Homelessness Awareness Day
This day is about making visible the people in our region who are experiencing homelessness. A public display and community gathering help bring the scale of the issue into view and ground it in real lives. It also points toward what works: stable housing, adequate supports, and a community response that treats homelessness as solvable.
0 people
in the Upper Valley need a home, including 53 children
0 people
are unhoused in Vermont (according to latest PIT count)
0 percent
increase in homelessness in Vermont since 2020
0 percent
of unhoused Vermonters are chronically homeless
Join Us In-Person
Thursday, January 22 @ 4:30 PM
Upper Valley Haven Lawn - 657 Hartford Ave, WRJ
A 30-minute outdoor gathering from Haven staff and a live luminary display.
Each light in the luminary display represents a person in our region who is currently without stable housing. The display is meant to make visible a crisis that is often hidden and to show the scale of homelessness here in the Upper Valley.
What Causes Homelessness?
Homelessness is not primarily caused by personal failings like substance use disorder or mental illness. While those factors can play a role for some people, the homelessness crisis is driven largely by broader economic and systemic issues. Those include a lack of affordable housing, rents rising faster than incomes and public benefits, limited access to healthcare and supportive services, and long-standing inequities that leave some people more vulnerable. Source: National Alliance to End Homelessness
What Works
Research and experience show that homelessness is solvable. Stable housing, paired with appropriate supports, helps people regain stability and move forward.
How to Help
Homelessness is complex, but people can still play a role. Showing up to the gathering or visiting the display matters. So does learning more about housing-focused solutions, sharing information with others, and staying engaged in local conversations and efforts focused on housing stability.
