This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and 开云体育.
State officials plan to extend two shelters for families experiencing homelessness in Williston and Waterbury that had been slated to close down next week, on April 1.
Chris Winters, the commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, said in a Wednesday interview that state officials want to avoid disrupting the school year for children.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know for sure if folks have other options, but even if they do, you know, that might require them to move,鈥� Winters said. 鈥淭he concern there is that kids not be uprooted and potentially not stay in school through the end of the year.鈥�
The Waterbury shelter, located at the former National Guard armory, will remain open until June 13. The state is with North Carolina-based to continue operating the shelter until then, Winters said. While the shelter will shut down during the warmer months, the state is interested in using the space as a winter weather shelter again.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in conversation with both the town and a potential service provider to continue the operation of it next year during the cold weather months,鈥� Winters added.
IEM will continue to operate the family shelter at the former state police barracks in Williston until mid-May, Winters said. At that point, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity will take over the shelter.
The anti-poverty nonprofit will operate out of the Williston space for a few months as it develops a new family shelter location in the Burlington area. The transition to a new location is anticipated to happen by December, Winters said.
The new shelter would accommodate eight or nine families, according to Paul Dragon, executive director of CVOEO.
鈥淭he goal is to move them on as quickly as possible to permanent housing,鈥� Dragon said.
State officials opened the two shelters in November, during a wave of evictions from Vermont鈥檚 motel voucher program last fall. New time restrictions on motel stays 鈥� paired with a lack of family shelter capacity statewide 鈥� resulted in some unhoused families pitching tents.
Without immediate legislative action, those restrictions, which were relaxed for the winter months, will kick back in on April 1. Democratic leadership in the Legislature and Republican Gov. Phil Scott are currently locked in a political battle over whether to grant a three-month extension for people currently sheltered in motels. If the two sides cannot come to an agreement on Friday, a new round of evictions for people with motel vouchers will begin on Tuesday and continue through the spring.
Since November, the Williston and Waterbury shelters have served 36 families, according to Winters. Twenty families have since moved onto other arrangements. Eight families have gone to live with relatives, and five have found permanent housing, Winters said. Two families have moved out of state. Three were granted access to the motel voucher program when a primary care provider noted a health condition that made living in the 鈥渟emi-congregate鈥� family shelter untenable. One family decided to pay for their own hotel room, and another moved into a program with .
State employees have offered housing and employment resources onsite at the two shelters. While the sample size is small, Winters noted, he argued that the wraparound services there helped shelter guests get connected to the resources they needed more quickly than the motel voucher program.
鈥淲hile it costs more, you really do get better results with this form of shelter versus the hotel-motel program,鈥� Winters said.
Operating the two shelters ultimately cost $2.9 million to operate between November and March 鈥� about what state officials had anticipated at the outset. The funding has come out of DCF鈥檚 budget. The department hopes to use the shelters as a model for future shelters that keep specific populations together, such as veterans or people in recovery, Winters said.
The state ultimately ditched plans for a third family shelter in Montpelier last fall due to cost constraints and the inability to find a local service provider, Winters said.
Town leaders in both Waterbury and Williston said the shelter operation has gone smoothly.
鈥淚 have not received one single complaint about anything related to the shelter 鈥� anything related to the operator, anything public-safety related,鈥� said Tom Leitz, Waterbury鈥檚 municipal manager. 鈥淚t has been quiet as a mouse.鈥�
