| John W. Graham Emergency Shelter for the Homeless in Vergennes, VT |
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"City council supports Graham Shelter grant" "Shelter expands focus
on transitional housing" "Student interns laud homeless shelter" "My Turn: Addison County shelter quietly doing good" "Overflow homeless shelter sought for county"Addison Independent, Oct. 23, 2008 "Shelter Directors Demand Emergency Funding" Seven Days, Oct. 1, 2008 "Affordable housing out of reach for some county residents" Addison Independent, Nov. 22, 2007 "Homeless in Vermont" VPR Series and Stories, July 7, 2007 "Homelessness not just an urban problem" Associated Press/boston.com, Dec. 23, 2006 "Homelessness knows no holiday in county" Addison Independent, Dec. 18, 2006 "Local homelessness a suprise to college students" Addison Independent, Oct. 23, 2006
City council supports Graham Shelter grant
By ANDY KIRKALDY, Addison Independent - June 21, 2010 VERGENNES — Vergennes aldermen last Tuesday agreed to apply for a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant on behalf of the John Graham Emergency Homeless Shelter. Shelter officials hope to use those and other private grants and donations within the next year to complete a $500,000 upgrade of the building at the corner of Main Street and Monkton Road. The property, a former boarding house with 10 bedrooms, including a manager’s apartment, has been used as a homeless shelter and transitional housing for families for the past 30 years. It provides help for its residents in finding counseling, jobs and permanent homes. The project will renovate the living spaces and create for the first time a communal living room; install sprinklers; upgrade wiring, plumbing and insulation; install a new heating system and energy-efficiency equipment; repair the foundation, chimneys and roofing; and replace a porch. Shelter director Elizabeth Ready told aldermen on Tuesday the changes — the first major work in the shelter’s 30 years — should benefit the mental health of the shelter’s residents and improve the look of a gateway to Vergennes. “My goal in doing this is to have an environment in which people can take the next step in their lives,” Ready said. “I want it to look good for (Vergennes) residents and the community and be a place the residents can move forward from.” The only significant comment aldermen had in what was technically a public hearing — one that no Vergennes residents attended — came from Alderwoman Ziggy Comeau. Comeau said it was a shame that less expensive and easier-to-maintain vinyl siding could not be used instead of wood clapboards on the building, and wanted to point out that regulations made projects more expensive. She was glad that the council’s meeting was telecast so that constituents would know she thought these regulations are wasteful. “I’d like to have it on TV so people understand it,” Comeau said. Others pointed out that because it is a historic building in a historic district that guidelines had to be followed. City Manager Mel Hawley said block grants ultimately come from federal funds. “People’s hands are tied,” Hawley said. “When there’s federal funding involved, there’s strings attached, and this one’s a rope.” In other business at their Aug. 17 meeting, aldermen: • Heard from Alderwoman Christine Collette that the city’s farmers’ market is beginning to do well on its new day and time. Collette credited new market manager Rhonda Williams for her recruitment and promotion. “It’s been a good first year with her energy,” Collette said. • Re-appointed the city’s Youth Fishing Derby Committee. “They do their jobs, and they do their jobs well,” said Alderman Lowell Bertrand. • Heard from Mayor Mike Daniels that he hoped to find a way to open the city’s skate park more often and more regularly. Finding adult volunteers to supervise the park has been a problem this summer, according to Alderman David Austin, who has been overseeing the park for the council, but was not present on Tuesday. • Heard from Daniels that 479 boats had come up Otter Creek to take advantage of free docking at the city’s docks, fewer than a year ago. • Heard from Daniels that he would be making a special award to a local citizen at the city bandstand at 10:45 a.m. on Vergennes Day, which is this Saturday, Aug. 28. Reporter Andy Kirkaldy is at andyk@addisonindependent.com. Graham Shelter eyes renovation
By ANDY KIRKALDY, Addison Independent - June 21, 2010 VERGENNES — Officials of the John W. Graham Emergency Shelter are working toward a major renovation of the shelter’s original building in Vergennes, which sits prominently at the intersection of Main Street and Monkton Road. On June 8, the Vergennes City Council agreed to support the homeless shelter board’s application for a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) that could pay for most, but far from all, of a project that would follow sensitive historic preservation guidelines. Shelter director Elizabeth Ready said a preliminary study has been done, but a full evaluation set for this summer should pin down a final number. She would not be surprised if the total cost was in the neighborhood of the $500,000 it took to renovate Barre’s Samaritan House, another homeless shelter. “I do want to stress we are going to have to raise money,” Ready said. “Even the Community Development people are going to want to see we are working hard in the community.” Vergennes Mayor Michael Daniels said aldermen quickly agreed to sign off on the CDBG grant, something the council had to do to allow the Graham Shelter board to proceed with the application. “It’s a way to get funding for something that needs to be done,” Daniels said. “Here’s a great opportunity for them to get the funding ... It’s the right support to offer, and it’s something that needs to happen.” That support — which will not cost the city any money — will not necessarily translate into approval when the Vermont Community Development Program board sits down late this fall to review block grant applications, Ready said, although she is optimistic given the high use of the shelter and its high visibility. “I want to stress these are competitive grants,” she said. The building in question is one of three the Graham Shelter now operates; it is the original building and the largest, with six bedrooms, one of them handicap-accessible. The 30-year-old organization has in recent years added buildings on East Street in Vergennes and on Mountain Street in Bristol. Ready said the organization has also worked hard to take care of its original Vergennes building, but wear and tear is inevitable. “We’ve been open 24/7 for 30 years ... The shelter is always full,” Ready said. “We are packed full with people, and we’ve gotten an outreach person to try to place people in private apartments ... Basically, we just need a major facelift.” The preliminary report completed by Tom Keefe of Keefe and Wesner Architects was complimentary of the Graham Shelter’s maintenance efforts, but noted that work was needed on the slate roof, brick chimney, some exterior paint and in some windows. And the biggest exterior issue Keefe identified may have been that the original wood siding was covered by aluminum siding, and wood siding would be necessary for historic preservation purposes. “It’s the gateway to Vergennes,” Ready said. “We’d like to redo the siding.” Keefe also noted “apparent inefficiencies” in the interior layout; pointed to storage as “a critical need;” and called for better energy efficiency, insulation and “improved mechanical and electrical system components.” Ready said one major interior issue she has seen in her tenure is the lack of a living space other than a shared kitchen for families to gather to relax or do job or home searches or school work. “We really don’t have much living space for residents,” she said. “It’s very tough on our families.” Lack of insulation has also been an issue, Ready said. “There are certain rooms we can’t put families with babies in in the winter,” Ready said. Ready hopes the study this summer will pin down estimates. If the block grant comes through this fall and winter and community fund-raising goes well, she foresees work next summer between school sessions, when families’ lives would have the least disruption.
