June 12, 2025
By John Flowers
MIDDLEBURY — There’s plenty to see in downtown Middlebury these days.
A new addition to the Town Hall Theater.
Construction that will produce an expanded Ilsley Library.
A vibrant Triangle Park and a nice assortment of shops.
But what you won’t see — at least as of this week — are small clusters of houseless persons who, during the past few years, have set up temporary encampments downtown during the warmer months.
While you might not see them, advocates noted the homeless are still in the shire town and surrounding communities. They’ve just settled into the woods or other less-conspicuous spots, choosing a more solitary existence, away from construction and in deference to a new Middlebury encampment ordinance.
Heidi Lacey is executive director of the non-profit Charter House Coalition (CHC), which runs an emergency shelter at 27 North Pleasant St. and a variety of support services for the homeless. Lacey estimates there are around 10 houseless individuals living in the Middlebury area right now who are camping out of public view.
“I think it answers the concerns of the greater public, but it hasn’t taken away the problem,” Lacey said. “There same questions remain: Are they in safe housing? Are they living in places that aren’t habitable? The risks are still high for people who are unhoused.”
But there is some good news to share on the homelessness front, according to Lacey.
The “good” news is that while the CHC shelter’s 26 cots are full, the waiting list is just four, down from 23 names last year.
This year, all the known homeless persons living outdoors “are engaged and there’s more communication with service providers on a regular basis,” she said.
That communication is being spearheaded by an Addison County Homeless Outreach Team, which includes representatives of the CHC, Counseling Service of Addison County, Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, John Graham Housing & Services, Porter Hospital and the Open Door Clinic. Members of that group meet weekly with folks living outdoors, checking on their welfare and offering assistance.
“This year we are trying to be more assertive, letting people know the services that are available,” Lacey said.
Also heartening for advocates: The CHC emergency shelter’s waiting list is at the lowest point in years, and local service providers have been seeing fewer houseless people with no connections to Addison County.
“We haven’t seen an influx of transient folks coming into Middlebury this year,” Lacey said. “I don’t know why that is. Burlington’s unhoused population has increased, but there doesn’t seem to be as much transient activity between Rutland and Burlington.”
REDUCED FEDERAL AID
John Graham Housing & Services (JGHS) operates an emergency shelter in Vergennes, as well as several transitional housing units for families moving from homelessness to self-sufficiency.
Susan Whitmore, executive director of JGHS, said the Vergennes shelter is full and there are 35 households on the waiting list.
Between the waitlist and active clients, JGHS is interacting with 95 households across the county. The nonprofit receives “near daily requests” for case management from people threatened with eviction or having a housing crisis that could lead to homelessness, according to Whitmore.
Whitmore is concerned that the current crunch at JGHS could get even worse, due in part to Vermont’s housing crisis and a fiscal year 2026 federal budget that calls for cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other safety net programs serving the poor.
The federal Housing and Urban Development informed the Vermont State Housing Authority (VSHA) last month of an approximately $1 million reduction in 2025 resources for the state’s Housing Choice Voucher and Mainstream Voucher programs. Those resources help the poor with housing expenses.
“This reduction requires immediate action to manage available resources responsibly and ensure we can continue to serve the nearly 4,000 families who rely on VSHA rental assistance,” Elizabeth Bacon, the VSHA’s managing director of housing programs administration, told affordable housing providers in a May 21 letter.
“Our goal is to minimize disruption to the families and communities we serve.”
One of Bacon’s directives is to cease issuing vouchers to applicants on the HCV and Mainstream waiting lists.
“People are losing vouchers issued to them while waiting for housing vacancies. This is creating significant stress for many households currently in service with JGHS,” Whitmore said through an email exchange. “Three of nine households currently in shelter with us have lost a housing voucher; we are still assessing the number of clients we serve at other sites in Addison County that have had a voucher withdrawn.”
Whitmore and her staff are currently aware of five households camping — or living in a place not considered habitable — in northern Addison County.
“But (we) believe there are more who are currently camping in state parks. This is typical of the spring and summer months. We have given out three sets of tents/camping gear in the last month,” she said.
Whitmore noted single adults can more easily choose camping, an option that’s more difficult for parents with children who are navigating taking care of the kids and getting them to school.
In addition to the Ilsley Library construction, Lacey believes Middlebury’s encampment policy has played a role in deterring tent pitching downtown.
Complaints of assaultive behavior, vandalism, vagrancy, public drinking and theft prompted the Middlebury selectboard to draft the new policy, which “aims to have a safe, respectful, and effective response to encampments on town property; and balance the rights of individuals without an adequate place to sleep against its duty to maintain public safety and health.”
Among many other things, the policy — which the board adopted on March 11 — identifies municipal parcels on which encampments are prohibited and outlines specific health/public safety factors that could trigger the removal of encampments by authorities — in concert with human services officials.
