(Host) Brattleboro’s homeless shelter is hoping to expand, and reconfigure, because of the number of families with children turning to it for help.
Although the need is great, fundraising is slow in the current economy.
VPR’s Susan Keese has the story.
(Keese) In a shabby row of "long-term" rooms behind a Brattleboro motel, Chivon and her four-year-old daughter Casey are waiting.
They’ve been told they’re next in line for a space in Brattleboro’s Morningside Emergency Shelter.
(Chivon) "Since I think the first week of September I’ve been calling pretty much every day. … But it’s pretty much any day now."
(Keese) Once she gets into Morningside, Chivon says she can get her daughter enrolled in daycare and start looking for a job. Five years ago she was a student at a private college in Vermont.
(Chivon) "I was going to major in Italian and art and restore art in Italy."
(Keese) After she had Casey she moved in with her mother. But her mother lost her house and moved to pursue an opportunity in another state.
Now Chivon pays $550 a month out of her $580 monthly cash assistance check, for a room with just a bed, refrigerator, microwave and hot plate.
(Chivon) "You know, everyone makes mistakes. But I think my mistakes came at a bad time in the economy ‘cause now I’m in a spot where it’s hard to get out of, ‘cause, you know, I can’t save money being here."
(Keese) Paul Capcara is the executive director of Brattleboro’s Morningside Shelter and he says Chivon is not alone.
For the past year and a half, the 25-bed shelter’s waiting list has held steady at about 40 people. Capcara says the demographics are changing, too.
(Capcara) "We’ve seen a major shift towards more and more families being homeless. A little bit tougher on our old farmhouse where we don’t have as much flexibility as you would like because rooms, you know, are hard to reconfigure there to fit a family of four, or a family of five. And so that’s why we’re struggling to do an expansion."
(Keese) The $100,000 renovation would create space for two more families and make the shelter more child friendly. The shelter has three families with children at the moment.
The shelter’s board hoped it would be built before the winter set in. They’ve got some grants, but money is tight everywhere, and now it looks as if they’ll break ground this spring.
So space is tight. But Neal and Sarah, a couple in their 20s with three boys, say they’re lucky to be here. Morningside is substance free, which Neal says is good.
(Neal) "Kids seem to be pretty much our only addiction.
(Sarah) "Yup, we’re addicted to kids."
(Keese) The family is in a tiny outbuilding behind the main shelter. They sleep in a room with bunk beds and a crib and a double bed. They share a bathroom and a tiny living room with a single woman who has her own small bedroom.
On a Saturday morning, while the kids watch cartoons, they talk about their plans and the help they’re getting here with budgeting and other skills.
Neal says they’ve got their car back on the road. He’s working as a temp at a local factory – a job he hopes to keep. Sarah had a job at Wal-Mart, but now hopes to go to school.
And they’re actually saving for an apartment, a goal they hope to reach by March, at the latest.
For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese.