BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – The Brattleboro homeless shelter where a staff member was brutally murdered a year ago will be torn down and replaced with a new shelter.
“We want to start fresh with a building that is designed to be a shelter,” said Libby Bennett with Groundworks Collaborative, the agency that provides housing, food, and wrap-around services for those in need in the Brattleboro area.
What was once an old farmhouse, was converted into a homeless shelter decades ago. Bennett says planning is in the works for a $6 million state-of-the-art, 40-bed shelter. “Ideally, long-term shelter is not the ideal goal but it is something that we need now and we need as immediately as we can get it,” Bennett said.
One year ago, the Morningside House was surrounded by crime scene tape. Police say Groundworks employee Leah Rosin-Pritchard was brutally attacked with a hatchet inside the shelter by one of the residents who was temporarily living there. The shelter has sat empty ever since.
“Throughout this process we have thought, what would Leah do? What would Leah want us to do? And we have pretty much come to this consensus that Leah would not want to see beds and services stopped for any longer than we have to,” Bennett said.
Rosin-Pritchard moved to Brattleboro to pursue a career in social work and Groundworks staff say that in some ways the new shelter is a way for her dedication to helping others to live on. “Whatever we can do to honor her feels like the utmost importance to us,” said Bennett. But she says it comes as staff and the community continue to heal over a seemingly senseless and heinous crime. “We are ever moving toward a stage of increased resilience.”
Groundworks officials hope to have the money for the project secured by June with a groundbreaking taking place next spring.
The accused killer, Zaaina Mahvish-Jammeh, has been charged with first-degree murder. However, the state has requested a second mental evaluation after a judge ruled Mahvish-Jammeh was not competent to stand trial.