According to the policy, encampments are prohibited on any town-owned parcel that “has a government office/facility located on it, is a town park as defined in the ‘ordinance for the daily closing of parks,’ is a library, is a cemetery, includes a public right-of-way, includes a public parking lot, or is directly adjacent to an educational facility or adult/childcare facility.”
The policy calls for “trauma-informed protocols to notify, support in relocation, and provide ongoing case management before and after relocation of those living in an encampment when an encampment is identified for removal.”
Rather than set up a tent and run the risk of running afoul of the policy, those seeking to live outside are simply doing it less overtly.
“Some certainly feel less seen,” Lacey said of feedback she’s received this spring from some houseless individuals. “I think there’s a stigmatization that happens, and a couple have voiced that — but not in a negative or aggressive way.”
Middlebury’s encampment policy has thus far resulted in one action, stemming from a business owner’s concern about someone living out of a vehicle in the municipal parking lot in Frog Hollow. This resulted in the vehicle — which had at that point been abandoned — being removed from the lot last month.
AT THE CHARTER HOUSE
As local homelessness trends have been evolving, so has the CHC, which last month welcomed a new program director, Foresta Casteneda. She’s overseeing CHC’s daily shelter operations, food and nutrition programs, and street outreach.
It’s a complex job in a caring but sometimes turbulent environment; some of those seeking shelter are dealing with substance use disorder and/or mental health challenges, in addition to the stress of being houseless.
Castañeda joins Charter House with solid experience finding housing for people in need. Until recently, she served as transitional housing coordinator for the Atria Collective (formerly known as WomenSafe), assisting Addison County survivors of domestic and sexual violence and stalking.
“Professional social worker, advocate and Latina committed to the values of social justice, human rights and dignity of all people,” reads the introductory line of her resume.
Castañeda, for many months, has participated in weekly meetings of the county’s Housing Solutions working group and monthly gatherings of the Addison County Homelessness Task Force, advocating for the housing needs of survivors and working to reduce obstacles to getting the help they need.
“I believe that I am well suited for the program director role as my experience, working style and values align closely with CHC’s mission to provide essential services to those in need through its shelter, housing, food security and outreach programs,” she stated in her job application letter. “I am particularly interested in bringing my best practice knowledge to enhance program development and oversight and contributing to the professional development of staff through supervision, training and mentorship opportunities in order to promote staff well-being.”
With Castañeda on board, Lacey will have more time to focus on statewide advocacy, collaborations with other local groups who work with the homeless population (such as the Counseling Service of Addison County and Turning Point Center), volunteer recruitment, conveying the CHC’s mission, and seeking funding for the non-profit CHC. And funding is becoming a growing concern, based on evolving federal budget priorities. President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget seeks to reduce the overall amount of funding available for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants by $532 million compared to this year, according to National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“There’s concern,” Lacey said about future federal funding — not so much that the Fed will eliminate appropriations to help the homeless, but that potential reduction in safety net programs, like Medicaid and SNAP, could push additional folks into homelessness.
“Who will fill the gaps?” Lacey asked. “It might come down to local organizations and donations.”
Indeed, during her five years helming CHC, Lacey has performed every task from washing dishes in the shelter kitchen to testifying on homelessness issues at the Statehouse.
“This is a good opportunity for me personally, and for Charter House,” Lacey said of her more focused activities. “We’ve been sitting on some initiatives that we haven’t had the capacity (to implement).”
Those initiatives include offering life-skills workshops and quarterly shelter volunteer training sessions. CHC volunteer coordinator Jean Stowell will play a big role in the latter effort. The CHC, thanks to governmental funding and private donations, currently has a staff of 11 full- and part-time workers. Lacey believes CHC really needs 12-14 based on the needs of the homeless community, but she acknowledged the funds aren’t there to reach that level. The CHC — now a $1 million per year charitable enterprise — is already being stretched to cover benefits, including health insurance, for its workers.
This means dependable volunteers become even more critical to the shelter’s mission.
Charter House officials have marked June 20 on their calendars. That’s when CHC will learn if it won a major award through the state’s Housing Opportunity Grant Program that would cover around 75% of this year’s shelter’s budget.
Other things in the works, or recently established by CHC, include:
• An on-site greenhouse in which CHC staff and shelter guests will grow food to be incorporated in daily meals. That produce, along with other nutritious food, will also be packaged for houseless folks who choose not to seek refuge in the shelter.
Lacey thanked the Middlebury Rotary Club, Meacham Construction and Perkins Electric for their help with the greenhouse project.
“They really recognized the need,” she said of supporters.
• A “free community shed” on shelter grounds, from which adults in need can pick up clothing, accessories, outdoor gear, luggage, tents, and other basic necessities.
“It only exists because of generous donations,” said Lacey, who credited CHC’s current 28 volunteers for helping take in, and organize, gifts of gently used items for the shed.
For more information about the CHC and JGHS, visit chcvt.org and johngrahamshelter.org.
John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.