This story by Avi Zimet was first published by the Montpelier Bridge on March 7.
About 60 people have found a place to sleep at the Elks Club Winter Shelter on Country Club Road, a refitted office space used as an emergency overnight shelter this winter, said Good Samaritan Haven co-executive director Rick DeAngelis. “Good Sam” — as DeAngelis calls it — has operated the shelter and leased the former Elks clubhouse from the city of Montpelier since November.
“The number of unsheltered homeless has steadily risen in this area in recent years and was estimated by Good Sam as 80 individuals during the fall of 2023. ‘Unsheltered’ is defined as living in a place not fit for human habitation and could include in campsites, under bridges or in vehicles,” said DeAngelis.
“We’ve operated overflow shelters over the years in various locations, most notably church basements. And this is the best space we’ve had,” said DeAngelis. “I’ve heard positive comments about it being a comfortable, safe space,” he said. “We allow folks to leave their stuff here overnight, which is a huge advantage.”
“I think it’s a success,” DeAngelis added. The shelter has been operating close to its permit maximum of 20 per night. About a third are women, with “a lot of older folks too.”
The shelter had co-located in the same building as the Sweet Clover Nursery for young children for a few months. DeAngelis said “there were some tense moments,” while co-locating, but “we made some accommodations, at their request, that helped them feel safer, and we’ve been without incident. And they’ve actually been quite supportive.”
The Bridge reached out to staff at Sweet Clover, but did not hear back from them as of press time.
In addition to the emergency shelter at Country Club Road in Montpelier, Good Sam operates shelters in Barre, Berlin and Montpelier, as well as a street outreach program.
“It takes a long time to pull a small facility together,” DeAngelis said. Good Sam “started looking in March, or April, because we knew there was going to be a severe problem this year.”
Bethany Church was an initial choice, where Good Sam operated winter shelters in 2017, 2018 and 2019, DeAngelis said. Then, the July 10 flood badly damaged the building. “So that was completely off the table.”
The city’s recreation center on Barre Street was also considered, but “needs so much work, you would have never got it within that time frame. It was just impossible,” DeAngelis said. “We were interested in a conversion of the basement, which has never really been investigated.”
“It was actually the city of Montpelier that said, ‘hey, have you ever thought of utilizing the Country Club?’ They deserve a lot of credit.” DeAngelis also referred to the city as a “great partner,” noting their interest in addressing homelessness and contributing to Good Sam’s street outreach team for the past two years.
“Thanks to manager Rhonna Gable and all the staff at the Elks for their excellent service this winter,” said DeAngelis.
“It’s modern, decent office space, really.”
“This was an office, and each of these individual offices had doors on them, which we took off,” said DeAngelis. “You have to do that for fire safety,” he said. Sprinklers were already installed, and the office “is laid out well … we didn’t have to do much.”
Rooms can be monitored but have a reasonable amount of privacy. Up to three people can sleep in each room, and a common area connects them, with a microwave and refrigerator.
“People can heat up stuff. It’s important to have, because not everyone has eaten,” DeAngelis said.
The shelter is two miles from downtown, so Good Sam operates a van twice a day, to get people to and from the shelter, stopping at Barre Street, Main Street and the transit center.
“You have to take the van. There is no other way you can get here. We just don’t allow it, because we want to make sure it’s a safe environment,” said DeAngelis. “This is a challenging element but it has gone relatively smoothly.”
“There’s always at least two staff people here,” plus the driver. “Some of the people work with Washington County Mental Health also.”
Having a daytime partner is essential, especially “if it’s zero degrees outside,” said DeAngelis. Both Another Way and the transit center have been available as warming spaces during the day. Another Way also has a shower, computers and a meal often provided by an interfaith group.
Statewide Housing Crisis
In 2023, Vermont had the second highest rate of homelessness in the U.S. on a per capita basis, almost doubling after the pandemic, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, Vermont also has the highest rate of sheltered homeless, through emergency shelters and the state hotel program.
On March 1, the Vermont Department for Children and Families announced the continuation of the state hotel program, saying “it is important to note that no Vermonter lost their room due to these negotiations.”
It would take a $1 billion investment to produce 2,000 housing units, far from filling the 6,800 housing unit gap in Vermont, according to a Nov. 2023 post from Gov. Scott’s office.
“We can’t solve the problem that the state as a whole has,” said DeAngelis. “It’s complicated, too. It’s not just building the unit,” he said.
“I’ll tell you something else that’s more of an intangible, but to me it’s very very important. A lot of people are lonely. They’re disconnected from others. They’re on their own. They’ve been traumatized. They want to live someplace where there are other people. And sometimes, you know, maybe they think, well, hey I’m living on the street but at least I have this crowd around me right here of people that I hang out with during the day. And it’s better than being by myself.”
“We want people to feel accepted and valued, and that we care about them, and I just know it, because my office is in the shelter. It’s home for a lot of those guests, and it may not be perfect, but they’ve got some element, level of community there.”
The Elks Club seasonal overflow shelter is “only funded through April,” and then the process of finding funding and a location continues. With the four shelters Good Sam is running, DeAngelis said they worry they might “stretch a little too far right now … I mean, we’ve grown three-fold over the past three or four years.”
