Homelessness issue hits home in Midd dorm Students confront issues of disparity through volunteering and awareness

Author: Madison Kahn

To borrow one of the slogans from a leading Vermont brand, "life is good" at Middlebury College. We have three free hot meals a day, dorms that are cleaned multiple times a week, great people with whom to converse, unparalleled facilities, excellent professors, spectacular sunsets... and the list goes on forever. At some point or another over the four years we stay at Club Midd, we all find ourselves getting caught up in Middlebury's own utopic "bubble," but rarely do we see the reality of life for many others in Vermont whose stay is not nearly as "good." Several new Febs saw these disparities firsthand on one of their very first nights at Middlebury.

Arriving home from Feb orientation one chilling night over February break, new student James Gold '12.5, walked into his Gifford basement suite to find the bathroom door closed and locked. Thinking it was one of his fellow suitemates, James carried on with his business, waiting until his friend emerged. When no one had emerged 20 minutes later, James and the rest of his suite knew something was fishy. Before they had time to react, out came a large bearded man who identified himself as an English professor. He quickly scurried away, leaving Gold and his suitemates baffled by such a bizarre event.

"It didn't make much sense why a professor would be in our bathroom, so we came to the conclusion that he must be homeless," said Gold when asked about his initial reaction. Yet, the confusion did not end there. Several minutes later, the man was back, this time saying that he had forgotten his pregnant wife in the bathroom. Sure enough, the woman was hiding behind the shower curtain, and together the pair reunited and scampered away as quickly as possible. The students contacted the office at Public Safety immediately, who later found the couple relaxing at the Juice Bar. The Middlebury police were notified and escorted the couple off campus. Nothing had been taken from the unlocked rooms nor was any damage done to the suite - all that remained was a particularly bizarre memory for some pretty astounded first-year Febs.

Although this story sounds outlandish and pretty extreme for a typical Middlebury night, this sort of event is not as uncommon as one may think. Because of the Middlebury bubble we often find ourselves within, we as students rarely see the true face of homelessness in Vermont. Most students would admit that homelessness does not often cross their minds as they mostly attribute homelessness to larger cities rather than rural areas. Even Gold himself, who had the initial contact with the homeless couple, "had never really considered the fact that there could be homeless people in a small town in Vermont." Yet, much to the student body's surprise, there is a lot more going on off campus than we may think.

Homelessness is a major issue in Vermont, and particularly in Addison County. In fact, Vermont had the highest rate per capita of homelessness in New England just last year. There are an estimated 4,000 homeless individuals and families living in Vermont each year, and unfortunately this number has continued to grow by 20 percent over the past seven years.

Why Vermont? According to Elizabeth Ready, former state senator and current director of the John Graham Shelter in Vergennes, "It is a combination of issues. People in low -wage jobs can't afford housing in the area. We have, sometimes, people working two jobs and together they might make 14 dollars an hour. It's very hard to find a place, with that kind of income. Then there are a number of folks that might be either suffering from a mental illness or a physical disability, and quite frankly, there just aren't places for them to be, and so they're coming to the shelter."

The John Graham Shelter in Vergennes is just one of the 21 government-funded homeless shelters in Vermont that is working to combat this issue. Run by Elizabeth Ready and Diana Rule, the shelter provides a clean, safe place for up to 17 residents at any one time, and offers about 5,000 beds to 180 individuals each year. The shelter provides food, laundry vouchers, transportation, counseling and medical care, and often assists residents in finding affordable housing and jobs. Brent Allen '11 has been volunteering at the shelter since his first semester at Middlebury. He and some friends cook dinner once a week and look after the young children on Monday nights while their parents are in a house meeting.

"Whatever we do while we are there, we do to give the people at the shelter a break from the monotony that can go on at a shelter, and to have a chance to get to know people and create some really cool friendships," said Allen. "We want the people at the shelter to know they are loved." Unlike a huge city shelter, the John Graham shelter provides stable housing and the closest thing to a home environment that one can find in a homeless shelter.

Allen urged students to "recognize the fact of its existence, and to question why homelessness is happening and what can be done about it."

"Homelessness is something that can be invisible, but then just completely smack you in the face." Admittedly, James Gold and his suitemates were "smacked in the face," It is one thing to be passionate about poverty, but as Allen has learned, "whenever we are talking about the poor and the marginalized, we are talking about real people. These words aren't abstractions, but people with histories, faces, and hopes."