BELLOWS FALLS — As housing issues rise in Windham County in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, and Vermonters prepare for winter, residents have again lodged complaints that it is inappropriate to locate an overnight homeless shelter within the village.
The Greater Falls Warming Shelter (GFWS) is preparing for its second year at the location beneath Athens Pizza at 83 Westminster St..
However, the Zoning Board and Planning Commission must decide soon whether to issue a permit to reopen the shelter by Nov. 1, if the owner, Alpha G LLC, agrees to the board's stipulations for opening.
Village residents went before a joint meeting of the Zoning and Planning boards last month, citing alleged nightly disruptions from outdoor lighting, smoking outside in the parking lot, audible use of foul language, and the involvement of the Bellows Falls Police at least 20 times over the four months that the shelter was open last season.
Further fact gathering, a site inspection and meeting were set for discussion on Oct. 5 in Bellows Falls. However, GFWS Committee Chair Louise Luring told the board the person acting as agent for the owner “could not be found” that night.
The zoning board felt it was important that the owner of the building be present to answer “crucial questions regarding concerns and requests raised by abutters.”
Consequently, the board made the decision for a second continuance until Oct. 21, stating that “none of us want this to be continued indefinitely.”
In response to Luring's difficulty getting the landlord for the shelter to a meeting, in what may be the first time ever - “I've been on this board 8 years and I've never had occasion to use this,” DeRoscha said - the Zoning Board and Planning Commission opted to use their power to subpoena the Alpha G LLC owner to get their questions answered.
However, DeRoscha said that if the Alpha G representative is willing to sign a letter stipulating that he agrees to a three-point list of changes that include an entry into the building for shelter users other than the one they used last year, an extension of existing fencing, and maintaining a natural screen provided by trees and shrubbery, the board would accept that communication in lieu of the owner's presence.
“I don't want to keep continuing this. It's getting cold out there. I want people to have a place to stay,” board member Robert DeRoscha said.
Riverside Apartment residents signed a petition for the opportunity to have a representative address the board with their concerns.
Board members told the residents that their concerns were not within the zoning board's purview.
Chair Alan LaCombe also clarified concerns expressed at the Oct. 5 meeting, saying it was clear that some “facts” had been reported erroneously, but “now that we have those facts, [they] will be thoroughly reviewed” by the committee.
Chroma issues a challenge
While the shelter issues play out before the zoning board, Chroma Technology of Rockingham recently issued a challenge to other town businesses to contribute money to keep the shelter open this winter.
“We are asking businesses and community partners to match Chroma's pledge to match the first $2,500 of the total funds received by the Nov. 1 deadline,” explained Maggie Kelly, a Chroma employee and member of the GFWS board.
“It's discouraging that the need may be even greater this year,” said Luring. “We've seen a big increase in those asking for the food resources of Our Place, which we're extrapolating to mean there will be more people facing problems with housing this winter.”
So far, Luring said, $500 has been matched.
Several employees from Chroma also volunteer at the shelter. At least one, Nicholas Day, wonders about the community's reluctance to lend a helping hand.
“Nobody deserves to [sleep in the] cold for the night ...or freeze to death,” Day said. The residents he got to know were “grateful guests who got to sleep in a warm place” during cold winter nights.
The shelter's costs run around $30,000 to serve up to 14 people a night, according to Luring. Last year, the shelter served 45 people.
The shelter opened three years ago when the director of a shelter in Brattleboro warned Selectboard member Ann DiBernardo that Rockingham would need to take care of its own homeless people for the upcoming cold season, as Brattleboro's was at capacity.
Daisy Chase said she was “glad the shelter was there” last winter in January when she broke up with her boyfriend and was left without a place to live.
“It was great,” she said, “I didn't have to sleep in a snow bank or in a tent.”
Chase said she helped out at the shelter wherever and whenever she could “to give back.”
“I helped unload trucks, and helped keep [the shelter] clean,” she said.
She added that “this year, we're going to assign chores on a rotation so everybody has a turn.” As often happens in life, “it was the same people doing the chores every night.”
Chase has since found shelter with friends, and expects to have her own place soon. “We're waiting to hear from the landlord,” she said, smiling.
She is dealing with ongoing health problems that precipitated her breakup.
“He didn't want to take care of me when I was sick,” she said. “He told me to get out.”
As Chase spoke, her new boyfriend stopped by to check in with her and confer about appointments they had for the afternoon, including one with Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA). Her trust and ease with him were reflected in her smile as they talked.
Concerns in Athens
Following a meeting in Athens, where a FEMA official answered residents' questions following denial of their assistance requests and were told how to correctly resubmit their applications online, one resident said there was a good possibility that “if it gets too cold this winter, we may need a place to take our kids.”
She said she was glad the shelter would be there for them.
Several families in an Athens trailer park are living in smelly, damp, and moldy mobile homes that are “unfit for our children to stay in,” she said, and say they would be very grateful to have “a place to get the kids out of the cold” this winter if it becomes necessary.
Extensive flooding knocked most of the trailers off their pilings and twisted the flimsy homes so badly that water now leaks into the living space.
“And we still have to pay rent,” one young mother said. “It stinks in there. It's not good for our kids.”
Her two children stay next door with her mother, while she stays in the trailer “because I don't want people to think [our home is] abandoned and [what's left is] up for grabs.”
“I told my landlord this month's rent might be late” because the family had to spend money replacing items lost in the flood for the kids, “not to mention the trailer is uninhabitable, but he said if I didn't pay rent, I could expect to leave.”
Asked if she had a place to go, she shook her head.
“No,” she said.
The conditions in the two trailers that sit side by side is horrendous, according to Lisa Pitcher, director of Parks Place Drop-In Center in Bellows Falls, who had seen them, but “the landlord refuses to do anything to help the tenants.”
Pitcher said this family was one of many affected by the flood.
“Some of them have been placed, but there are a lot out there still trying to figure what to do,” she said. “They think that because they still have a roof, they don't need assistance.”
When it starts getting cold, Pitcher said, reality will set in and “they are going to need a place to take shelter” from the cold overnight.