March 26, 2026
By John Flowers, Addison Independent
MIDDLEBURY — The waiting list for a bed at Middlebury’s Charter House Coalition (CHC) Emergency Shelter at 27 North Pleasant St. can exceed 20 during the coldest winter months. Surging demand has prompted CHC officials on occasion to consider — but ultimately abandon, due to cost — an on-site addition to ramp up services for the area’s homeless population.
Turns out the solution was standing just next door at 29 North Pleasant St.
CHC is purchasing the duplex to convert it into transitional housing to accommodate eight guests right away, and eventually more, freeing up beds at the emergency shelter for new arrivals.
“This is a gift,” CHC Executive Director Heidi Lacey said of the way she and her colleagues received the opportunity to make 29 North Pleasant St. part of a larger Charter House campus.
“When we heard that this house might become available, we jumped on the opportunity,” Lacey added. “The fact that the building is right next door will allow us to share services between the two facilities, including meals, social programs and maintenance.”
The conveyance of 29 North Pleasant is gilded with a heartwarming backstory.
Its most recent owners were Randy Kritkausky and Carolyn Schmidt, who acquired it several years ago after it had languished on the market for four years. The couple recalled that the 12-year-old duplex was a fixer-upper that no one seemed to have the pluck or resources to take on.
But Kritkausky and Schmidt had just received an inheritance and had narrowed down its use to two possible scenarios: Invest it, or acquire a village property that could someday serve a greater purpose. They chose the latter.
After buying and renovating the abode, they rented out the two duplex units, plus a carriage house that sits behind the main building. Last year, the couple decided it was time to sell the property. They resolved to part with it for simply the amount they’d invested in it, and that it should go to a nonprofit.
So one day last November, Lacey took a phone call from longtime Realtor Nancy Foster that would signal a seismic shift in the welfare of the unhoused. Foster told Lacey that 29 North Pleasant was on the market, and that Kritkausky and Schmidt were giving CHC first dibs.
“There were tears,” confessed Lacey, who saw the duplex as a potential godsend to CHC’s mission of getting folks beyond emergency shelter services.
An inspection of the 125-year-old duplex revealed it to be in great shape, according to Lacey. Vermont Integrated Architecture is now designing modest improvements that will include knocking out a few walls (between the two units) and bathroom upgrades.
“If we had added this needed capacity in the traditional way by building a new apartment building or buying one that needed extensive renovations, the cost would run in the millions of dollars and take years,” said Lacey. “We are seizing this opportunity because it comes at a fraction of that cost, will be ready in just a few months, and allows us to quickly increase our capacity by almost a third.”
She estimated 29 North Pleasant should be hosting guests by July 1.
There are six rooms within the home. One of them will be for an on-site CHC manager, and each of the other rooms will host two guests, according to Lacey.
Each resident of 29 North Pleasant, according to Lacey, will have earned their spot because of the self-improvement steps they’ve taken while at the emergency shelter. Homeless folks entering the shelter can stay 140 to 200 days if they’re progressing in finding employment, healthcare benefits and housing. CHC and its fellow nonprofit partners help guests with their wellness and independence efforts.
Once selected for 29 North Pleasant, folks will need to show even more progress and tenacity in becoming self-sufficient, on route to that final step into affordable housing. Lacey noted housing is hard to find right now but added CHC has partners like Addison Housing Works, John Graham Housing & Services, Pathways of Vermont and Stonecrop Meadows that can make it happen.
“This model of temporary housing has been missing in our community, but it’s a critical step toward successful permanent housing,” Lacey said. “These guests are typically gainfully employed and highly motivated, but need some time to save money, navigate a complex housing system, and find the right place for the long term.”
Lacey estimates an average stay of around 60 days per resident at 29 North Pleasant.
Middlebury selectboard Chair Andy Hooper praised CHC’s expansion plan.
“Charter House has provided essential services to some of the most vulnerable and least established residents of our town for 20 years and has done so while coordinating their services with the town and remaining mindful of being a good neighbor in their downtown location,” he said. “The addition of 29 North Pleasant St. allows Charter House to expand their housing services from emergency and temporary shelter to also include the transitional housing that allows people who have fallen off the bottom of the ladder to regain their footing.”
Charter House is working with National Bank of Middlebury to finance the project. CHC will soon launch a fundraising campaign to help draw down the $595,000 acquisition costs.
PAYING IT FORWARD
Kritkausky and Schmidt, the angels in this situation, recalled a cherished benefactor of their own.
During a phone interview, the couple harkened back to a move they’d made 50 years ago from Philadelphia to Harford, Penn. The then-young couple had moved into a small, rented building in which they opened an antique store. Once day, a man who had seen them refinishing furniture in the storefront stopped by and encouraged them to check out a larger home in town. The couple toured it and loved what they saw but told the man, named Harry Butler, that it was beyond their means.
“I’ve got connections at the local bank, and I can help get you a mortgage,” Butler reassured them.
Turns out Butler was a man of means, courtesy of a restaurant/truck stop he’d opened just outside of town, on Route 81. Butler co-signed Kritkausky and Schmidt’s mortgage, eventually buying it from the bank and allowing the couple to pay back as they could.
“When we’d paid off the (loan) principle, we asked Harry about paying interest,” Kritkausky said, his voice cracking with emotion. “He just said, ‘Pass it on.’”
“It was a turning point in our lives,” Schmidt said.
Turns out another kind soul had helped Butler get a mortgage so that he could build his truck stop. Butler paid that generosity forward to Kritkausky and Schmidt, who are now paying it forward to CHC — an organization well-versed in magnanimity.
“What Harry meant about ‘passing it on’ wasn’t the economic benefit, it was passing on the trust and the community building,” Kritkausky said. “We’ve had an obligation for our whole lives to do that. And we view this as helping people who are without a home as paying back Harry for what he did for us.”
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