“I can’t tell you exactly how long it will be, but we will try to minimize that,” she said. “It will be in the summer, and it will be as short a time as possible, and I’m not sure if we will have to close completely or not. Our goal is that we will be all ready and renovated for the beginning of school.” When the Graham Shelter got its Bristol home up and running, the project benefited from tremendous community activism, Ready said. She hopes that effort can be duplicated next summer if all goes according to plan. “I’m hoping the community will get involved ... On Mountain Street we had a tremendous number of volunteers,” Ready said. “There will be opportunities for people to pitch in with materials and time.” Reporter Andy Kirkaldy is at andyk@addisonindependent.com. City shelter marks 30 years taking people off the streets
By JOHN FLOWERS, Addison Independent - April 8, 2010 VERGENNES — Becky, 23, thought she was on a path to matrimony and a nurturing household for her two children. But the longtime Addison County resident’s life took an abrupt turn last month with a sudden breakup that left her homeless. Faced with no other options, Becky sought help at the John W. Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes. “I had nowhere else to go,” Becky said. It was a different setting than she had imagined. There was camaraderie among residents, a residential feel and an expectation from the staff that the brief stay would lead to something permanent. And it did. Barely a week into her stay, Becky was packing up her belongings — which included a Section 8 housing certificate — for an apartment in St. Albans. There, Becky planned to make a new life for herself and her children with the help of a dear friend already established in that community. She said her brief stay at the shelter will remain an eye opening experience. “It’s not like an open gymnasium with cots on the floor,” Becky said. “What I would like to see is for people not to look down on homeless shelters.” Like Becky and many of its other clients, the John Graham Shelter — now marking its 30th year — has been making a transition of its own. When first established in 1980, the shelter served mainly as a temporary landing spot for locals and transients who didn’t have anywhere else to stay. If they showed adequate diligence in trying to land a job and permanent housing, their stays could be extended beyond 21 days. Those who did not put in the effort often found themselves moving on to another shelter, or sofa surfing at a friend or family member’s home. Times, and strategies, have now changed. The shelter now has a staff of a half-dozen workers who work with each client to try and get them into a permanent home and a job that will help them stay in that home. The organization has forged a relationship with the University of Vermont Masters of Social Work Program, which has benefited aspiring students and clients alike. “We are more interested in breaking the cycle of homelessness,” said shelter Executive Director Elizabeth Ready. The numbers bear that out. During the past six months, the shelter has provided outreach, case management and comprehensive support — services including mental health counseling, job search aid and relocation help — to more than 130 homeless people, according to Ready. More than 100 of those clients have gone on to stable, more permanent housing, she said. Ready and shelter Outreach Case Manager Clara Carroll credited a recent infusion of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) money for helping boost outcomes for clients. The shelter hopes to get around $80,000 in ARRA funds, but has thus far received $32,000. That money has been used to help pay security deposits and other related expenses to clinch permanent housing for more than 25 shelter families. “It’s the money that gets them in the door,” Ready said. Once in their new homes, the former shelter residents continue to get support from such organizations as the Parent-Child Center of Addison County, Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, WomenSafe and the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. That support has definitely been welcomed and needed. “It felt to me this winter and the past winter that there just weren’t enough beds for the amount of people who needed them,” Carroll said. “It made a lot of sense to invest in the people who were there so we wouldn’t see them again. I think that has been pretty effective.” Not all of the shelter clients’ stories have happy endings, officials noted. Approximately 20 clients during the past sic months have had to move on to treatment or other shelters. At least one family suddenly broke a lease when it realized it would not make the ensuing month’s rent. Carroll, an AmeriCorps volunteer, said she realizes that the shelter will not be able to have an impact on everyone that walks through its doors. “I think there are a lot of people who have a lot of challenges, and housing can’t be their first priority,” she said, noting clients who have had substance abuse and other chronic problems. “Housing is a few steps beyond where they are at right now.” But the shelter staff and board of directors have been taking steps to make sure fewer homeless people fall through the cracks. The Vergennes shelter can accommodate up to 25 people. But the organization has established three transitional housing sites, most recently on Mountain Street in Bristol, to meet an ever-growing need. Local clergy and nonprofits have also joined in to establish overflow shelters, including one in the Congregational Church of Middlebury’s Charter House. While shelter officials are pleased with the new resources they have been able to deploy, they remain concerned with recent trends they have been seeing in their client traffic. The past six months have seen the shelter serve more families with children, more teens, young adults and — most troubling of all — more women and children victimized by abuse, rape and assault than ever before in the organization’s history, according to Ready. Shelter officials have learned there is no “typical” client. The facility last year served such people as an injured stonemason, a 73-year-old woman suffering with mental illness, and a professional dancer. All have been linked by a common thread — a lack of resources. “As the recession continued, we saw families staying for longer periods, sometimes up to 9 months, because they were unable to find housing, jobs, or both,” Ready said. A turnaround in the economy will be key if the shelter’s efforts are to have a longstanding impact, according to Ready. “We are hoping people are going to get jobs,” Ready said. “The next question is, ‘will the economy grow quick enough so that people are able to sustain (the housing gains they have made)?’” Becky has already been getting some resumes out in St. Albans. Asked where she would like to be in her life five years from now, she replied, “I’d like to be in a steady job, off of Section 8, not needing help anymore.” Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com. By Kathryn Flagg - Addison Independent
- Dec. 3, 2009 BRISTOL — The John Graham Emergency Shelter on
Monday closed a deal for a $198,000 home in Bristol, which the Vergennes-based
homeless shelter intends to covert into three units of transitional
housing. The deal comes at a time of rising demand for the homeless
shelter’s services. It marks a ratcheting up of the organization’s
efforts to use transitional housing to give families and individuals
a place to get back on their feet while they hunt for a permanent
residence that is away from the hubbub of the shelter but under the
umbrella of a support system. The Bristol property, at 24 Mountain
St., will be the second transitional housing unit the shelter owns,
