MIDDLEBURY — December has to count among the least popular months during which to camp out in the Green Mountain State. But many homeless people don’t have any choice but to brave the elements during the winter, and it is in recognition of that fact that the John W. Graham Emergency Shelter is scheduling its second annual “Sleep-Out” for Dec. 5 near the Otter Creek falls in Middlebury.
Read More
We made it on TV! Watch as Local 22 & Local 44 take a look into the needs of our local community's homeless population, our mission, and our impact.
Roger and Elizabeth represent the Shelter gracefully. We'd like to extend our thanks also to the station, and especially reporter Rachel Aragon, for the coverage.
Watch here: http://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/vt-homeless-shelters-cope-with-high-waiting-lists
MIDDLEBURY — The John W. Graham Emergency Shelter is marking its 35th year with a new organizational name and the acquisition of an apartment building in Middlebury offering four affordable apartments for people transitioning from homelessness.
Read MoreVERGENNES — Robyn Yoder had grown weary of living in a troubled home and decided earlier this year that it was time for a change.
“I moved away from my family of struggling addicts. I needed to cleanse my life from that,” she said on Thursday.
So Yoder, 24, and her boyfriend, Josh Gordon, 26, moved from southern Vermont to the Vergennes area, where Gordon was raised.
It was rough in the beginning. As they looked for work, they had to spend some time at the John W. Graham Emergency Shelter on Monkton Road and at local hotels. But they eventually landed jobs and recently got what they consider to be a huge break in planning the next chapter of their lives together: An apartment of their own in a new transitional housing project at 74 Green St. in Vergennes.
Read MoreVERGENNES — 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.
Read MoreThe city of Vergennes will get a $327,000 grant for upgrades to the John Graham Homeless Shelter. Executive Director Elizabeth Ready says the money will be part of a $627,000 renovation of the 30-year old shelter.
Read MoreVERGENNES — 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.
Read MoreCold weather and the poor economy have swelled the ranks of people needing emergency housing. Homeless shelters in the state say their facilities are filled to capacity this winter. But there is also some good news. Federal stimulus money is helping some of the homeless find housing.
Read MoreBRISTOL — 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.
Read MoreCommunity Forum, Addison Independent – Oct. 29, 2009
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?
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreVERGENNES — 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.
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreADDISON 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 wood stove and writing desk, which he has inhabited since this summer when he pitched it on a friend’s land
Read MoreVPR’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.
Read MoreVERGENNES, 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.
Read MoreADDISON 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.
Read MoreVERGENNES — 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.”
Read MoreEveryone deserves the chance to call someplace, "home." At the John Graham Shelter, we provide food, shelter, wraparound services, and a track for long-term stable housing.
