Next Steps

Besides building additional permanent housing across Vermont as quickly as is possible and also providing enough funding to the array of housing and social service providers with which to ensure sufficient provision of various high quality support and services being made available and offered on a voluntary basis (read related commentary of mine, here; via vtdigger; circa: 2013), what more will be necessary to help better address the most dire needs of those living unhoused within our region?

In a nutshell, according to my read of a recent vtdigger article (here), it is providing an adequate medical respite housing program within an accessible home-like environment based in a community of one's choosing.

Good Samaritan Welcome Center, located on Route 302 in Berlin and had been the former Twin City Motel, opened its doors to people living unhoused in the Summer of 2022 (read related blog post of theirs, here):

[...]

With tremendous financial investment from VHCB and generous private donors, Good Sam purchased the historic Twin City Motel on the Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin on August 27, 2021. Just under a year later, on July 18, 2022, Good Sam opened the doors and welcomed their first guests. 

[...] 

(VHCB = Vermont Housing and Conservation Board)

Related prose of mine:

A Welcoming Place to Sojourn

Over the course of years upon years, alongside an oftentimes busily travelled road, centrally located between two relatively small cities, those in need of a place to sojourn a night or more, including weary travelers, could enjoy the comforts of a clean, cozy and quiet "home away from home," made to feel most welcomed by their friendly hosts, at the Twin City Motel. 

Although much has since changed with the passage of time, both in each of those two cities as well as in between, the modest well-kept roadside establishment remains, newly remodeled and now named The (Good Samaritan) Welcome Center, welcoming those living unhoused who have nowhere else to call home, within which their hat can be hung and they can rest weary body, mind and soul, while seeking a potentially more permanent abode, one to call their own.

Morgan W. Brown

July 14, 2022

Montpelier, Vermont, USA

Older, related, prose:

a home is a garden of life

let people find a place

where they can plant

fertile seeds-that contain

their own hopes and dreams,

from which they may then

draw harvests of plenty to

share with others, and which

they will call home,

for it is a garden where

lives thrive and are grown.

by Morgan W. Brown

August 13, 1999

Montpelier, Vermont, USA

Above photo: Good Samaritan Welcome Center, still somewhat a work-in-progress at the time and just prior to the opening of its doors to its first residents (taken by Morgan W. Brown; circa: July 16, 2022; click onto image in order to view enlargement).

Update: By the way, while in the neighborhood yesterday (Thursday, October 19, 2023), I visited the Good Samaritan Welcome Center for about an hour or more. It has been awhile since my last visit there. The place looks great, in my opinion. From what I observed, the energy and vibes there were really good, healthy and positive. It is a healing and nurturing environment.

As I understand it, the Good Samaritan Welcome Center has two fully American with Disability Act (ADA) compliant accessible rooms as well as three palliative care rooms available, one or more that might be currently inaccessible (i.e., non-ADA compliant).

Yet, as good of an improvement upon previous conditions as that might actually be or otherwise appear to be (at least compared to when there was little if anything available along those lines before then), it is clearly not enough to properly meet the unmet or under-served need.

In addition to providing enough permanent affordable housing as well as necessary in-home services and support in order to effectively meet the unmet or under-served need, hopefully sooner rather than later, it has become obvious over the years, however, that the need for such medical respite care and housing programs is both growing and urgent.

One is left to wonder where else people who are most in need would be expected to live? 

Outdoors, where they are more than likely to quickly perish? 

In an institution of one sort or another, where they might not fare much better, nor truly flourish?

Related prose of mine:

In Lieu of Flowers

(Remember and Care for the Living)

For those living unhoused,

abandoned to the streets,

left to live in the woods,

underneath bridges,

sleep in dumpsters and the like;

it is far too late to think of,

remember fondly, send flowers

or otherwise honor and memorialize them

after they have languished and died from lying wet,

frozen, alone and forgotten,

due to deliberate indifference

as well as from a lack

of sufficient caring and empathy

by their fellow human beings.

Morgan W. Brown

Montpelier, Vermont, USA

October 21, 2021

Why, as a society, are we forsaking those with nowhere else to live?

If it were you or a dear family member or friend living under these types of circumstances (i.e., unhoused), what would you want for either yourself or them?

Shouldn't the same be available to others in need?

In my estimation, the answer to the above question is a resounding yes!

Note: Edited for the purposes of clarification and readability. Also posted an update, just below the above photo caption.