and the first outside Vergennes. Shelter Executive Director Elizabeth Ready estimated
the building needs about $100,000 in work, primarily in lead abatement
and energy efficiency upgrades, but she hopes to have at least
one or two of the three apartments occupied in the next few months. The purchase was made using private funds the shelter
raised from local donors, but Ready hopes the cost will be offset
by a possible grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board,
a subsidized mortgage from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston
through the National Bank of Middlebury, and a $30,000 grant from
the Department of Housing and Urban Development secured by Vermont’s
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. The property is close to Bristol Elementary
School and a stone’s throw from the Shaw’s grocery
store and a bus stop, which Ready said will help families who don’t
own a vehicle. The shelter is also hopeful that having a transitional
housing property in Bristol will be good news for homeless families
and individuals in the Five Towns area. Ready said that numbers
are always in flux, but over the last few months roughly half of
the people the shelter has worked with have come from that part
of the county. Clara Carroll, a case manager at the shelter, said homelessness in more remote regions of the county is made more devastating because residents in those areas ó many of whom do not have cars ó donít have easy access to services or public assistance. In light of that, the shelter hopes to use the Bristol housing unit as an auxiliary food shelf. (Bristolís current lone food shelf is only open once a month.) EASING TRANSITIONS So Carroll is heading up a new initiative
at the shelter. She’s going directly to private and public
landlords to negotiate leases for residents at the shelter. Traditional
transitional housing options, through the shelter, give tenants
a chance to earn a good recommendation and boost their chances
for renting on the open market. Without that step it’s often
very difficult for residents at the shelter — many of whom
have bad credit and poor references — to find a landlord
who will rent to them. But under this new initiative — which the shelter
ramped up this summer — a case manager pledges to continue
working with a family after they’ve made the move into privately
owned housing. Landlords are reassured that some of the shelter’s
services will still be available to their new tenants. The shelter
helps with down payment assistance, and in some cases can arrange
to have rent money “vendored,” or sent directly to
a landlord from a paycheck, “Reach Up” assistance or
a Section 8 voucher without passing through the tenant’s
hands.<br /> The numbers are promising: The shelter
has seen more demand for its services this year than ever before.
In the past two months alone, the shelter’s case managers
have worked with 79 homeless people in 31 households. Of these,
65 people in 23 households got stable housing and in most cases
will continue to receive support from one of four shelter case
managers. The remaining households received food, shelter, and
case management services, and the shelter’s staff is hopeful
that some will be placed in the Mountain Street units in Bristol.
In a perfect world, Ready said, the shelter would be able to place
some of its first families in the house by the time the holidays
roll around. So far, the feedback from tenants and landlords has
been encouraging, too. Most landlords are nervous about taking
a tenant coming from a homeless shelter, Carroll said, but many
people are much more comfortable with the idea if there’s
a third party involved. ìThereís a lot of compassion,î Carroll said. ìItís a new way of participating in our community.î Shelter resident finds help in transitional housing But the day wasn’t your typical
case of apartment hopping. For Nick, the move signaled the end
of his family’s more than nine months in one of the John
Graham Emergency Shelter’s transitional housing units on
East Street in Vergennes, and the transition from homelessness
to new renter. On Monday, Nick, shelter Executive
Director Elizabeth Ready, and case manager Clara Carroll grabbed
seats in Ready’s compact office, which doubles as the shelter’s
food shelf. Just days after Thanksgiving, the shelves were mostly
empty. Carroll leafed through her notebook, and the three worked
down Nick’s “to do” list: the lease, the deposit,
first month’s rent. Nick and his two sons, who were both
in diapers at the time, landed at the shelter last winter. Now,
Nick is relieved to be making the jump to Middlebury. In the new
apartment he can walk his sons to daycare, and he is optimistic
about his job prospects in the area. (He works full-time as a volunteer
at Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, but is hunting for
paid work.) Still, for all his enthusiasm about the move, Nick
spoke highly about his months in the East Street transitional unit.
He’d been “a little bit of everywheres” before
he ended up at the shelter, but it didn’t take long for Nick — and
Ready — to realize that the shelter spelled chaos for two
toddlers. There were the building’s rickety stairs to navigate,
and Nick hated waking up the shelter’s other residents when
he got up in the middle of the night to get one of his sons a glass
of milk. “It’s tough for parents
with really tiny children,” Ready said. “It was a top
priority for us to move Nick (to East Street).” So the shelter acted fast. Soon, Nick
and his sons were living in a one-bedroom apartment with their
own kitchen, and Nick soon became president of the resident’s
association that governs the housing units. His children had bounced
around a lot before he won custody of the two boys, so Nick was
pleased to give them a routine and some stability in an apartment
apart from the chaos of the shelter. “It made it more homey,” Nick
said. “It definitely made a big difference.” Having a place to call home for a few
months also gave Nick the chance to hunt for an apartment of his
own. He worked with the shelter’s case managers to get access
to a Section 8 rental voucher and poured over classified ads in
search of an affordable option. Nick said he’s the kind of person
who never really asked for help — but coming to the shelter
changed that. “I learned a lot living here,” Nick
said. “Advocating for myself was a big thing. Pride can get
right in the way. “Those little boys mean everything
to me,” he said. “I would go through anything for them.” Community Forum Fall is here, and classes are back in session at
Middlebury College. As students, we are happy to be back on campus,
but the faces of the children we met this summer at the John Graham
Shelter in Vergennes are often with us. How are they doing in school?
When will their families find stable housing? Will they be safe
and warm this winter? Reflecting on our summer internship working with homeless families,
we can't seem to remember a time when we weren't aware of the John
Graham Shelter and the wonderful services it provides. Although
we study poverty and humanitarian theories in class, we were ignorant
to the poverty realities right next door. It was this realization
that sparked our interested in the Middlebury College Poverty Internship
at the John Graham Shelter through the college's Alliance for Civic
Engagement. The fundamental goal of the playgroup was simple: to provide all
John Graham Shelter and related transitional housing children with
a positive and cooperative environment each week. The playgroup
would allow the parents valuable time to focus on their needs and
continue the often slow search for housing, employment and related
services. We were shocked by the immediate and positive response
of the children,their parents, and the community to the playgroup.
