Support voiced for winter shelter
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Susan Shea (front) and James Oakman look over a property on Canal Street in Bellows Falls that is being looked into as a possible shelter for the homeless. Shea helps operate Our Place in Bellows Falls and Oakman volunteers there. Albert J. Marro / Rutland Herald |
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: December 2, 2009
BELLOWS FALLS – Strong support for a proposed homeless shelter in downtown Bellows Falls was voiced Monday evening, with residents saying giving people a safe and warm place to sleep during the winter months was a matter of morality and humanity.
The proposed shelter, which would be at 33 Canal St. in the former village bowling alley, still needs a local zoning permit before renovations can be made and the shelter opened. That hearing will be held next week.
Organizers, including area social workers, ministers, and many social service agencies, said the Greater Falls Warming Shelter would be open only during the winter months, and would be limited to 15 people per night. The shelter would open at 7 p.m. every evening and close at 7 a.m.
During the daytime, people could stay at Our Place, the local drop-in center, said Susan Shea, executive director.
Pat Torrey of North Walpole, N.H., who grew up in Bellows Falls and worked for years for the local visiting nurses association, said the homeless people in the region deserved the town's help.
"The people we are talking about are not bums," said Torrey, who said her father was a longtime Bellows Falls merchant. "They are the working poor and I object to this 'not-in-my-neighborhood' attitude," she said.
"It is immoral to let people stay in the street," she said.
One former homeless man, David Ramos of Westminster, said homeless people don't want to be homeless, and have a hard time dealing with the stigma of being homeless.
"I'm here, I was homeless," he said, noting that now he is married, has three children and has a home.
"People don't want to be homeless or in the soup line," he said. "Give us a chance."
Rockingham Select Board member Ann DiBernardo, who is the town's service officer, said the Select Board had appropriated $10,000 recently to help set up the shelter.
DiBernardo said as the town service officer, she often has to put up homeless people or families in motels, at town expense.
DiBernardo, like many in the audience at the meeting at Our Place, a local drop-in center, supported opening the shelter.
But she was criticized for funding the shelter while the Select Board was contemplating eliminating jobs in the town budget by local business owner Pat Fowler, who raised the most questions about the proposal.
Fowler said she was afraid organizers hadn't adequately thought through all the issues involved in opening a shelter.
Bianca Fernandez, who works for Youth Services, said she had tried to interest any of the region's churches and faith groups in hosting the winter shelter, but to no success.
Fernandez said the Canal Street site, owned by local businessman Stephen Moore, could only be used this winter and the group would have to find a new location next year.
She said she had talked to the immediate abutters to the proposed shelter, and all supported the effort.
Fernandez said organizers estimated costs at $15,000 for the four months the shelter would operate, and Paul Millman, president of Chroma Technology of Rockingham, said he and others were trying to raise funds to support the shelter. Millman said that $5,000 had been pledged so far.
The group, which numbered about two dozen people, also heard from Melinda Bussino of Westminster West, who runs the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center, and who is the co-founder of Brattleboro's "overflow" winter shelter.
The winter homeless shelter is in the local Baptist Church on Main Street, Bussino said, and added that the shelter was lucky to have a large number of volunteers who either bring meals or cook or oversee the shelter every night.
Bussino said the winter shelter produced few problems, but volunteers were trained to keep their eyes open for potential problems.
No weapons are allowed in the shelter, and men and women are kept separate. Families are kept together if possible, Bussino said.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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