally. Pammy, she said, is the one person she can relate to. Pammy walked over and sat down on the bench next to Bonnie, grasping her hand like a close friend or sister. Bonnie spoke to her through tears: “when you stop and talk to me it makes it better.”
According to Pammy, some of her guests have been lucky enough to be able to find housing. She emphasized that clients used the motel program as a stable space to work with housing agencies. However, the lack of available housing exacerbates the issue even if people can afford a home. Pammy said that one family was told by authorities to find housing in Hoosick Falls, NY, when all their support, their doctors and their kid’s school was in Bennington. Without local housing, people are left without many options.
Chloe Viner Collins is the Director of Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless. She used to work at the Holiday Inn in Burlington and was part of the July 1 exit of people in the Motel Program.
Viner Collins described a hectic month of June trying to transfer people to other shelters or motels. As July approached, she helped stock a room full of tents and suitcases to hand off to exiting guests. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do” she said, adding that it “felt like killing people.”
Viner Collins now runs the BCCH shelter in Bennington, where all 16 out of 16 shelter beds for adults are full. She said she will have to start turning people down just as the weather turns cold. She added that there are no plans to build affordable housing or convert motels in Bennington: Unless the Governor fully reinstates the program, for the dozens on the street and the hundreds in motels, there are no next steps, let alone a motel room.
This is not just a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. Bennington Representative Mary Morrissey is a Republican who supports the Motel Program. She is actively engaged in pursuing solutions to the housing crisis in Bennington County.
“For me, homelessness is a humanitarian issue,” Morrissey said. “It should never be a political issue and certainly not because you may be a Democrat or Republican.”
Pammy feels the Governor should reinstate the Motel Program. “It’s getting really cold out,” she said, “and nobody should have to be outside in the cold.”
Asked whether the Governor should reinstate the program, Bonnie slowly and methodically took down her glasses and said: only a “cold individual” would choose not to fully reinstate it.
The afternoon turned to evening, rain beat down outside the Fife and Drum, and guests began to head into their rooms. As she got up to go back to the front office, Pammy emphasized, “we’re all happy here, we’re all a family.”
