Vermont shelter providers hurry to add beds before the snow falls

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

MONTPELIER — A rambling Victorian house a few blocks south of downtown will soon become the Capital City’s first year-round shelter for people experiencing homelessness.

The nonprofit Good Samaritan Haven had searched long and hard for the right property to establish a new Montpelier shelter. The site needed to be out of the floodplain, said Julie Bond, the organization’s executive director, so the nonprofit wouldn’t need to evacuate its guests when floodwaters rose — a frequent dilemma at Good Sam’s shelter in nearby Barre.

The organization has run a winter-only shelter for several years at the former Elks Club property in Montpelier, but the operatio