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Bennington providers describe full shelters, encampments and urgent need for outreach funding
Summary
Bennington County advocates told the committee that local shelter capacity is small, encampments are appearing as motel caps are reached, and outreach and program-level funding are essential to track and serve people exiting coordinated entry.
Local providers from Bennington County told the House Human Services Committee that limited shelter space, closed encampments and reduced program capacity are producing visible unsheltered homelessness and complicating the coordinated-entry count.
"We are a 16 bed adult only shelter at 1 of our shelter locations," Carissa Myers, executive director of Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless, told the committee. She said Bennington County has one other family shelter with nine rooms that can house up to 36 family members, and that both locations are routinely full.
Myers described scenes of cribs and belongings being moved as encampments closed, and said intake operates by phone only and requires rapid arrival to claim a bed: "If you can call and you can be there in 15 minutes, great, you have the bed." She told the committee that on one recent month seven clients exited to unsheltered status and the local lead agency lacks capacity to follow up when people lose phones or refuse further contact.
Myers said Bennington's coordinated-entry master list showed 287 households under consideration the morning she pulled the report. She also cited a Georgia Assistance (GA) program figure for the Bennington district reported in the state report: "GA program, 99 rooms serving … 180 people," illustrating a mismatch between need and local capacity.
Advocates sought funding for outreach and essential-service positions to follow people who leave motels or shelters and said the 33 ERAP case-manager positions funded for hotel work did not include every provider. Myers recommended raising the GA motel 80-night cap to buy time for shelters to find long-term funding and expand capacity.
The committee also heard a personal testimony from Marie, who described becoming homeless after several family deaths and eventually finding an apartment after six months of instability. "Housing is a human right, not a privilege," Marie told the committee, urging stronger, targeted support for people who rely on disability income and other fixed incomes.
Committee members thanked the providers for their work and asked for follow-up data; Myers said she could provide caseload and contact-hour information on request.
No formal committee actions were taken during the session; speakers asked the committee to consider program-level funding and outreach supports in the final budget.
