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Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
The Groundworks Collaborative's vision of a homeless shelter and a suite of services at 39 Frost St. has been a hot topic, but the whole story is even hotter and has been mostly overlooked.
The project is not yet final, and neighbors of the proposed site have serious concerns.
There has been rare mention of the neighborhood, the flesh-and-blood people who would be living next door or nearby, nor the fact that the project depends in part on their silence, approval, or disapproval at public hearings. Although the total project is not yet permitted or funded, I regularly hear neighbors resignedly say, “Oh, it's all set, a done deal.” Their due process has been obscured.
Has a reporter already asked, “How would your lives be changed by living next to the proposed shelters and food shelf?” Knocking on a 92-year-old abutter's door could have opened the way for an interested journalist, as would have a visit to any of the 11 immediately surrounding homes or a call to the Frost-Elliot-Elm-Triangle Neighbors (F.E.E.T.) neighborhood group, to learn about the meeting where 20 people discussed serious concerns that are confirmed by police reports.