Before long our weekly adventures to the Vergennes Union Elementary,
School became much more frequent. Thanks to the generosity of the Rev. Gary Lewis, the playroom at
the Vergennes Congregational Church became the playgroup's home
base. The children were amazed by the veritable wonderland of toys
and games, and choruses of "Can we go to the church today?" were
heard throughout the summer at the shelter. We used the space to
throw a birthday party, make paperbag puppets, play hide-and-go-seek.
and teach the value of sharing and the responsibility of cleaning
up. With a little initiative. it became clear that support for the
playgroup ran deep in the community. Local vendors generously provided
discounted or free entry to their facilities and allowed the kids
to explore Vermont's environment and cultural offerings. These
field trips were the pinnacle of the playgroup experience, and
we are incredibly grateful to the local organizations that opened
their doors. We were also able to invite other members of the shelter
on some of these adventures and ended up bringing groups of enthusiastic
residents to Shelburne Farms; the Charlotte Berry Farm, the Vergennes
Community Garden, the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Addison
County Fair and Field Days and to a Lake Monsters baseball game. Although we both spent as much time as we could with the children,
we eagerly embraced the multi-faceted nature of the internship.
Shelter Director Elizabeth Ready encouraged us to explore grant
writing, administrative management, case managernent, residential
care and office assistance, and brought us to a board meeting where
we both made presentations regarding current shelter reports. As
student-interns, we had the opportunity to take on supervised case
management, where we found ourselves on the phone advocating for
homeless families with organizations and services around the county
and state. Through the case management experiences we gained valuable
insight into working with different people, all of whom were working
through some of the most difficult times in their lives. It was an eye-opening experience, one in which we learned as much
about ourselves and our capabilities as we did homelessness and
housing resources. It was a true reality check, one that we are
not likely to forget or move past. In fact, the playgroups continue
each week and dozens of Middlebury students just signed up to make
dinners in the coming year for the all the families who, for a
time in their lives, must call tbe shelter home. As winter sets
in we will remember a shy girl's smile, a two-year-old eating his
fresh-picked strawberries, and how, in this Addison County community,
we have a chance to touch each other's lives.
By Samuel M. Trudel, Burlington Free Press - Dec. 26, 2008 The story can be very sad, but there are important successes. A homeless mom and dad and their two children recently spent almost two months at the shelter. With the supportive services they received, the children attended school; dad's health challenges were cared for; the shelter provided gas money for the mom to drive to employment interviews; and she was hired, with benefits, by a large employer in Chittenden County. Just last week the family moved into their own apartment with enough money saved for the first month's rent. Last year there were 2,143 homeless individuals in Vermont, according to a single-night count -- maybe one family grew up in your town, was a neighbor, many were moms or dads, brothers, sisters -- many were veterans. Vermonters pride themselves on their independence, on their self-sufficiency, but when our neighbors are struggling due to pressures not of their own making, we rally to help them. When an accident happens, we come to help; when someone is sick, we come to help; if the barn is burning, we come to help. It might not surprise you to learn that in these difficult economic times, many of us are only a bit of bad luck away from needing this help. According to the Department of Labor, 5,000 more Vermonters were unemployed this October compared to last year, and home foreclosures in Vermont are up substantially. Combine these worrisome statistics with the fact that Vermont has a shortage of 21,000 affordable rental units, according to a recent statewide housing needs assessment. This past fall I worked as a social work intern at the John Graham Shelter as part of my last year of graduate studies in social work at the University of Vermont. Probably like you, I had driven by the unassuming shelter many times without any knowledge of the incredible efforts being made there to help folks get back on their feet. The people who find themselves at the shelter are our neighbors, a young man attending school, a family with children, a local single woman putting her life back together after experiencing domestic violence, another young local family whose father had an accident and is unable to work. It seems the proverbial barn is burning, and many have come to help. I write of the John Graham Shelter to sing the praises of this quiet and remarkable organization. Every day of the year there is compassionate work being done there to support our neighbors to regain their footing in life. In this season when we are so thankful for our family and friends and the great joys of living in such a caring community, I want to ask for your help for the important work being done to serve those who find themselves homeless. Overflow homeless shelter sought for county By John Flowers, Addison Independent - Oct. 23, 2008 VERGENNES — Local advocates for the homeless are searching for one or more “overflow” shelters to accommodate what they believe could be a record number of people out in the cold in Addison County this winter. The overflow shelter(s) are part of an emergency response plan for homelessness that leaders of the John Graham Emergency Shelter are putting together for the coming months, when people now living in cars and tents must find warmer quarters. Meanwhile, advocates in other Vermont counties are also working on their own emergency response plans, which they hope will garner some state funding when Vermont’s Joint Fiscal Committee convenes next month. The state’s shelters have already seen a increase of 10 to 20 percent in clients compared to the same time last year, according to Elizabeth Ready, executive director of the John Graham Emergency Shelter on Vergennes. The helpline Vermont 2-1-1 received approximately 2,400 calls last month from people inquiring about food, lodging and fuel, Ready noted. “Basically, there is a sense that we don’t known what’s going to happen this winter,” Ready said. Ready gives the John Graham Shelter board regular updates on the numbers of people seeking services. Recent updates indicate that the shelter has been unable to meet demand, even with a new transitional housing project on East Street (see story, Page 1A). The John Graham shelter current refers homeless people it cannot accommodate to other shelters in Chittenden or Rutland counties. In some cases, overflow clients are put up in area motels where they unfortunately don’t have access to support services. “When we started reporting there were five or six families a week we couldn’t take, the board started to say ‘This is not OK; what are we going to do in December when this is happening in September?’” Ready said. “The board said, ‘We want to have an emergency plan.’” That’s when shelter leaders began to meet with church leaders and other groups and individuals who might want to host some beds for homeless people when facilities in Vergennes are full. Some groups and individuals are now carefully weighing the request. “We have had a fantastic response and a lot of concern,” Ready said. “We have a couple of possible sites where we would be able to take families for the very coldest nights. The idea is, it’s not permanent. Nobody thinks we should have more (permanent) shelters. We’re not building more shelters.” Ideally, Ready said a shelter staff person would be assigned to the overflow shelter(s) to make sure clients are connected to services and quickly transitioned into more long-term lodging situations. “We are working out the details,” said Ready, who hopes to have the overflow shelters identified by next month. Other communities have