NEWS

A commentary by Libby Bennett, Executive Director

 

Right now, Brattleboro faces a defining moment.

As the Town considers its FY27 budget at Brattleboro’s Open Town Meeting on April 11th, we are being asked to make difficult choices. But let’s be clear: including Human Services funding in our municipal budget is not just a monetary decision. It is a resolution about who we are as a community and our commitment to the future we seek for Brattleboro.

Every day, our neighbors are feeling the impact of housing instability and food insecurity. These challenges are not hypothetical. They are the daily impacts of policy choices, like the one currently before us, playing out for our neighbors and for the quality of life of all Brattleboro residents.

Groundworks’ commitment to Brattleboro is clear and unwavering: we envision a community where everyone has enough; enough food to eat and a place to call home. Last year, Groundworks served 3,609 Brattleboro residents—that’s roughly one in every three of our town’s population who turned to us for help meeting basic needs like food, shelter, and support.

This is not a distant crisis. This is our community.

There are myriad mutual priorities we are helping the Town to meet with our daily work, and supporting that work should be a core investment in the Town’s budget.

Groundworks employs nearly 50 staff—more than half of whom live in Brattleboro—who deliver eight programs, including Foodworks, our Drop-In Center and Overnight Shelter, Outreach services to people living unsheltered, and housing support that helps people exit homelessness and retain housing. Not one of these programs is fully funded by state or federal sources, yet all are essential to keeping people safe and supported—indeed surviving—in Brattleboro.

Rising housing costs, limited availability, and stagnant wages are pushing more residents to the brink. Over the past five years, there has been a 133% increase in adults aged 55 and older accessing our shelter and drop-in services. In 2025, our Outreach Team worked with 75 people aged 55 or older who were living unsheltered in Brattleboro.

At the same time, the foundational resources that make this work possible are becoming less stable. Sixty-four percent of Groundworks’ budget comes from government grants. Much of our work is at risk due to shifting state and federal priorities. Local funding from the Town of Brattleboro plays a critical role in stabilizing these services and filling the gaps left behind.

Reducing or eliminating human services funding will not reduce need—it will push our community further into crisis response, rather than allowing us to build toward long-term sustainability. It will make it harder, not easier, to build the stable, healthy Brattleboro we all want.

Human services are not an extraneous line item. They are essential infrastructure that comprise less than 2% of the Town’s overall $27million Budget; to be shared among 33 organizations. Were the Town to attempt to provide these services on its own, the cost would far exceed the proposed 1.75% allocation recommended by the Human Services Committee—a body taking its mandate from elected Town Meeting Representatives and allocating funds to create the greatest impact for the Town.

The call to action is simple: support the Human Services Committee’s funding recommendations at the Open Town Meeting on April 11th, and vote to approve the FY27 town budget accordingly.

Because, ultimately, this budget is not just about dollars and cents. It’s about our neighbors—and our shared responsibility to one another.