MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (WCAX) – The town of Middlebury continues to work on developing a homeless encampment policy. It comes as authorities this week began to clear out an encampment that has grown behind the library over the past six months.
“Any of us could be in this position, you know, and I have had family members in this position. So, even if I didn’t, I feel, we should be paying attention,” said Laura Asermily, who has lived in the community for 20 years and has never seen the problem this bad. She says although some have found housing, the work to provide resources is just beginning. “We know that it needs to be followed up with ongoing support.”
Town officials say they gave the group behind the library an eviction notice after trying to encourage them to leave in mid-November. Starting on Monday, campers — along with social services — started picking up the site.
While the site has been vacated, Town Manager Tom Hanley says he wishes they had better solutions for the group. “We don’t know where they are going to go. We want to make sure they were going to be safe. They could not stay here but we wanted to make sure we were at least not just throwing them out in the street. It is a frustrating issue because, you know, we are all people just like they are. Just telling them they got to go doesn’t always work,” he said.
The Charter House Coalition, a local advocacy group, says about five people from the encampment have found housing and others are couch surfing. “It really just felt like any door that opened was quickly closed. They were experiencing a lot of rejections from potential landlords. Living in a hotel is also very difficult,” said the group’s Heidi Lacey.
Town officials and advocates want to craft their own unique policy to address homeless encampments based on the situation and scenario people are living in.