BELLOWS FALLS — Greater Falls Warming Shelter (GFWS) board members met last week and made the decision to “take care of our own,” through a tiered response to house homeless people during this coldest time of the year in Vermont.
As a result, the organization will sever its ties with Hundred Nights, a nonprofit that had stepped in after the shelter did not receive a permit [The Commons, Dec. 14].
Board members discussed ways in which, even without an overnight warming shelter in Bellows Falls, the group could keep people safe and warm overnight.
The board decided to approach the problem on a day-to-day basis and respond according to the number of people needing shelter each night with what Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) Family Services Director Pat Burke termed the “winter model.”
The board's decision to discontinue twice-daily trips to the Hundred Nights shelter in Keene, N.H. means the money spent to pay for the van rental and gas invoiced to the GFWS can be diverted to paying for housing in or around Rockingham.
The GFWS budget of $11,883 is estimated to provide overnight shelter through March but will require fundraising to span the gap through April. The board agreed that a potential shortfall later would not deter current expenditures on sheltering the homeless.
Transportation, however, remains an issue, according to Lisa Pitcher, director of Our Place Drop In Center and a GFWS board member.
“We'll need volunteers,” she said.
The board discussed renting an apartment and transporting people to a motel as two possible options.
Treasurer Maggie Kelley, of Chroma Technology, noted that GFWS has enough in the budget to potentially house people in a motel through March.
“We'll have to do some fundraising when the money runs out, but that's what we'll do,” Kelley said. “This is too important.”
The issue of oversight or case management was discussed, though Pitcher declared, “Most of the people I see don't need oversight.”
“They're not bad people and wouldn't jeopardize the opportunity to stay warm and safe on cold nights,” she said. “I mean, who would?”
For the few who might need oversight, the board acknowledged the need to reorganize GFWS volunteers so someone could check on people during their stay.
“We kind of let that go, and now we need to pick that up again and see who is available,” Pitcher said. “Everything is in place. We just need to activate our network.”
Aftermath of the 'expedient way'
Pitcher spoke with Don Primrose of Hundred Nights, who has been billing the GFWS, and she said that the Keene-based nonprofit's last invoice totaled $1,100, “when we didn't agree to anything.”
In a Dec. 30 letter to Primrose, the board acknowledged gratitude when he “presented the board with a temporary solution [...] to open a Hundred Nights shelter, 'with or without' our support.”
“It may have been the most expedient way to address the problem, but it wasn't the best way,” Burke said.
And the board felt focus had shifted from taking care of their “own” area homeless people during the coldest months of the year, to focusing on taking care of Hundred Nights' invoices - invoices that were more or less equivalent to costs of housing from 4 to 8 individuals per night in the Bellows Falls-Rockingham area, according to Kelly's calculations.
“We want to pursue housing for own people in our own town,” Burke said.
The board voted not to pay any more invoices from Hundred Nights, starting Jan. 18, and notified Primrose of their decision after the meeting.
But a subsequent email over the weekend from Deborah Chambers, CEO of Hundred Nights, said that the van rental would be ending Jan. 17.
Pitcher did not know what that timing would mean for people bused to the shelter the night before.
There are options outside of Bellows Falls, such as the Brattleboro and Springfield shelters, but getting people there would be an issue.
“As a last resort, we get them to Morningside [in Brattleboro],” a shelter that is full most, if not all, nights this winter. “They won't be turned away.”
The BFWS came about in 2009 after shelter organizers in Brattleboro, concerned about overcrowding, urged community service organizations in the Bellows Falls area to create a facility.
Pitcher said the Keene Hundred Nights shelter will take people and “they can stay there,” instead of coming back to Bellows Falls, if they have no way to return on their own.
She said that everyone was accounted for on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, which also was a day after the coldest night in Bellows Falls so far this winter.
Pitcher said the federal holiday was one of the few days during the year that Our Place is not normally open. Five people had gone to Hundred Nights, but were back at Our Place Drop In Center, which had been staffed by board members and volunteers through the holiday weekend.
“Arnold Clift brought a meal this weekend, and Judy Lidie brought a meal, so people were able to stay warm and have something to eat,” Pitcher said, “People from the community have really stepped up to fill the gaps. It's really wonderful. We need that right now.”
“It gives me much pleasure to do just a little to make their lives a bit more tolerable,” Clift said. “I simply provided some soup and rolls for dinner. One shelter woman thanked me twice for doing this. It lifted my heart.”
Pitcher said she will meet with Susan Howes of SEVCA to discuss ground rules “for how people will let us know they need shelter, rules for safety, and helping people look for housing if they have income.”
In that case, the state might provide assistance, but Pitcher was unclear what the amounts were.
“I know if a person who qualifies for General Assistance housing money is in their own apartment it is $198 a month; but if they are staying in a room in a relative's apartment or house, it is $160 per person,” she said.
Pitcher noted the latter would hardly get someone into an apartment.
While it will take some reorganizing to get the GFWS volunteer staff base up and running again, and transportation organized to get people to and from either a motel or an apartment, or to Brattleboro, Springfield, or Keene, Pitcher felt sure that people in need of shelter will get what they need.
“We'll make it work,” she said.
A forum for volunteers and the community to plan and brainstorm ideas is also planned, but no date or location has been set yet.
“We'd love for anyone in the community who wants to help to attend,” Pitcher said.
Anyone interested in volunteering or interested in helping should contact Pitcher or the GFWS.