Shelter isn’t charity. It’s public safety.

This commentary is by Paul Dragon, the executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.Six years ago, as Covid-19 tore through Vermont, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity was asked to do something we’d never done before: open a shelter. What began as low-barrier, family and recovery shelters quickly became the state’s largest pandemic shelter, welcoming people experiencing homelessness from communities across Vermont.Our staff worked around