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Susan Cherry, chair of the St. Johnsbury Planning Commission, shows a map of the town at a public hearing last week where language about overnight transitional shelters was discussed. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Organizers are looking for support to host the facility in part of the Northeast Kingdom Youth Services building on Bagley Street and would like to have it open by October.
The state spent more than $270,000 on motel vouchers for homeless people in the St. Johnsbury area last winter. A shelter could mitigate that cost while connecting people with other services to help them escape poverty, officials say.
About 25 people turned out Thursday night at the proposed shelter site for a spaghetti supper and to learn more about the proposed overnight transitional shelter.
The committee is made up of nonprofits, including the Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA), the Community Justice Restorative Center, Inc., Northeast Kingdom Youth Services, local clergy, the Agency of Human Services, the Economic Services Division and more.
Northeast Kingdom Youth Services has offered the shelter site at “a very affordable rate,” said Val Covell, warming shelter coordinator for NEKCA.
A similar effort failed last year after opposition rose against a proposed site on Lincoln Street, she said.
Covell said the state is working with communities to find better solutions to help homeless individuals than the present voucher system, where people in crisis are put into motels on an emergency basis.
A warming shelter would help to connect people to services such as housing and employment to help them get back on their feet, Covell said.
“It’s not just about housing them, it’s about trying to help them — why are they on the street? What happened, and what can we do to get them where they need to be?” she said.
The shelter proposal will be before the town’s Development Review Board on July 30, where a vote on the change of use application filed by Northeast Kingdom Youth Services is expected.
Zoning amendments considered
The town’s planning commission has also proposed amendments to zoning laws to add a definition for temporary overnight shelters in certain districts in town and to clarify language in the ordinance, said Susan Cherry, chair of the commission and executive director of the Community Restorative Justice Center.
Those changes were the subject of a separate public hearing last week before the selectboard. About 30 people turned out, many expressing concerns about how a shelter would impact the residential neighborhood and the safety of children in the area.
Selectman Tom Moore said the planning commission was asked to make some changes and bring the proposed amendments back to the selectboard.
“I, personally, would like to see less services provided in St. Johnsbury rather than more,” he said. “Many people feel that we have become a magnet town for people with problems, and I agree with them.”
Residents speak out
Darlena Smith held down a full-time job when she was homeless. It was a period of time in which Smith said she was “out of luck,” and if it hadn’t been for a local shelter in another region of the state she would have had to have lived in her car.
“If I had not had that option, I would have lost my job,” she said.
Smith said most homeless people are in a similar situation and do not fit the stereotype. They are not alcoholics, drug-addicts or pedophiles.
Gary and Barb Young, who said they lived in their car at one point, support the shelter. Barb Young said community residents who oppose the shelter don’t understand what it’s like to be homeless.
“I’d say to them, you go homeless for a while, and see if you would oppose it then,” Young said.
NEKCA is applying for a grant for supplies, beds and lockers for the shelther through the USDA.
Dave Timson, a neighbor to the proposed shelter site, asked about supervision and how the property would be maintained.
Clik here to view.
Shaun Donahue of the Agency of Human Services speaks at a spaghetti supper to discuss a proposed overnight warming shelter site in St. Johnsbury on Thursday night. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Donahue said the hotel voucher system “does nothing but take care of that night, so none of that money has been an investment toward moving people out of homelessness,” and the state spends millions of dollars on the emergency motel voucher program.
The state will help NEKCA with the cost of maintaining the shelter in St. Johnsbury, he said.
The need in St. Johnsbury
According to the state officials who spoke at Thursday’s meeting, the St. Johnsbury region authorized a total of $271,901 for the hotel voucher system from July 1, 2014, through June 30.
A total of 1,695 hotel nights were authorized to assist 61 individuals and six families during the cold weather season in St. Johnsbury in that time period.
Of those, 45 individuals and four of the six families listed their last permanent address as St. Johnsbury. Another 13 were from Lyndonville, two were from Hardwick and one from Barnet.
Many residents met the idea with a mix of support and fear.
Resident Carol Koukoutsis is opposed to a shelter, and made that clear at the public hearing Monday night.
“The people who go to these have mental issues, they have drug issues, they have issues plain and simple,” she said. “If we are going to allow it, I’d like to see it in the hospital area. If we’re going to take care of these people, take care of them.
“I don’t want it in anybody’s neighborhood. It’s going to be our houses that get robbed and it is going to be our ballfields that are filled up with needles. Once we open the floodgates, it’s coming, and I don’t want no part of it,” Koukoutsis said.
The Rev. Susan Ohlidal, an Episcopal priest in St. Johnsbury, said there are already homeless people in the community who “live outdoors all winter long, because they cannot afford housing.”
Affordable housing needed
Erhard Mahnke, coordinator of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, said homelessness is a problem statewide.
“The housing wage statewide is now $20.68 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment statewide in Vermont, and that translates into an annual household income of about $43,000 a year,” Mahnke said. “So, if you’re a single parent, working a low-wage service sector job, you need two jobs.”
Mahnke said in Caledonia County, $15.48 an hour is needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment that costs about $805 a month.
“That area probably needs more than a warming shelter, they probably need a full-time emergency shelter like we have in White River Junction or Barre,” Mahnke said. “I would say a warming shelter is certainly a start in St. Johnsbury to potentially keep people from freezing to death in our severe winters.”
On Jan. 27, an annual count of homeless people in Vermont showed 1,523 individuals identified as homeless.
Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Johnsbury officials consider homeless shelter.