already been forced to make plans for an overflow of clients. Melinda Bussino is executive director of the Brattleboro Area Drop-in Center. The center operates a food shelf and the 19-bed Morningside Shelter. Bussino said Morningside proved unable to meet demand last winter, prompting a collaboration with local church groups to establish an overflow shelter at the First Baptist Church Hall in town. As many as 17 individuals in one night slept on bedrolls on the floor of the church and received support services from the Drop-in Center during the day, according to Bussino. “We served 49 unduplicated homeless people, from 18 to 71 years old,” Bussino recalled. Of those clients, one-third held college degrees, while half were employed. Demand is expected to be even greater this year, so the overflow shelter in Brattleboro will again open its doors on Dec. 1. Morningside already has more people seeking service than beds available. “If (the overflow shelter) were open tonight, we have 51 people who would potentially come in,” Bussino said. “That’s how bad it’s gotten this year.” She added the extent of homelessness in the Brattleboro area is the worst she has seen it in her 40 years in the anti-poverty field. “It’s the middle class we are seeing come in right now,” Bussino said. “It’s the people who used to donate.” John Graham shelter board members are hoping the state will put up some additional resources for overflow shelters. They noted the state has a $60 million rainy day fund and $16 million for human services caseload management. Sen. President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Putney, said he is optimistic the Joint Fiscal Committee will come up with some money. He made an initial request for $500,000. The committee, according to Shumlin, has agreed to the concept that more money is needed to address the plight of the homeless, but wants to get a firmer grip on exactly how much money should be spent to deal with the problem. “Vermonters are facing financial pain that was unimaginable only three years ago,” Shumlin said. “The result is, we have a new class of Vermonters joining the ranks of the homeless. “We can’t just turn our heads and pretend this crisis doesn’t exist,” he added. Shelter Directors Demand Emergency Funding By Mike Ives, Seven Days - Oct. 1, 2008 As spectators filed into Burlington’s Waterfront Theatre for the September 24 gubernatorial debate, more than 60 homelessness advocates rallied outside the building’s Lake Street entrance demanding emergency housing assistance before winter sets in. Although their chant — “Hey, hey, ho, ho! We ain’t got no place to go!” — was directed at the candidates, it was really meant for Gov. James Douglas. The crowd included residents of a shelter on lower Church Street and the directors of three nonprofits that serve Vermont’s homeless: The Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) [1] in Burlington, the John W. Graham Emergency Shelter [2] in Vergennes and Samaritan House [3] in St. Albans. Noting they are turning homeless people away for lack of space, the shelter directors gathered outside to demand a $500,000 emergency appropriation from the state’s $60 million “Rainy Day” fund [4]. “A lot of people are really suffering,” said former state auditor Elizabeth Ready, who now directs the John W. Graham Shelter. “The shelters are really trying to keep up, and the housing organizations are trying to house people, but the economic forces are such right now that too many people are going over the edge.” According to the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition [5], about 3500 Vermonters stayed in homeless shelters last year; the average length of stay was 33 days — more than twice as long as the 2000 average. A one-night survey conducted last January by the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness [6] found 2507 Vermonters were homeless, and almost half of them were part of a family with children. With those figures in mind, and an eye on the worsening economy, Ready and other shelter directors are turning anywhere they can for help. Last week, Ready asked the National Guard [7] to convert an empty Vergennes armory into an emergency shelter. She is also talking with local churches and federal agencies for help accommodating the five to seven homeless families her shelter turns away every day. Vermont homeless shelters currently benefit from annual federal “Emergency Shelter [8]” grants. The state’s “General Assistance [9]” program helps pay for emergency motel accommodations when homeless shelters are full. That won’t be enough head off this year’s crisis, according to Erhard Mahnke, coordinator for the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition. He said shelter directors are improvising “ad hoc” solutions for the impending “tidal wave” of homelessness. “They feel like they’re left on their own,” said Mahnke. “There needs to be better involvement by central state planning.” Linda Ryan, whose Samaritan House in St. Albans already has a waiting list of 35 homeless people, said the Vermont Interagency Council on Homelessness [10], an 18-member group of state officials and housing advocates, needs to help shelter directors devise strategies for feeding and housing the homeless. “Our budgets cannot sustain growing numbers of homeless,” Ryan said. “We need help, we need alternate sites and we need more staff.” Agency of Human Services [11] Deputy Director Patrick Flood said council members are currently coordinating “Housing Now,” a new initiative that would link state and local responses to homelessness. The agency hopes to increase eligibility for General Assistance funding, and to allow those who already qualify to spend the money on back-rent and mortgage payments. As for a $500,000 emergency appropriation, Flood said it probably couldn’t be approved until January at the earliest. In the meantime, he is asking AHS field service directors to devise a plan for responding to this winter’s crisis. “The governor’s goal is that nobody in the state of Vermont should freeze this winter, and we want to do everything we can to make sure people are under cover and sheltered,” Flood said. “I think we have a little bit of time before the snow flies, but we’re going to have to work pretty darn hard.” Douglas avoided last week’s protest rally by entering the Waterfront Theatre via the front door. But his major rivals, Democrat Gaye Symington and Independent Anthony Pollina, both stopped to talk with homeless advocates outside a back entrance. Pollina said Douglas has ignored the state’s growing homeless population. “You need a governor who is more in touch with what people are going through,” he said. Minutes later, Symington arrived and pledged to work on legislation that would preserve mobile home parks and create more affordable housing. “Its great to see you here,” she told the advocates. “Your voice really matters.” “But here’s the thing, Gaye,” replied Rita Markley, the longtime executive director of COTS. “This summer, we had to turn away 30 families. This is the summer months . . . Those families with kids have no place to go, and every night it’s getting colder.” Walking up College Street after the debate, a homeless graphic designer named Ali explained he’s currently on the waiting list for federally subsidized Section 8 housing. After a spell of camping and “couch surfing” this summer, Ali scored a bed at the COTS Waystation on lower Church Street. “If they turn me down in the middle of the winter,” he said, “that’s the end of me.” Affordable housing out of reach for some county residents By Megan James, Addison Independent - November 22, 2007 ADDISON COUNTY — Deep in the New Haven woods, the whirly-gig wheels on Dave Winborn’s ambulance-shaped lawn ornament spin around in the wind. This is how visitors know they’ve taken the right path to his tent, Winborn said, and how he knows he’s home. Winborn doesn’t consider himself homeless, and he doesn’t consider himself poor. He has a job, a truck and his beautiful tent, complete with a woodstove and writing desk, which he has inhabited since this summer when he pitched it on a friend’s land. The 55-year-old is an EMT on three different area rescue squads: he has volunteered with the Bristol squad for more than 25 years, with New Haven