Locations

The Housing Resource Center (HRC) is COTS’s homelessness prevention initiative through which people obtain services and support to prevent the fall into homelessness, stabilize their housing, move to more sustainable housing or get assistance with rehousing.

• Program launched in 2008
• Help avoid homelessness and return quicker to permanent housing
• Open 9-5, Monday-Friday

Phone: (802) 864-7402

Permanent Housing: Also on the premises are twelve studios and two one-bedroom units, each with its own kitchen and bathroom. Seven of the apartments are fully-furnished, service-enriched units that COTS subsidizes with private rental assistance.

Services offered at the HRC:

Financial Assistance Housing Navigation Housing Retention

Amenities include:

The Daystation is our daytime center for unhoused adults and is next door to the Housing Resource Center. It is a safe and warm refuge from the streets, connecting people with services, resources and housing.

• Open 9-5, 365 days a year, 7 days a week
• Hot lunch served daily
• Access to COTS services
• Serving 50+ people daily

Amenities include:

The Waystation is COTS’ emergency overnight shelter for single adults. We make every effort to welcome and provide a safe space to provide an inclusive space. Guests in the Waystation are connected with case workers who help them achieve goals for housing, saving, and employment.

• Open 365 days per year
• Staffed from evening to morning

Amenities include:

The Wilson is next door to the Waystation and provides deeply affordable, permanent housing for low-income and formerly homeless individuals. Many residents are veterans, medically fragile, disabled or elderly.

Amenities include:

COTS Main Street Family Shelter is an emergency shelter for households with children under the age of 18 providing shelter for up to ten families at a time.

• Open 24/7
• Received a trauma-Informed design renovation in 2019
  
• Supported by a children's mental health liaison, Children's education advocate and Family housing navigator

Amenities include:

Firehouse Family Shelter is one of our emergency shelters for families. It is open 24/7, providing emergency shelter for up to five families at a time, housing support services, and specialized programming for children. 

• Open 24/7
• COTS’ first family shelter facility

Amenities include:

St. John’s Hall is one of our permanent housing properties. The building provides 22 units of deeply affordable housing.

• 4 one-bedroom apartments with private kitchens & bathrooms
• 18 single-resident rooms
• Resident manager lives on-site

Amenities include:

The Smith house is COTS’ transitional housing property. Guests in transitional housing work on long-term housing goals, including rebuilding credit and rental histories. COTS transformed the donated rooming house given by the First United Methodist Church of Burlington into 

• 7 units of transitional housing (bedrooms with a 4-6 month stay) 
• 3 units of permanent housing (two-bedroom apartments)
• Resident manager lives on-site

Amenities include:

In cooperation with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, COTS constructed a new facility in Winooski to provide transitional housing to 20 homeless veterans. The building has been converted into permanent affordable housing, with a preference for veterans.

• Partnered with Housing Vermont 
• $5.8 million project, breaking ground in October 2009
• 28 apartments

Amenities include: