Open Letter to Governor Scott Regarding Homelessness

Photo: Person living unhoused outdoors resting on a bench in Montpelier, the capital city of Vermont (photo shared with the direct consent of the person pictured; image credit: Morgan W. Brown).


(*since edited for the purposes of clarification and readability*)


An Open Letter to Governor Scott Regarding Homelessness


Dear Governor Scott,

State of Vermont


It boggles the mind how your administration can be so deliberately indifferent and uncaring when it comes to those who are being or already have been evicted from the Vermont Hotel/Motel Program without those persons having anywhere else safe and secure to go inside, day or night.


The rationale used by your administration for not allowing everyone to stay in the program who are currently eligible as well as clearly in need and most vulnerable does not wash, nor does it pass the straight face test, either.


The fact is that it actually costs much more in terms of fiscal (read: funding), human, medical and other social related matters to do nothing for those the state could and should be assisting more humanely.


Congregate shelters are not the answer either. 


If it ever came down to it, is this what you would want for members of your own family, closest friends or for yourself?


Would you want your loved ones to be living *unsheltered* and left most vulnerable, in the woods or on the street?


Whatever the case might be, the fact is that you are obviously listening to bad advice and not listening to those who know better, including those who you and your administration are recklessly and ruthlessly kicking to the curb, people who are living unhoused (aka, living homeless). 


Where is your humanity?


Where is empathy, utmost respect and values for the dignity, rights and lives of those most in need, Governor?


If there is a moral failing by someone, it is not by those who are most in need and living unsheltered. 


No, rather, it is a moral failing by those who are deliberately indifferent to them; those who seem to think that it is someone else’s problem to address, so continue to ignore the need in the hope that it, along with those who are in great need, will move on and go away, disappear.


We, as a state, can as well as should and must do better.


Otherwise, we are flirting dangerously with disaster, allowing people to suffer needlessly and potentially die on the streets, underneath bridges or somewhere off in the woods or staying somewhere else unsafe, with someone abusive and who could cause them harm.


What is sorely needed is proper leadership. 


Leadership that unfortunately has been absent as well as sadly neglected by your administration, at least up to now.


Please, Governor Scott, step up and do what is fair, right and just before it is too little, too late.


Morgan W. Brown

Montpelier

Friday, April 4, 2025


Green Mountain Meandering Missives:

https://gmmissives.blogspot.com/


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