First Response for about 15 years and five months ago he started a paid position with Valley Rescue Squad in Hancock. Next spring Winborn will earn his associate’s degree in human services from the Community College of Vermont. “If I don’t blow it,” he said with a smile. “It’ll be the first time in my life I’ve ever worn a cap and gown. I never finished high school. I went right from public school to the streets.” But, even though he is a contributing member of society with a paying job, Winborn is one of many people in Addison County who cannot find an affordable apartment. This month the United Way of Addison County released the results of its 2007 Community Needs Assessment, in which about 750 area residents responded to a survey asking them to identify the most pressing needs they face today. Affordable housing ranked among the top four problems, along with financial stability, health and transportation. According to Elizabeth Ready, executive director of the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes, the rising cost of rent and the widening gap between the rich and poor have made it increasingly more difficult to secure an apartment in this area. “Many of us, myself included, our lives weren’t really that much different from theirs when we were young and struggling,” Ready said. “The difference between struggling and being homeless is really in some of the economic factors that we’re seeing now.” According to a study released by the University of New Hampshire in September, Vermont saw one of the highest jumps in income disparity in the United States in recent years, second only to Connecticut. Ross Gittell, the professor responsible for the study, attributed this to a simultaneous loss of manufacturing jobs and an influx of wealthy transplants from New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. For a person like Winborn, who has struggled to make ends meet all his life, this means trouble. The rising cost of living is edging him out of affordable housing. His dilemma is all too typical. With Valley Rescue, Winborn takes home just under $350 a week, that’s about $1,400 a month. Apartments are available in Addison County for less than that; the average one-bedroom he’s seen is $800, he said. But take into account the expenses he would have to establish an apartment — security deposit, first and last month’s rent, utilities, furniture, cooking utensils and fuel — and Winborn estimates moving in could cost him upwards of $3,000. “All things considered, I prefer my tent,” he said. TRANSPORTATION HURDLE Winborn is not alone in his inability to find affordable housing. Crystal Kendall and Jack Walters have been bouncing around with family and friends for the last four years or so. Originally from the Winooski area, they came to the John Graham Emergency Shelter in October, about a month after Kendall gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Haley. State regulations kept them from staying longer than a week with their friends, who receive Section 8 housing assistance, and the Burlington homeless shelter, run by the Committee on Temporary Shelter, was full. Renting an apartment is just too expensive, the young couple said. In the Burlington area, the most affordable rent they could find for a two-bedroom apartment was $1,000 a month. Kendall, a 26-year-old new mother, doesn’t have a job, and Walters, 22, has been looking for work, a difficult process when you don’t have a place to go home to every night, he said. Walters isn’t being picky. “I’m willing to learn anything,” he said, but most of the jobs available are in the Middlebury or Bristol areas and he doesn’t have a car. This means planning around a sometimes-sporadic Addison County Transit Resources bus schedule. The real difficulty when it comes to getting a roof over your head, Kendall said, is in your credit record. “It’s all about the credit these days,” she said. “If you don’t have good credit, you don’t get an apartment.” According to John Graham shelter manager Diana Rule, this is true even when it comes to subsidized housing. “A lot of the people here don’t qualify for low-income housing in the area because of a bad landlord reference, bad credit reference,” she said. “So (even with) an apartment that would be totally affordable, where they would be paying $300 a month, they’re shut out of that market. The very people that the subsidized housing is made for a lot of times can’t get into it.” And a credit report can look bad for all sorts of reasons, Rule stressed. It may not be that the person stiffed the landlord, but that they didn’t make their cell phone payment. “We’ve got to find a way for people to get a second chance,” she said. Adam, a 35-year-old deaf artist now living in Middlebury, found his second chance through a number of local agencies: the Vergennes shelter, Addison County Community Action Group (ACCAG) and the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VCDHH). But it took him seven months and unflinching determination to land permanent housing. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Adam, who asked that his last name not be used, had been living in Colchester and working at a Starbucks in Burlington. The coffee shop would not give him a full-time schedule, and his real passion, his freelance illustrating, kept him busy but didn’t bring in enough money to support him. He lost his apartment last winter when he could no longer make rent. Two weeks later he was fired from his job. After a few months crashing with friends, he got a room at the shelter. The shelter was his saving grace, Adam said. But he had to keep focused on finding an apartment and getting his life back together. He called his mission to move on from the shelter his escape from Alcatraz. “I schemed every night,” he said. “Made a checklist in my head. Step-by-step. How am I going to pull this off?” Working with ACCAG, Adam moved into permanent housing this spring. He also secured a part-time job through the VCDHH, serving as a job coach for another hearing-impaired person. He devotes the rest of his time to his drawing. STILL LOOKING Meanwhile, Kendall, Walters and their daughter, the young family at the Vergennes shelter now, have made slow but steady progress in the last couple weeks. Kendall has been working with ACCAG to secure an apartment in Bristol. The place costs $750 a month, utilities included, and with a voucher from the state housing authority, she and Walters would pay nothing until they can secure an income. “We want our own place to be able to set up (Haley’s) room,” Kendall said. “We’re confined to one room here. Sometimes it’s noisy. Haley will fall asleep and then it’ll wake her up.” Kendall put in an application to rush the voucher early this month, but the Section 8 housing list has been backed up, meaning her voucher is at least a month off. “I’ll still get the voucher within a couple months, but we kind of want a place before Christmas,” she said. “I’ve got enough people rooting for me right now. It’s going to all come to an end, I can feel it.” As for Winborn out in the New Haven woods, he feels he’s already made it. Living in a tent suits him just fine. He ordered the thing six years ago in the hopes of living just like this. “I like it here,” he said. “It’s home.” Neal Charnoff, Vermont Public Radio - July 2, 2007 VPR's Neal Charnoff interviews John Graham Shelter Director Elizabeth Ready and others in this hour-long story on homelessness in Vermont. From the VPR website: Homelessness is a persistent problem in Vermont, and it’s on the rise among families with children. Our program looks at the changing face of homelessness, and the growing number of families and working poor who are in need of shelter. We also visit with homeless war veterans, talk with shelter providers, and hear about the effort to address this troubling issue. Click here for the transcript of the show. Homelessness not just an urban problem By David Gram, Associated Press Writer - December 23, 2006 VERGENNES, Vt. --After a hard day splitting wood or loading hay for delivery to horse farms, Paul Aube would like to head home. But he doesn't have one. Instead, the 48-year-old laborer gets a ride from the Ferrisburgh farm where he works to neighboring Vergennes, where they drop him off at the John W. Graham Shelter to spend another night in the men's bunk room. Aube, whose education ended in 10th grade, makes $50 a day for his farm labor -- not enough to afford an apartment. In the summer, he stays in a beat-up old camper-trailer on the farm. It doesn't have a heater. Aube says he's saving up for one. But in each of the last three Novembers, "when it gets really cold" he has given up the trailer for the homeless shelter. "I'm a little down about it because I'm in a place like this where you can't really be by yourself," he said in an interview. But, "It's a roof over my head and it keeps me out of the cold." Homelessness is not just an urban problem. While more well-known in big cities, it reaches into America's small towns and rural areas, too. In Vermont, which marked homelessness awareness week with a series of events this week, about 4,000 people have been homeless at some point in the last year -- a quarter of them children. With the cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Vermont affordable only to those making $32,000 a year or more, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, $50-a-day workers like Aube are often forced to do without. At the Graham Shelter, his predicament isn't unusual, according to director Elizabeth Ready. Many of those staying at the 18-bed shelter are working -- at supermarkets, department stores, a soap factory -- and others are in transit, fleeing abusive spouses or suffering from mental health problems. "The most heartbreaking for me are the people with mental health problems who come in for a few days and then go back out on the street," Ready said. Jeffrey and Virginia, a couple staying at the shelter, fled a communal living situation in Burlington that had dissolved in drugs and violence. Both have struggled with alcohol addiction. Their last names are being withheld to protect their privacy. Jeffrey, 50, was beat up after he tried to stop housemates from coming on to Virginia, 26. "It was really a yucky environment," Virginia said. They fled south to Addison County, where Virginia grew up. She is now estranged from her family. Weeping, she told about calling her family's home on Thanksgiving to see about having dinner with them and being rebuffed. Jeffrey, a former construction worker who is a father of three, has been in and out of depression since shattering his heels in a 1996 scaffolding collapse. The couple's future? "I can't project. I have to stay in the here and now," Jeffrey said. Virginia said her dream was of "a cozy little apartment with big windows and a porch." The shelter frequently catches people at the bottom of life, Ready said. It's goal is "to find the good in people," and get them to make something of it. And there are some success stories. Another client, Krystie, came to Vermont "for personal reasons" involving a relationship; she ended up at the shelter when her dreams didn't work out. But after a few months in it last year, she found a Job Corps office in Middlebury. The U.S. Department of Labor program helps young people 16 through 24 with training and support as they begin their work lives. Krystie, whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy, is now working for Job Corps, helping other young people get their lives on track. Homelessness knows no holiday in county By John Flowers, Addison Independent - December 18, 2006 ADDISON COUNTY — One by one, they trickled into Middlebury’s Triangle Park, a frigid no man’s land hemmed by a crawling din of downtown traffic on this cold December day. Without fanfare, the 12 men and women exchanged greetings, lit candles, and spoke for a growing population that has been reticent to speak for itself — the homeless of Addison County. “On one of the darkest days of the year, we are here to try to remind people that there are a lot of homeless people out there who have no roof over their heads and no food to eat,” said Martha Hill, a member of the John W. Graham Emergency Shelter board. Several of those homeless people are currently being served at the Vergennes-based shelter, which can accommodate up to 18 individuals at one time. The shelter has been at capacity more often than not during recent months. “We are turning people away almost every single day,” said Elizabeth Ready, executive director of the shelter. “Almost all of the people currently living here have spent time sleeping outside.” The statistics are indeed sobering. Ready pointed to state figures showing more than 4,000 Vermonters have been homeless during the past three years — and more than 25 percent of that population have been children. Vermont homeless shelters had to turn away 1,443 people last year because all beds were filled. Many of the shelter’s clients hold jobs, but not ones that pay enough to cover the going market rents for local housing. And thousands of Vermonters — nearly half of the almost 71,000 households who rent — can’t afford the rent for a modest two-bedroom apartment, which averages $797 per month across Vermont, according to a new report released last week by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition. The report also found that the “housing wage” for Vermont — the hourly wage necessary to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment — has risen to $15.34 per hour, or $31,900 per year, which is more than twice the state’s minimum wage. This represents an increase in the housing wage of 33.4 percent since 2000, almost double the increase in the consumer price index for the same period. The report describes “affordable rents” as representing “the generally accepted standard of spending not more than 30 percent of income on housing costs.” In Addison County the report tells a similar story. It said the housing wage here is $14.37 per hour, or $29,880 per year, which would put the affordable fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment at $747 per month. There were 3,271 rental households in Addison County in 2000, about one-quarter of all households. The estimated 2005 mean wage of a renter locally was $10.56 per hour. “It points to the structural nature of the problem we are seeing (at the shelter) — working families with children being priced out of the market,” Ready said. “We have people who are working full-time and trying to get permanent housing. It’s a big issue, and it’s not getting any smaller.” The shelter will provide roughly 5,000 bed nights of food, shelter and support services for families and individuals this year on a budget of $125,000. Ready expects 15-20 client families to find permanent housing and 30-40 individuals to nail down jobs during their stays. The shelter budget includes town meeting appropriations, donations and grants, along with $29,700 from the state’s Emergency Shelter Program. “It’s really a shoestring budget,” Ready said, noting the spending plan is supposed to cover food, utilities, heat, salaries and other expenses. MORE STATE FUNDING? With the homeless population growing, Ready and other shelter advocates recently appealed to state lawmakers for some extra funding. They will get a chance to plead their case during the next legislative session, thanks to a bill being drafted by incoming Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Putney. Shumlin’s bill calls for a $500,000 boost in state funding for shelter services. The state’s Emergency Shelter Program is currently funded at $542,000. It has been bumped up slightly in recent years from $525,000, but the appropriation has remained virtually unchanged for more than a decade, according to Ready. Shumlin hopes his bill will stir debate around funding for homeless shelters. The actual $500,000 appropriation request, he said, will need to be included in the budget by House and Senate Appropriation Committee members. “Homeless shelters are robbing and begging to survive,” Shumlin said, “and they still can’t meet the demand.” He noted that the Vermont State Hospital used to provide services for homeless people with mental health issues. Shumlin said that is no longer the case. “Now they are being put out in the street, unless (the clients) have a criminal history,” Shumlin said. Shelter officials hope legislators can find extra money for the homeless within what is shaping up to be a tight fiscal year 2008 budget. In the meantime, they will try to meet clients’ needs during in the cold months ahead. “I think this will be a tough winter for people,” Ready said. Local homelessness a surprise to college students By Megan James, Addison Independent - October 23, 2006 VERGENNES — When Elizabeth Ready, executive director of the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes, asked Middlebury College student Alex Hall what surprised him the most about homelessness in Vermont, he answered, “That there was any.” Since last spring, Hall and about 20 Middlebury students, in groups of three or four at a time, have visited the Vergennes shelter once a week where they cook dinner and socialize. The residents, in turn, have begun to shatter the students’ stereotypes of homelessness. “You think it only exists in urban areas. You think they’ve chosen not to work, that they’re lazy,” said student volunteer Andrew Haile. “But really they’re great people who’ve just had some bad breaks.” Haile, who grew up in Hudson, Ohio, is partly responsible for the tremendous turnout of Middlebury volunteers. During a semester abroad in Paris last year, he was confronted daily, and for the first time, with people living on the streets. He and his friends found it difficult to walk by and ignore the homeless, he said, so they began talking to them, listening to their stories, taking them to McDonalds for a bite to eat. Back in Middlebury, Haile, unable to shake the images of poverty he had seen in France, contacted the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) in Burlington. He gathered a few friends from Middlebury College and made the trip up north each weekend to cook lunch at the family shelter. But the kitchen was already teeming with volunteers and director Sally Ballin knew of a place where their efforts and enthusiasm would be more appreciated — the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes. Three women run the shelter — Ready, shelter manager Diana Rule and resident manager Sue Delorme — and in the 26 years it has been open to the public, few community volunteers have gotten involved. Affiliated with the United Way of Addison County and Addison County Community Action Group (ACCAG), the shelter has received generous financial support over the years, but listening ears and helping hands have been harder to come by. The women manage a household of about 17 people from all over Vermont, each of whom are guaranteed a bed and food for up to three weeks, before they have to apply for extensions. Some have lost their jobs, some are recovering from substance addiction or struggling with mental illness and some simply have bad credit or trouble with a landlord. “We want to provide a safe and supportive environment where people can rebuild their lives,” Ready said. That might mean getting medication or starting counseling as well as finding a job and a place to live. This is no easy task, according to Ready. It takes a well-established system of respect, and plenty of rules. Everyone has to be in by 10 p.m., keep their rooms tidy and shower at least every other day. No alcohol, drugs, weapons or violence of any kind are allowed. If a resident steals or uses too much foul language, the directors will ask them to leave. The tension between residents, especially without the fresh perspective of outsiders from the community, is enough to exhaust everyone there. “Imagine a household of people all at the most vulnerable part of their lives,” Ready said. “It can be very difficult.” But the students bring something invaluable to John Graham residents and directors: open minds, fresh faces and spaghetti and meatballs. At dinner Wednesday night, student volunteer Meg McFadden enlisted the help of the shelter’s children to spread garlic butter on baguettes. “It’s so easy to move from dorm room to dining hall and never be confronted with these problems,” she said. Like most of the volunteers, McFadden came to the shelter with preconceptions about homeless people, and was surprised to find when they all came together to cook dinner there was little that differentiated resident from student. She was on equal footing with the children when they played make-believe games and “Duck-Duck-Goose,” and their parents trusted her enough to share their stories. “The students are really fun,” a resident named Richard said. He has been living at the shelter since the middle of August, after losing his job as a cleaning supervisor at Killington Resort due to wrist and hand injuries. He wore out his welcome at camping sites in the Rutland area, and tried to live in the woods at Moosalamoo campground but was kicked out after he overstayed the two-week limit. He enjoyed the solitude of the forest, he said, but his arms kept cramping up, keeping him from being able to cook and perform other camping tasks. Pam Howard, a resident at the John Graham Shelter for the past 38 days, said she loved the students’ visits. “It’s nice to come back at night and not have to wonder what you’re going to make for dinner,” she said. A victim of domestic violence, Howard left her house because it wasn’t safe anymore. She had been working at the front desk of a hotel, and had slept at the hotel before learning about the Vergennes shelter through ACCAG, where she volunteered three days a week. She was initially hesitant to move into the shelter because she was uneasy about living in close quarters with strangers, but it quickly became a home, she said, and the other residents and student volunteers became a family. According to Ready, 30 John Graham families found permanent housing and 15 people were employed in new jobs so far this year. “It’s not forever that they need a second chance,” Ready said. “They just need a leg up.” Howard just signed a lease on an apartment in Middlebury. With a grant from the United Way Homeless Prevention Fund, she will be able to pay her first month’s rent while getting back on her feet and into a new job. But on Howard’s first night living alone, her friends at the shelter welcomed her back for one last dinner with the students. “It’s going to be hard to be by myself after living with 15 other people here,” she said. “But I’m ready to be on my own.” McFadden and Haile, along with other Middlebury students, have organized a college symposium inspired by their time at the shelter, and in conjunction with their religious beliefs, titled “Challenging Complacency: Do Christians Care About Social Justice?” Scheduled for Nov. 9 to Nov. 17, speakers will include Shane Claiborne, a founding partner of The Simple Way, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in Kensington, North Philadelphia. Guitarist Lamont Hiebert, who helped launch an organization called Justice for Children International that works to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, will perform, and McFadden and Haile will encourage the college community to volunteer at places like the John Graham and Burlington shelters. “Every one has their own idea about what it means to be homeless,” McFadden said, who came to John Graham last spring with lots of ideas, including the vague one that she wanted to help people. But it isn’t the ideas that keep her coming back, she insisted, it’s the dinner conversation and playing “Duck-Duck-Goose.” |
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We entered the internship with high
hopes and more than a few assumptions about shelter life and social
work. One of our biggest misconceptions, one we are sure many have,
was the number of homeless children and families in Vermont. Fully
40 percent of the nation's homeless population is made up of families.
the fastest growing homeless demographic. Given the recent economic
climate, the number of homeless children is steadily increasing.
Although parents often try their best to create a structured and
supportive family atmosphere, homelessness takes its toll on the
lives of small children in tenns of health, education and sodal
development The benefits of creating positive structure in a healthy
environment became clear to us, and we decided to begin a weekly
playgroup on Wednesdays. Some of the most rewarding experiences
and poignant memories of the summer stem from the time we spent
with the kids.© 2009 John W. Graham Emergency
Shelter - 69 Main Street, Vergennes, VT - office 802-877-2677 - after hours 802-877-2048 |
