This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
BURLINGTON – A new shelter is opening for unhoused people seeking recovery from addiction.
Located in the Queen City’s downtown, the Bridges Recovery Shelter will be the first of its kind in Chittenden County and among just a few in the state. It will be operated by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity in a building owned by the Howard Center, a site that used to host a detox facility.
“We know there is a real gap in our system. People complete residential treatment and have few stable and recovery-focused places to go. Others are working hard on their sobriety in environments that make that work even harder,” said Sandy McGuire, CEO of the Howard Center, a mental health and substance use services nonprofit, at an opening event for the new Bridges shelter on Monday. “This recovery shelter was designed to meet those needs.”
For many people experiencing homelessness in Vermont, the first stop off the streets is a “low- barrier” shelter that lacks strict rules around sobriety. That model offers a critical option to get people who use drugs indoors, but these low-barrier settings can be difficult places to stay sober.
“Witnessing someone who is trying very hard to maintain recovery in an environment that is just not as supportive as it could be to them, is absolutely heartbreaking,” said Sarah Russell, emergency services director for CVOEO.
CVOEO plans to take referrals from other shelters for the 10 to 12 beds at Bridges, in order to open up spaces at low-barrier shelters for people leaving unsheltered homelessness. The nonprofit plans to start taking referrals this week.
The Bridges shelter will be supported by clinicians on site, as well as regular recovery group meetings and peer-to-peer support systems.
The shelter is awaiting certification from the Vermont Alliance for Recovery Residences, which uses national standards to try and ensure a uniform code of ethics and quality of services in recovery housing. The Bridges shelter is teed up to be the second certified recovery shelter in the state; the other is run by Good Samaritan Haven in Barre Town.
Operators of recovery housing facilities often have to face the thorny challenge of tenants relapsing. If a future shelter guest is found using substances at the Bridges shelter, staff will first work closely with the person to understand their situation, said CVOEO Executive Director Paul Dragon. If the behavior is repeated, employees will aim to place the person back into a low-barrier setting, at least temporarily.
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“We are going to make sure we don’t put people back on the street, and then they can have an opportunity to come back in when they’re ready,” Dragon said.
The state Agency of Human Services provided about $879,000 to support the shelter’s first year, according to Dragon. The city of Burlington contributed $104,000.
State officials and some lawmakers have argued that Vermont must open more specialized shelters like this one, as the state tries to ramp down the use of motel rooms for people experiencing homelessness.
