BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Bennington is applying for a $1 million grant to be used to buy two homes and turn them into housing for people recovering from substance misuse.
The Select Board voted this past week to approve the grant application request from housing developer Shires Housing, the Bennington Banner reported.
One property on North Street will house up to nine women with programming run by Mission City Church and the Vermont Foundation of Recovery. The other house on Gage Street will have the capacity for up to eight men with programming done by the local recovery center, Turning Point Center of Bennington.
The homes will provide support and services to their residents and serve as transition between treatment facilities and living independently. The homes will have a substance-free policy and house managers will help supervise residents.
The homes will give people a period of time and the safety and accountability they need to change their lives, become stronger and making healthy decisions, John Rogers, executive pastor of Mission City Church, told the Select Board.
“So many people go into a 28-day treatment program, and they come out and they’re not ready,” he said. “They go right back into the same environment where they came from and it doesn’t end well.”
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