08/28/2026
As a Community Action Agency, CVOEO is responding to the crisis in front of us.
Last month, CVOEO announced that we were seeking a location for a year-round emergency shelter after an extensive search for a suitable site.
You may have seen coverage of the proposed shelter. We recognize that community members hold a range of perspectives, and the information below revisits the reasoning behind this effort, the scale of need it is designed to address, and why we believe a year-round shelter is an important part of our community's response to homelessness at this time.
We will always do everything we can for our communities and every person in them.
● ● ●
CVOEO recognizes that a 100-bed shelter is a significant investment and a large response. But the scale reflects the reality of the crisis we are already facing.
1. The need is already at the 100-person scale.
The Miller Center extreme cold weather shelter can serve up to 100 people. The difference is that it opens only during life-threatening weather conditions. A year-round shelter would replace a weather-triggered emergency response with a safer, more stable system that provides consistent access to shelter, food, medical care, mental health services, and housing support.
2. A 100-bed shelter responds to an existing need. It does not create one.
The people who would use a year-round shelter are already here. Today, many move between the state’s emergency hotel program, encampments, vehicles, hospitals, public spaces, and emergency services because there is not enough shelter capacity. This proposal provides a safer and more effective response to homelessness that already exists in our community.
3. CVOEO has already expanded significantly to meet community need with CHT as a Development Partner
Five years ago, CVOEO operated a single shelter. Today, we operate seven shelters, including family, recovery, domestic violence, and lower-barrier programs. We have consistently stepped in when community needs increased, when previous operators could no longer continue, and when the State asked for assistance.
4. Continuing to open small shelters one at a time is time-consuming, costly and does not match the current crisis and need.
Smaller, trauma-informed shelters remain an important part of the overall system, and it is how we currently operate and is often our preferred model when feasible. However, each additional site requires a separate building, renovation, staffing structure, safety plan, food service operation, and service partnerships. Given the scale of current need, continuously adding individual sites is time consuming and is becoming increasingly difficult and costly.
5. One larger site can use limited resources more effectively.
A purpose-designed 100-bed shelter is to respond to the current need and crisis. It can reduce duplication, concentrate services, and make better use of public and nonprofit resources. It allows for more consistent staffing and provides easier access to medical care, mental health services, substance use treatment, housing navigation, and other supports that help people move toward stability.
6. A 100-bed shelter should be part of a larger regional solution, not the entire solution.
CVOEO supports a stronger regional shelter system that includes municipalities, the State, nonprofit partners, and a range of shelter types, including smaller and specialized programs. We would welcome that investment and partnership. But until such a system exists, people remain unsheltered today, businesses and neighborhoods continue to feel the impacts, and the need for a safe, year-round shelter is immediate and clear.
● ● ●
As a community action agency, CVOEO is responding to the crisis in front of us. A 100-bed shelter is not the complete solution to homelessness, but it is a practical, responsible step that can keep people safe while the community works toward longer-term housing and shelter solutions.
To read this statement or our July press release, visit cvoeo.org/media.
