Julie Bond and Rick DeAngelis were recently honored for their extraordinary work in affordable housing at this year’s Vermont Housing Finance Agency statewide housing conference. Before a room of 500 attendees, Julie and Rick received the award, which was presented by Gus Seelig of Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
Julie offered the following response:
Thank you, Gus, and thank you everyone. It’s truly an honor to receive this housing hero award–it means a great deal.
There are thousands of reasons why this means so much to me but I will highlight two of them for you: First, I’m proud and grateful that homelessness service provision and a couple of emergency shelter providers are being highlighted today because I feel very strongly that emergency shelter is the first step on the affordable housing continuum, which is not necessarily how shelters have traditionally been viewed. They’ve typically sat adjacent to the affordable housing realm in some ways. However, given the vast shifts in the way shelters are serving Vermont’s communities as the tide rises on the housing crisis, shelters have evolved incredibly quickly to serve as quasi social service agencies, supportive housing models, longer term residences and emergency shelter bed providers all in one. Never the way they were originally designed or intended.
Yet today, while shelters are often the very last option for many folks in crisis, they are now the very first stop on the affordable housing ladder– affordable, as in free for guests, and solving a vital gap in ultra affordable and accessible housing stock.
We often have guests with us for years – or well over 90 days.
We shelter the most vulnerable and complex of our neighbors, those with incredible acuity of medical/mental health/SUD experiences.
And we do this with often the least amount of training or resources.
The demand is overwhelming and the need for creative solutions is vital. I want to take a moment to thank and lift up all the homelessness service providers in Vermont and extend my gratitude to you all. This is your award, too. I see you all, and thank you for engaging in this deeply complicated and complex work. We are building community, which helps alleviate despair and loneliness, which fosters hope, which lays the foundation for stabilization, which can permeate the entire housing spectrum. This work–our collective work–is vital to saving lives.
The next thing I am deeply proud and appreciative of is the opportunity to share this recognition today with Rick DeAngelis, my dear friend and colleague. Rick knows I describe this work as intense, brilliant, emotional, exasperating, heart breaking and heart building – and that’s just over the course of one day!
It’s so rare to find a colleague with such a kindred vision and energy for change making, while also complementing one another’s skill sets and personalities. We came from varying backgrounds, but share similar spiritual philosophies and our work in housing years ago overlapped with me in the VT Community Development program and Rick at VHCB.
Fate put us together years later to collaborate on growing Good Samaritan Haven over the last several years to meet the needs of those experiencing homelessness in central Vermont. For this, I couldn’t be more grateful. And I also note that we are nothing without our constellation of teammates who also carry out this vision.
Together, we’ve built a shelter continuum of care with several distinct shelter environments, including a recovery-oriented shelter. We’ve placed guests AND staff at the center of our work; we’re committed to raising the status of shelter providers so the field becomes more understood and respected, so it’s not just a job, but a career and a calling.
It has been relentless and inspiring. And a gift beyond measure. Thanks for this opportunity today to celebrate my unique and creative partnership with Rick – and to take this time to celebrate our collective commitment to service and care of the human spirit.
Rick shared these remarks:
I’m so grateful to be presented with the Housing Hero Award here today before each of you, my friends and colleagues working for social, economic, and housing justice. Everyone needs a home! Each one of us knows, deep down, the tremendous value of a home. This common-sense knowledge is supported by research establishing the central role that home and housing stability play in an individual’s well-being, economic stability, and mental and physical health.
I know the valuable contributions of previous Housing Heroes. To be in their company is an honor of a lifetime.
It is very special to be introduced for the award by Gus Seelig. The first words Gus ever said to me were: “I’m looking forward to handing you a very big check.” That was 37 years ago, and I was the brand-new Executive Director of the Central Vermont Community Land Trust. The promised check was for affordable housing, and with the help of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, we started our work in Central Vermont. The Land Trust is now Downstreet Housing, a tremendous affordable housing and community development organization serving our entire region with high-quality, important projects. Downstreet partnered with Good Samaritan Haven to help us build The Welcome Center, a beautiful 31-bed emergency housing campus in Berlin. Good Sam’s Recovery-Oriented Shelter in the Town of Barre is in a building we lease from Downstreet. Gus, your guidance, support, and friendship over the last 37 years have been a very big check indeed. Thank you.
I’d like to say something about my co-recipient, Julie Bond. I’ve been working to provide housing for a long time, beginning my career with the Pine Street Inn, the City of Boston’s most important and largest provider of shelter and services to the unhoused. The greatest gift I have been given in my housing career is to have worked with Julie over the last three years. We share the same passion for Good Samaritan Haven’s mission to welcome those experiencing homelessness as “guests” and to share our home as if it were their own. We developed a wonderful synergy to serve Good Sam’s community of guests, staff, and supporters. Now, as I move toward retirement from Good Sam, I feel so grateful to support Julie as Executive Director.
It is so much sweeter to receive this award with Julie than on my own. Thank you, Julie, and thank you all.