Montpelier City Council Meeting Focuses On Homelessness (8/14/2024)

Updated (view updates below, with additional related photos as well as a rather lengthy missive of mine concerning these and related matters, after embedded video player; last updated on Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 3:15 PM):

Photo: Montpelier City Council meeting (taken of TV screen while viewing archived video, via YouTube, after the meeting had adjourned this evening).

During it's Other Business agenda item (item 7; view meeting agenda, here), the Montpelier City Council heard about and discussed concerns regarding homelessness and related matters at some length on Wednesday evening (August 14, 2024). 

Photo: Montpelier City Hall (taken by Morgan W. Brown; circa: July 2022).

The meeting itself was relatively brief, just under two hours. 

Later on, during his report (agenda item 9), Mayor Jack McCullough explained that the meeting had originally only been planned to be a relatively short one, however due to concerns raised by community members about recent events, the council decided to take up homelessness during other business.

Most of the concerns raised as well as discussion regarding homelessness and related matters centered mostly around recent events taking place at the former Elks Club property that the city now owns, which has been in the news of late, here (via vtdigger; 8/8/2024) as well as also a rather hot topic of discussion on social media platforms (e.g., Montpelier Catalyst 4 Meaningful Change Facebook group page and elsewhere).

View archived video of the meeting (agenda item 7, Other Business, begins at the 26:24 minute/second mark and ends at the 1:46:35 hour/minutes/seconds mark):

Update 1a (posted Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 5:24 PM EDT): 

While downtown running personal errands this morning as well as for grocery shopping later on, I stopped by City Hall and met as well as spoke with Derek as well as friends and supporters of his who were holding vigil on the steps there.

Update 1b: For more concerning the vigil, read today's vtdigger article about the protest, here.

Update 1c: WCAX -- channel 3 TV -- News aired a news story concerning these matters on Friday evening:

Update 1d: Read an article about these and related matters published by the Times Argus, here.

Update 1e: Read John Walters blog post concerning homelessness and related matters (via Vermont Political Observer), here.

Update 1f: Read the Montpelier Bridge article (published August 21, 2024), here.

Photos (taken and shared with direct permission given by each person pictured):

 

Derek Malbroux was on his way to catch a local Green Mountain Transit bus in order to go to the encampment site at the former Elks Club property and when I asked if I could go along with him to see it for myself, he agreed and gave me a tour once we arrived there.

Save for those more recent arrivals who have been camping in the open and might have caused disturbances of late, the encampment of those who had been living there for months are well out of sight and they have not been bothering anyone.

In my opinion, it is a downright shame that the city chose to punish and essentially threaten to evict everyone for the problems caused by roughly a half dozen folks who had previously been camping elsewhere and, as I understand it, were directed to the former Elks Club property by certain officials -- or their partners -- involved.

There is no good excuse or reason for doing so and the decision by the city should be reversed.

If the issue is behavior, as has been stated, then only those who are responsible for the behavior in question should be relocated (to where, however, who knows), not everyone else who has been residing there peacefully and respectfully as best can be expected considering the circumstances.

Having no other choice except to tent outdoors due to not having anywhere to stay when previously living unhoused (aka homeless) from time to time years ago, I well know how difficult and hard it can be, including when merely wanting to be left alone.

By the way, today happens to be the fifteenth anniversary of my having become permanently housed. 

After twelve (12) rather lengthy as well as grueling years of living without permanent housing, today marks fifteen (15) years of when I was able to move into a safe, decent and affordable efficiency apartment and have been able to remain housed since.

Along with certain concerned family members and others involved, someone I had come to know over the years played a huge role in helping to bring about an end to my prolonged experience of living unhoused (aka living homeless).

What also helped in my case was having an individualized contingency plan of mine established several years prior for if and when housing might be on the horizon (read: doable).

If it were not for the various aid provided on certain occasions when it was needed most dire, during those years, I could have easily either ended up at the former Vermont State Hospital (VSH) or have succumbed to worsening circumstances and intolerable conditions, neither being desirable outcomes.

For my part, I have been extremely supportive of “housing first” models and most especially Pathways Vermont, which serves this small rural state well. The fact is, it works.

This is because, when done correctly, besides providing what it takes to help a person get into housing and remain housed afterward, the supportive services provided by staff (some of whom are also peers) include building meaningful relationships. Peers are persons who have lived experience of having traveled in the same type of shoes.

If access to permanent housing opportunities can happen for me, one way or another, it can also be brought about for most anyone else living in such circumstances

While it is true there are no easy, simple or quick — nor one size fits all — solutions to ending homelessness, there are practical, proven, workable ones.

More often than not, when there are others involved to help make something happen and, most importantly, working with the person in need on their terms (within reason), it often does. Doing otherwise is prone to failure.

Employing enormous amounts of flexibility and also carefully crafted individualized planning and individualized approaches are paramount.

This, however, takes the fostering as well as continuation of meaningful, healthy, quality and consistent relationships in order to help bring these efforts about and have them work in a successful fashion over both the short and long term.

In addition, I am also very highly supportive of the housing voucher program being provided by the state of Vermont through the Department of Mental Health (DMH), typically with the provision of supportive services of one sort or another.

Without these permanent housing opportunities, those currently being served through the Vermont DMH voucher program would otherwise be inappropriately, as well as needlessly, living out on the street, camped in the woods, residing under bridges or stuck in homeless shelters, jail, prison or state hospital type of institutional settings and the like, or possibly ending up dead.

These type of much more humane approaches and programs are certainly well worth funding and, indeed, each and every person or family who is in need is definitely worth the time and the effort needed to be undertaken.

Based on years of observation, I have come to the conclusion that the only lost causes are the ones given up on.

Among the questions that one needs to be seriously asking themselves as well as others, particularly those who are in positions of power (read: policy makers and the like), is if either one or one's loved one were living unhoused with nowhere else to go (but the outdoors), what would they want for themselves or their loved ones?

Last updated on Wednesday, August 22, 2024 at 3:15 PM.