Tag Archives: Agency of Natural Resources Annex building

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

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Yesterday evening I did what no member of the press corps has seemingly bothered to do: I visited the the Agency of Natural Resources Annex, d/b/a Winters Hall, one of the Scott administration’s four hastily-assembled temporary shelters.

And this is what’s inside all that steel and concrete: 20 cots, each with its own flimsy plastic-wrapped blanket.

And… well, that’s about all. (There used to be more cots, but some have been removed due to lack of usage.)

Oh, there are three porta-potties just outside the entrance. Because, I was told, the indoor facilities aren’t working. The building was flooded last July, and apparently the facilities have been offline since.

Credit to the Vermont National Guard for doing their best to prepare the space. The shelter was clean and orderly, though it remains disquietingly industrial. There was no sign of flood damage or mold, at least not in the section of the building being used as shelter. The Guard were helpful and polite during my visit. They were carrying out the mission: Responding to situations to the best of their ability with the resources they are given.

But c’mon, this is a disgrace. Don’t blame the Guard; blame the Scott administration. This was their idea.

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I Think We Should Call This “Winters Hall”

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This, my friends, is what the Scott administration thinks is an acceptable shelter space for dozens of our most vulnerable Vermonters. This is the Agency of Natural Resources Annex building, technically in Berlin but closer to Montpelier than anything. Starting tonight, if the administration has its way, this will be one of four nighttime-only temporary shelters meant to house a total of roughly 500 people being booted from their state-paid motel rooms. For no good reason. Bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo, pitched in multisyllabic words intended to drain all the human emotion from the matter.

(Note: Vermont Legal Aid is going to court to try to block the mass exiting operation. I kind of doubt they’ll succeed; this plan is cruel, obnoxious and heartless, but it’s within the purview of state decision-making authority. But we can hope.

Otherwise, what are we looking at here?

I haven’t been inside the Annex, so I can’t witness to the quality of the decor. Probably not great; it’s been used for general storage by various state agencies, which have apparently been busily clearing out all the stuff that’s been sitting around. I can’t swear to the bathroom or shower facilities, although I have heard that the building contains two single-stall bathrooms. For dozens of people?)

Food service? Refrigeration? Privacy? Personal storage? Need we ask?

Did I mention it’s in the Winooski River flood plain and that it was flooded last summer?

Opens at 7:00 p.m. Closes for the day at 7:00 a.m. It’s about a half-hour walk from the Statehouse. (Bitter irony alert: It’s almost directly across the river from a tent encampment that’s been occupied by unhoused folk throughout the winter.) There is no bus service on this industrial roadway that probably gets more heavy-truck traffic than anything else. Perhaps some, or many, of the residents will find day shelter in the Statehouse’s welcoming cafeteria. They sure won’t gain access to the governor’s own offices in the closely-guarded, entry-by-pass-only Pavilion Building.

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