Green Mountain Meandering Missives

Archived Video: Press Conference - End Homelessness Vermont: Loss of Emergency Shelter for Hundreds of Vermont Households (via ORCA Media, via YouTube; Length: 47:08 minutes/seconds):   Related Press Release : Media Advisory: Press Conference on Loss of Emergency Shelter for Hundreds of Vermont Households Contacts:   Frank Knaack [...] Brenda Siegel , [...] , 410 227 3173 Lawmakers, Housing, Homelessness, Disability Organizations Raise Alarm about Loss of Emergency Shelter for Hundreds of Vermont Households  Montpelier, VT – On Wednesday, September 25 lawmakers and representatives from Vermont housing and homelessness organizations will discuss how the implementation night and hotel caps within the General Assistance Emergency Housing Program have and will continue to result in the loss of emergency shelter for hundreds of Vermont’s most vulnerable households. Organizations will also make specific policy recommendations to mitigate this crisis. What: Press Conference...

Updated 4x (view updates below, updated press coverage & informational resources; + another VPO blog post link; + ACLU Letter; last updated on 9/20/2024 at 5:30 AM): Archived Video: Municipal Leaders Call for Immediate Action To Address the Homelessness Crisis (held on 9/18/2024 at 10:00 AM; length: 45:33 minutes/seconds; via ORCA Media): Related Press Release: For Immediate Release Tuesday, September 17, 2024 Municipal Leaders Call on the State to Take Immediate Action to Address Homelessness Crisis  WHERE/WHEN: Wednesday, September 18 th , 10:00am, City Council Chambers, Montpelier City Hall, 39 Main Street, Montpelier, VT 05602 Contact: William Fraser, Montpelier City Manager 39 Main Street Montpelier, Vermont 802-223-9502 WFraser@montpelier-vt.org MONTPELIER, VT—Municipal leaders from across Vermont to call on all three branches of State government to take charge of the growing homelessness crisis and assume their legal responsibilities for the un-housed.  “We stand ...

Image: Screenshot of Green Mountain Transit bus (via Seven Days article). Seven Days recently reported about potential cuts to routes and service by Green Mountain Transit  (GMT), a public transportation company, here . According to the article, the potential cuts include the Montpelier Link Express (route #86), providing bus service between the cities of Montpelier  (the Capital of Vermont ) and Burlington : [...]  The plan could potentially eliminate some of the Montpelier LINK times and the weekday airport route. This is the bus route that I would have needed to take to Burlington and back home if I had to show up for jury duty  at the US District Court building during a scheduled four week long trial that was supposed to begin later this month. Fortunately, the case had gotten cancelled. Someone had posted on the subject of the proposed bus route and service cuts to Montpelier's Front Porch Forum today (Wednesday), writing in part: "[...] GMT is not (and I do...

Photo: Selfie, taken in front of Montpelier City Hall (circa: 10/6/2022). During the most recent regular Montpelier City Council meeting, held on the evening of Wednesday, August 28, 2024, the potential sale and development of the 12 - 16 Main Street lot came up for discussion ( agenda item 11 ). This had previously been the site of the former Guertin Parklet structure , which the city had removed over two years ago, amidst the height of controversy and NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) or, rather, NOPE (Not On Planet Earth) concerning people living unhoused outdoors who were often occupying the small gazebo because they had nowhere else to go. My personal dream, hope and vision for the currently vacant property would be to have a four and possibly up to six story structure designed, developed and built that would house a bottle and can redemption center as well as a community center located on a lower floor, an emergency shelter with single rooms for people living unhoused outdoors above...

  According to a recent Seven Days article, here , the City of Montpelier is currently seeking to have the lot, which formerly hosted the Guertin Parklet structure (before the city had it removed in early May of 2022), developed; ironically, potentially, for housing: The Montpelier City Council is seeking developers’ proposals for a half-acre downtown lot that drew locals' complaints and repeated visits from police in recent years after its gazebo became a gathering place for people experiencing homelessness. [...] “It’s one of the pieces of the housing puzzle that the city can help with,” said Josh Jerome, Montpelier’s community and economic development specialist. The gazebo that previously occupied the city-owned lot had become a shelter of sorts, and bad behavior there promoted complaints to the city and calls for emergency services. People who lived in apartments next door reported finding syringes and   sleeping strangers in their halls and stairways; merchants sai...

Among the good things about living at the sixty (60) unit apartment building I reside in is the annual rummage held to benefit the housing authority's senior meals program that operates out of the same building. Over the fifteen years I have resided here, I have gotten several different used items including a small couch (which later went to another neighbor), various recliners, a coffee table, a side table, a stool, a foot stool, a printer stand, an ottoman that became a deluxe queen-sized cat bed for my cat Cleopatra (Miss Cleo) as well as wooden pet stairs for Miss Cleo, a large two-wheel laundry basket, various paintings and pictures to hang on the walls of my apartment, a couple of floor lamps as well as a table lamp, a padded desk-type of chair that Miss Cleo had quickly taken ownership of and so on. One problem had been (and not to complain, because I am grateful to have a place to live as well as having MIss Cleo to share my abode with), however, is due to the size of my sm...

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; l ast 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...