Valley News: New Shelter Is Almost Home: Haven Seeks $150,000 For Staff and Programs

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By John P. Gregg

The Upper Valley Haven plans to open its new 20-bed shelter for homeless adults in May but needs to raise roughly $150,000 to add staff and programming for the Hartford Avenue building.

"We aren't finished yet. … We still have a ways to go to be able to have the funds to operate this program," Haven Executive Director Sara Kobylenski said yesterday during a ceremony intended to highlight a $200,000 federal earmark U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., included in last year's budget for construction of the new shelter.

Workers are now painting the $1.4 million, 7,000-square foot shelter -- an expansion and renovation of an older building -- and have trim, flooring, fixtures and kitchen appliances to install.

Haven officials said the White River Junction nonprofit is close to reaching its goal in a $2.2 million capital campaign, but needs to raise more money to expand its operating budget. The Haven's upcoming budget is expected to increase by 34 percent, to $1.3 million, in large part for the 24-hour staffing and programs needed for the new shelter for adults.

The Haven already has a family shelter for as many as eight families. The new facility will house adults without children and is also expected to draw homeless veterans in the area because of its proximity to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Many homeless adults currently have to go to Claremont or more distant shelters to find a bed at night.

Robert Walton, director of the VA hospital, said there are an estimated 131,000 homeless veterans nationwide, comprising one in three homeless adults.

"Those numbers are both staggering and disgraceful, but the VA through the assistance of its community partners has made some progress in reducing homelessness," Walton said, noting that five years ago, the number of homeless veterans was 195,000.

Haven Development Director Liz Verney said the VA will pay a stipend of about $36 a night to cover the shelter's costs for housing a homeless veteran. The Haven expects the adult shelter will house an average of five veterans per night, though they will not receive preferential treatment in placement.

Kobylenski said the goal is to create "a comfortable place, but not one that encourages people to stay longer than they need … The mission here has always been to go beyond the emergency moment, and to attempt to help to get people back on their feet, or sometimes to even get back on their feet for the first time."

Aides to Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the money to help build the new Haven shelter was included in the fiscal year 2009 budget as part of a larger earmark administered by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.

Leahy said the federal government spends large amounts of money training and equipping troops for combat, but then "We don't do anywhere near enough what we should do for our veterans when they come out of combat."

"Vermont is not a wealthy state, but it's a state with a real heart. And in a nation like ours, hunger and homelessness -- these are not economic issues, these are truly moral issues," he added.

Leahy -- who is up for re-election in November and was accompanied by his wife, Marcelle -- is making a two-day tour of the Connecticut River Valley highlighting earmarks and other federal grants he has won. Other stops yesterday included Springfield and Brattleboro, and he is expected this morning to announce funding that would help the Putney Historical Society again try to rebuild the Putney General Store, which has twice been destroyed by fire.

Earmarks have grown increasingly controversial in recent years because of concerns about the federal deficit and horse-trading in Congress, but Leahy defended his record, saying in a post-ceremony interview that he has "brought nearly a billion dollars to Vermont" to help create jobs and clean up the environment.

"Maybe people feel they should be in the U.S. Senate and not represent their state, not help their state," he said. "That's not the way I feel."

Leahy faces a primary challenge from Daniel Freilich, a 46-year-old Wilmington physician. His likely Republican challenger, Len Britton of Pomfret, has raised earmark spending as a campaign issue but said yesterday he supports earmarks if they meet a federal purpose, such as the intention of the Haven shelter to reach out to homeless veterans.

"They have a federal application, and that goes into the job description of being a senator," said Britton, the owner of Britton Lumber and Feed in Taftsville. But he also noted that the Haven earmark came from last year's federal budget.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but today I think it was just about Pat Leahy getting in front of a camera," Britton said.

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